She wasn't kidding

Published on November 24, 2006 By dharmagrl In Consumer Issues

I had to go to my local craft chain store this afternoon to pick up some Merino yarn. I had hoped to avoid going to ANY store this weekend because of the Christmas shopping crowds, but the project I'm working on has a deadline and I HAD to get the yarn today.

The line at the register wasn't bad at all, and I was pleased to find a line that only had three customers in it. The people in front of me paid for their purchase with a $20 bill, which caused the cashier some problems. After she had taken the money she stood there with the register drawer open and a worried look on her face. The supervisor on duty just happened to be walking past and asked her if she needed some help:

"yeah, these people here gave me a $20 bill and I don't know how much change to give them."

"well," said the supervisor "how much was their purchase?"

"$19.25"

"Are you kidding me?" I blurted out. I didn't mean to say anything, but the sheer stupidity of the question caught me off guard. This is a young woman who has graduated high school (I see her working in the store during the week day when school's in session), yet she can't do simple math? Are you kidding me?

She wasn't kidding me. She really didn't know how much change to give. After her supervisor had told her that she needed to give 75 cents back to the customer, she made comments about how ditzy she was feeling today and how she was tired and that that probably had something to do with why she couldn't figure out how much change to give back.

I'm sorry, but ditzy and tired mean forgetting where you left your keys or walking out of the store without the very item you went in there for, NOT being unable to formulate how much change to give someone when their total comes to $19.25 and they've just handed you a $20. We teach first graders about money, about how many quarters there are in a dollar - it should have been something this girl could have done in her sleep. Even my 5th grader came up with the right answer a split second after I'd told him my tale of craft-store checkout woe.

She wasn't kidding me, and that scares me.

Comments

SanChonino

on Nov 24, 2006

Ugh. People like this sure drive me bonkers.

Arrgh.

You know what they say - there are only three type of people in the world: Those who can count and those who can't.

(Sorry, overused, but appropriate.

)

Xythe

on Nov 24, 2006

Its really pathetic whats happening in this nation Dharma. Counting change doesn't even involve arithmetic, the money itself is a calculator. If you have ever worked a cash register, you know you count the change back wards up to the dollar amount a customer has given you.

Its almost as bad as 20 year-old people not knowing what the gestapo is.

The kid was embarrassed and THATS why she made excuses, as I'm sure you well know.

Some parents better get off the weed and booze and remember their job is to prepare their kids for the real world. How the heck would this kid know how much change she was supposed to get back should she have been the customer?

I'm proud to be an American, but it's sad when I start to feel we are pumping out a bunch of idiots from our public school systems, who can do nothing but play video games and listen to nigger music. After all, I saw an article the other day "Teen-agers are the new niggers". Nice huh? Not altogether untrue either.

Yes I said it, the "N" word, but thats for another rant.

MasonM

on Nov 24, 2006

lifehappens

on Nov 25, 2006

How freaking tired do you have to be to foreget simple math? I can tell you....I have been at the point where I had to work *really* hard to do simple math....but I had been up for almost 72 hours straight.

dharmagrl

on Nov 25, 2006

I hear ya. Some of the cashiering job's I've had before have been second jobs that I've gone to after already working a 12 hour shift - by the time my cashiering job ended I'd been up for 22 plus hours, and I still was able to know how much change to give. My first job was in a corner shop in the village where I grew up - I was 14, and I already knew how to count back change. We didn't have the fancy registers that tell you how much money to give back - and I think that that's part ofthe problem with today's kids and young adults. They work with registers who tell them everything they need to know and they don't have to think for themselves. They just push buttons and the computer/calculator/register does everything for them.

I know. If a customer's total purchase comes to $19.67 and they hand you a $20, the easiest way to learn how to give them change is to count backwards: three pennies would bring you to $19.70, a nickel to $19.75, and a quarter to $20. In other words, you give the customer 33 cents : $19.67 + .33 = $20. It's so simple!

I didn't mean to say what I said, and I'm sure that my words made her even more ashamed that she couldn't figure it out. I hope, however, that being ashamed like that will spur her into learning how to give back change so that the next time the register goes down or she forgets to push the right buttons she'll KNOW how to count change out and won't be embarrased by her own stupidity.

Mason:

Dang! Those are some big pictures!

(Sorry, overused, but appropriate

No apology is necessary, and yes, it's VERY appropriate.

MasonM

on Nov 25, 2006

Mason:

Dang! Those are some big pictures!

Sorry, my browser automatically resizes them. I guess I forget that not everyone's does. I'll delete the big one.

Spc Nobody Special

on Nov 25, 2006

Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups.

To quote the great sages of our times.......

"So, what you're saying is, one-fourth of all Americans are retards, Kyle?"

"Yeah. At least one-fourth."

Dr Guy

on Nov 27, 2006

It does not surprise me. It goes directly to my article on Cack-a-lators.

dharmagrl

on Nov 27, 2006

Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups.

If she was in a crowd, that theory would work. As it was, she was alone.

It does not surprise me. It goes directly to my article on Cack-a-lators.

That's sad. That it doesn't surprise you, I mean.

Happens to me too, it's called a brain fart.

It can be due to tiredness, or just having too much on my mind in general. I make math mistakes, can't remember my own phone number, call my dogs by the wrong names...

Either that or I'm getting that old-timer's disease...what's it called again?

I dunno 'bout that, LW. She got this look on her face when she realised that she'd hit the wrong button and had opened the register drawer without inputting the amount of cash the customer had given her - it was a look of 'oh fuck, what have I done' rather than a 'I can't remember this for the life of me'.

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