Currency should be easy

[Rana]

Lately, it seems I get all the customers that can't count currency, and they come in two main varieties of customers.

The Youngsters

I would understand a young child not being able to count coins. But we are talking about young people between the ages of 10-15 ... and they should know how to count currency by this point. I find myself constantly handing back money to them after they hand too much of it to me, and I find myself wondering what they are teaching kids in school these days


Others

These are typically migrant workers, and while I know some are likely new with the money I am talking about the people that I have regularly seen in the store since I started a couple of years ago.

So surely they would have learned how to work the local currency by now?

How do you guys deal with this, as I detest having to search through handfuls of coins?. Not because it takes time, but because I once got accused of taking too much money from an elderly man that did this and am constantly paranoid that it will happen again. What is behind this sudden inability to count money? Is it just lack of good education/desire to learn to count it ... or are people just being lazy???

[Monterey Jack]

"Why should I have to count my own money? It's YOUR JOB to do it!!!"

[Dreamstalker]

I get grown-ass "adults" who brag about having a so much better job than I do yet if the card system goes down they can't cope with cash at all

"No cards? How do you expect me to pay then?"...see those funny bits of paper in your wallet (which you flipped past to get your card out after I told you the card system is down)? Use those. Or don't. But if you don't you'll have to lay out even more of them to get your butt out of court/jail.

[Sliceanddice]

Actually common core standard is usually start teaching money denomination and counting around kindergarten ending around second grade or third grade when the count back method of subtraction is taught.

The problem is lack of experience and situations needing cash. Most kids today will only deal in digital currency most of the time.

[Rosco the Iroc]

When overseas I was sure to hand a big bill that way they could make change.

[wordgirl]

Got this a lot at Mouse Planet, which shouldn't surprise anyone. My favored way to handle it was to lay the money out on the counter and count it in a way that they could easily see how much I was taking - or that they were short.

Oddly enough, people were over far more than they were short.... but when they were short, they were far more likely to argue with me. Well, I guess it's not that odd...

[notalwaysright]

I liked Japan... No tax (or tax included?) so if it was 500 yen, you just handed them a 500 yen coin and that was it. Although I don't cashier, I can fully see people being confused by all those pesky numbers. I mean, if a person doesn't know that a quarter is 1/4 and .25, then probably many things are confusing to them. I know the metric system doesn't use fractions in the same way, but this is pretty basic stuff, and also I know many of the confused people are not using the metric system anyway.