Is basic math too much to ask for?

[Plaidman]

Aye aye aye. Two people. Both idiots at math. I'm not asking for too much am I? Is the idea of being able to count to ten too much? We all done it at least once. In preschool. Or playing hide and seek...


IF its over a dollar for one...
This man always buys one or two of the cheap 1.20 beer. Today he decided to get five. I tell him the price of six dollars. He gets confused, and even a little scared.

SC: ...are you sure? I think you rang me up for six!
ME: ...No. Five times 1.20 is 6 dollars.
SC: ... I did the math at home. It should be five.
ME: Nope. Sorry.
SC: All I have is five.
ME: Then you need to take one off it would seem.
SC: No... your ringing it up wrong. Cause I did it. 1.20 five times, would be five. The five .20 becomes zero.
ME: ....
ME: ..... if... one item is over a dollar as is, then getting five, be default, would be a minimal of five. Your not carrying over the dollar... I mean. WHAT the hell man!!?
SC: ....
SC: Just take four then. But I know your doing it wrong.



Yeah. If Four of the same items equals X, then getting four more would equal 2X

Customers come up with four chicken pot pies. The total is 2.76. He looks happy at that, and goes and gets four more. He has a total of eight pies. Price total? 5.52. It doesn't take a genius to realize that it would be twice the amount, if you got twice the items.

SC: Oh... i didn't think it be that much... Take one off.
ME: *does so. Price total is now 4.83.
SC: ... I don't have enough. Can you take another off?
ME: *growing in head*. Total: 4.14.
SC: ... I only have 4 dollars. How many can I get with that?
ME: ....
ME: ......
ME: .......
ME: *Inner peace as I stop the inner rage of wanting to shove pies down his throat* You can get 5. It will be 3.45.
SC: Ok. Lets do that.

[LillFilly]

My brain shut-down after reading the first one.

I mean, come on! Whenever I start to doubt people like that actually exist, I read a story like this and my opinion of humankind drops a little more.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

Wow. Dude, 20 cents is 2 dimes, right? So five times that is how many dimes? TEN! How much money is ten dimes?


...Apparently, it's 0!!

Makes cents to me.

[Zoom]

ME: ...No. Five times 1.20 is 6 dollars.
SC: ... I did the math at home. It should be five.

At this point the mathematician in me wants to say, "Always show the work". But I usually say something like "Does your home have a calculator?"

[jjllbb]

Reminds me of one of the cashiers where I work. To be fair he's a teenager and this is his very first job ever but:

he once called a manager to the front to ask her how to "make .50 cents"

Then he started counting out dimes and looking at my manager all confused.

[lwb]

When I was younger, I worked at a well-known large store. I was a cart-pusher so I walk by the front registers often. I heard a cashier call over a manager because she didn't enter the amount the customer gave her in the register correctly, so it didn't tell her how much change to give back. The total was $49.95 and the customer gave her a $50. It took the manager 5 minutes to get over there (it was busy). The crazy thing? The customer didn't find it odd at all! No complaints or anything!

[taxguykarl]

To answer the query in your OP, PM: YES, basic math is too much to ask for.