The mechanics of money

[seeress_83]

I wasn't real sure where to post this, and this place seemed like my best option, so we'll give it a shot.


Okay, normally, I sympathize with all customer service people. Because, hey, I AM one. I KNOW what it's like. But there are times when even MY patience can be tried.

So my best friend and I go to Walmart the other night. She bought the special edition 2-set of Resident Evil movies. So we get to the register to pay.

C - Cashier
H - Best friend
M - yours truly

C: *scans movies, cops smart ass tone* I'm gonna need to see your license so I can be sure you're over 17.
H: *Looks at me like WTF*

Okay. I understand the whole carding thing. But being a smartass about it from the outset? Decidedly not cool. (My friend and I are both 24 and look 17, we're USED to getting carded. We're NOT used to being given attitude about it.) So my friend shows the girl her license, pays, and then it's my turn. So the cashier rings up my stuff.

C: $12.28
M: *hands her a $20 Bill, two $1 bills, and 30 cents* (This makes sense to everyone, right?)
C: *looks at me like I'm completely retarded, tries to give me back the two $1 bills* "Uh, it's only $12.28."
M: Yeah, I know, I gave you the ones so I would get a $10 bill back, I've got a handful of ones already."
C: *Still looks at me like she doubts what I'm saying*

So she somehow punches in that I gave her $2.23 instead of $22.30. No big deal, a little mental math tells us that if she punches in $20.07, the register will display the correct amount of change. But noooo, now that she's entered the wrong tender, she enters the correct tender of $22.30, making the register show that she owes me $12 and some change. She looks confused, like she doesn't know what's going on. I tell her, "Look, you owe me $10.02, she gives me my change while still looking at me like I'm trying to scam her.

The only thing I can come up with is that the girl is relatively new at her job, and isn't really used to handling money yet. Doesn't explain the attitude about the ID, though.

[JustADude]

The only thing I can come up with is that the girl is relatively new at her job, and isn't really used to handling money yet. Doesn't explain the attitude about the ID, though.

Um... I could do that by the time I finished my "This is a decimal" unit in Elementary-School math, which used dollars and cents as its examples. Of course, it's been pointed out I'm also a walking calculator, so... eh .

As for the ID, perhaps she'd just had her head bitten off by someone else over getting carded, and you were getting the fallout?

[Dreamstalker]

A friend of mine has let slip that he is, apparently, incapable of making change O_o He's almost my age. (this is the guy who decided one day to boycott an excellent little takeout place because they didn't accept credit cards).

I agree with JustADude on the ID thing.

[seeress_83]

Um... I could do that by the time I finished my "This is a decimal" unit in Elementary-School math

Yeah, so could I, but nowadays I think they leave that bit out. I have 12 and 13-year-olds who come in to pay for things and can't count money. And it's not just one or two out of every ten, it's more like seven or eight out of every ten.

And these kids are our future. I shudder at the thought.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Situations like that are the reason I kept a calculator at every register. If I punched in the wrong amount (either because I hit a wrong key by accident or the customer pulled out the change after the fact) and got myself confused I could just figure out their change on the calculator. I'm not the most math-minded person but I can usually figure it out on my own. After a long day at the register, though, sometimes it easy to get your brain in a twist

[sms001]

M: *hands her a $20 Bill, two $1 bills, and 30 cents* (This makes sense to everyone, right?)
C: *looks at me like I'm completely retarded, tries to give me back the two $1 bills* "Uh, it's only $12.28."

And god forbid you should give them the penny AFTER they punch in (for instance) $20.00 tendered for a $10.01 sale! I don't even bother at Mickey D's anymore - they simply can not do it. Other places if I'm face to face I try and gauge whether it's worth the hassle or not. I've had some success with "I'm giving you a penny - just give me a penny MORE than the register is telling you to." One clerk was so scared that I was trying to scam him that I said "Never mind." and put the three cents to one side. After I got back my 9.97 I asked nicely if I could have a ten - and gave him the change he had just given me plus those three cents.

Sometimes you get it from the flip side too. I've had customers try to give me change amounts that will result in their getting "worse" change back. If your bill is $X.85 and you give me a dime, no prob, I understand you want a quarter back. But if your bill is $X.40 and you give me a dime, I'm not gonna put it in my register and then take it out again!

Before anyone crabs at me about the first scenario, lemme make it clear that I'm not chastising or mean to register people who can't figure out change. (Nor do I do it if there are other folk behind me in line. Or if I or the clerk are busy - "specific" change isn't that important to me, just a convenience.) I HOPE I'm helping them.... they ARE running a cash register after all, and counting accurately is a pretty important part of that job. If it looks like it's not going to go smoothly, I happily pocket my change and go on my merry way.

[BookstoreEscapee]

And god forbid you should give them the penny AFTER they punch in (for instance) $20.00 tendered for a $10.01 sale!

Oh, dog, I had this once. I was at work and I had forgotten my lip balm (I die without it and bookstores tend to be extra dry). There is an Ulta (cosmetics store) in the shopping center so on my break I ran over there to grab a tube. It was a December so everyone was pretty busy, and I only had 15 minutes. My total was X.25, and as the girl (looked to be high school age) was ringing it up I had heard another employee saying they were totally out of quarters. I gave her a $10 and as she put it in I realized I had a quarter in my pocket, so I pulled it out and said "I can give you a quarter." She looked at me with a confused expression and said "But I already put it in." I figured it was pointless and I didn't have time to give her a math lesson, so I just decided, never mind. She then proceeded to give me 75 cents in nickels, because she had no dimes or quarters.

I just gave them to the Salvation Army guy playing the French horn outside and ran back to work.

[powerboy]

I will admit that I am not the best in math. That is why I have a calculator when I am shopping. I have the list of what I need/want and I always carry a pen on me, so I list the price by the item. When I am done, I will add them up and add the sales tax. It works out the best for me.

[It's me]

Sad to say, I was surprised a couple days ago when I was at a store, and the cashier made change WITHOUT the register telling her the amount.

Way back in the day, when I ran a register I "counted up" from the sale price to the tendered amount. Did this in a busy subway/bus terminal, and I balanced - *every* time.

[seeress_83]

Way back in the day, when I ran a register I "counted up" from the sale price to the tendered amount. Did this in a busy subway/bus terminal, and I balanced - *every* time.

I can count change that way - our cash register is touch screen, and very touchy. Sometimes even when you punch in the tender amount, it shows that the change is $0.00. It's really not a difficult concept when you stop and think about it, but then again, that's the problem - these people aren't thinking. I seriously doubt the girl who had so much problems with $22.30 tendered for a $12.28 sale could count back change to a customer if the register didn't tell her how much it was.

[Reyneth]

Sad to say, I was surprised a couple days ago when I was at a store, and the cashier made change WITHOUT the register telling her the amount.

Way back in the day, when I ran a register I "counted up" from the sale price to the tendered amount. Did this in a busy subway/bus terminal, and I balanced - *every* time.

That's how I learned it. Ice cream stand. Two registers. As many as 8 people serving ice cream at once in the summers. Pretty obvious why we needed to be able to calculate orders in our head and calculate change back. If you are taught right, it isn't that hard.

But now with proficiency testing it's hard enough to get them to know what they need to know (my mom teaches 6th grade and it's amazing how many kids don't know how to multiply because it's been shafted to allow the teachers time to teach ALGEBRA (at 11! seriously!) because it will be on the test).

So I can see why people younger than me have a hard time with math, but that doesn't excuse them from TRYING to understand why you are giving $21 for a 10.79 total.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I can do the counting up thing, but I have to think about it. When the store got busy I tended to rely on the register as much as I could.

[GingerBiscuit]

ok, a bit of background. I am bad at maths. I can do basic. Some people are better at some things than others, some people aren't. Now, I could have been quite good at maths, I pick up new stuff quite quickly, and can understand complex mathematical concepts if they are explained to me.

However.

My first school when I went was doing this awful educational experiment- they believed children would learn what they wanted and needed to, the teachers just needed to 'guide them'.

Well, I liked to read, as I found it easy, but didn't want to do anything else except play with the plasticene. So, because the teacher wasn't actually, you know, TEACHING, that's all I did. I read, and played with plasticene. I was four years behind by the time I went to a decent school- could barely write, couldn't do basic maths at 8 YEARS OLD. My parents did what they could, but weren't teachers, and didn't have enough time with me to undo the damage.

So yes, a lot of my generation are bad at maths, and get confused easily when the tills mess up. They might just have had the same thing as me, cause I never caught up to those missing four years of vital education.

I rely on the till a lot, and if I mess up, put the wrong total in or something, it can really confuse me, take me a few minutes to work out how much I need to put in to bring it up right.

[It's me]

I can do the counting up thing, but I have to think about it. When the store got busy I tended to rely on the register as much as I could.

I can (ok, could, it's been, ahem, a few years) actually make change FASTER than by having the register tell me the amount. And because I counted up to the amount that is sitting on the tray, and then counted again as I handed and counted it out loud* to the customer there was never any dispute about the amount tendered.

*And I could do that really fast: if the total was about three bucks and I was given a 20: loose change (four), a dollar (five), a five (ten) and a ten (twenty). Jam the twenty in the drawer, close it, and start punching in the next customer. 5-10 seconds per transaction, maybe three items per transation, no kidding. Man, that was fun to watch! (It got to the point I felt like an observer rather than a participant )

[MystyGlyttyr]

I only worked a register for about a week before I actually started memorizing the coins that went with certain amounts, particularly in silver...41 cents is one of each (quarter, dime, nickel, penny), 80 cents is three quarters and a nickel, seventy was two quarters and two dimes, etc. So then once I had memorized those, it was simple enough to add anywhere from one to four pennies and get the change. Someone would have a change with 44 cents, I automatically knew 41 cents was one of each, and then three more pennies. It was less math and more rote memorization.

So I always had a little bit of an edge because change was apparently the "hard" part. Bills have always been easier.