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Yep. I worked as a cashier for several years in high school and college and I was used to making change. But once everyone switched to electronic cash registers that did all the calculations, it became a lost skill. Why would you expect people to know how do do something that is no longer part of their job?
On a similar note, how many people memorize phone numbers anymore? Most everyone I know does not, because we all have cell phones which memorize the numbers for us, so it's mental effort that most people no longer bother with.
It's less about the math and more about people learning and remembering what they need in their everyday lives. Even for a cashier, doing the calculations to make change no longer falls into that category.
People also used to be able to hit the roads with paper maps and get their way around. It got the job done, but nearly everyone who've used modern GPS systems would rather use that instead.
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My sister worked at Roy Rogers decades ago when their registers broke. They calculators. One day, they didn't even have that, so they were reduced to pen and paper. It worked, but it made things much slower.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rodentraiser
I don't understand how customers wouldn't want you to count back unless you're the slowest counter ever. Even when I had a line wrapped around my store, I always counted the cash back. I was the one who would get written up if the cash was off when I balkanced the till, not the customer. And it took me about 2 seconds to count back the cash anyway.
What really held up my line all the time were the people who just had to scrounge in their purses and pockets to get exact change. I used to finish the transaction and ask them to step aside until they found their change, then go on to the next customer. Sometimes I'd have three or more customers all standing at the counter digging for exact change.
I've done both...
A woman who owed $88 counted out her 20-dollar bills. I don't blame her, as never mind that she was timely about it... overpaying by $20 is something many of us would like to avoid.
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A kid who bought something for $4.88. He handed me a stack of $1 bills. I counted them out... "1, 2, 3, 4, 5", and then gave him back another dollar because he actually handed me $6. Also gave him 12 cents in change. He looked surprised in where he knew why it was a mistake on his part and that he made it. Took his change and thanked me.
But yet, you seemed to have gotten the point of the post just well, so on the contrary, I can see I'm actually having a good math day. I'm sure others could say the same thing.
just admit you made a mistake and stop making excuses and perpetuating this disease of lowering standards in society
I got out a $5 bill to pay for a $3.81 purchase, with the intention of get one penny out of my pocket. The clerk saw the $5 bill and entered that as the amount tendered. After I got my penny out and tried to hand it to him, he looked confused. I tried to explain that I was giving him a penny so I could get $1.20 in change. That confused him even more. He finally got a manager, who knew what I was trying to do, and I got my change. Had I known it was going to be this complicated I would have just put the penny back in my pocket and taken the $1.19 in change. I don't know what this kid would do if he had to make change out of a cash box.
He'd learn.
Cashiers are not taught to make change that way these days, and most employers will tell staff to use the cash register and not do the math in their heads. Some even have rules against such things.
However, this also resulted in many cashiers being yelled at and called stupid by grown adults for following a policy.. People will throw fits over anything.
I find such behavior ironic, given that it requires far less mental skill on the
customer's part to simply know what to give the cashier before that
drawer opens than it does anything on the cashier's end of the
transaction.
counting to one hundred became a lost skill? say what?? come on now, you're not being asked to divide, integrate, or solve partial differential equations. We're talking about subtracting pennies or dollars on a scale of 1 to 100, this is as basic as a civilized skill as you'll get.
But be that as it may, forgetting sub-primitive math doesn't explain the confused faces I get all the time when I give different amounts of change to get even coins back like a quarter or dime. ALL THE CASHIER HAS TO DO IS PUNCH IN THE AMOUNT ON THEIR REGISTER, and the machine tells them how much change to give. I just don't understand the 5 second pause and open mouth breathing
Do you ever give the change after the cashier has already entered the bill amount into the register and cashed it out? People used to do that to me all the time. Which as I said earlier, is why I now tell cashiers "hold on I may have the change" before handing them anything if I want to pay with change or think I have an exact or close to exact amount. The machine only tells you how much to give if you enter it once, correctly the first time, then the transaction ends (and usually you need some sort of code to reopen the register btw, which many regular employees who aren't managers don't know, so then they need to get a manager for help, which holds up the line), and people frequently will hand over bills with zero indication they want to also give you change. Then when you're about to give them their change back, they throw coins at you. People do it all the time.
On occasion rather than reopening the register and figuring it out, I would just calmly pick up their change, and hand it back to them along with the change I already had for them. I would nicely say, "sorry, I already ended the transaction." They were usually surprised, but accepted it. I had long lines, I'm not waiting for you to dig around in your pockets for far too long, which I couldn't even see happening anyway based on the window and register setup we had where I worked. People would fish change out of their pocket or a bag long after handing me the bills. Either be ready to pay it all at once, or warn me you're looking for change so I don't end the transaction once you give me just bills with no warning. This stuff works both ways.
Last edited by JerseyGirl415; 01-09-2018 at 12:12 PM..
I guess the important thing here is you managed to feel superior to a minimum-wage cashier. You go!
Who are often teens or working through college or working part-time because they have a spouse and kids at home and don't really need a full-time job but want/need something to do during the day. Someone I know actually has a full-time job, so does her husband, but she works part-time, some nights and early mornings, at a coffee place because she loves working and she loves people. People who know her think she's crazy, but that's how she is. Customers, unless they know her, have no clue she has a full-time job at a well-known corporation and only works at the coffee place at night. But some people are probably sometimes condescending to her on their "I'm better than you" power trips, as they can be to many people who work those types of jobs. lol See how dumb it is??
I worked at my part-time job I've been speaking of through high school and college and we sometimes had customers come through who would treat us like idiots simply because we worked there. The vast majority of my coworkers were also in either high school or college, and employees rotated through every few years as a result. We almost all moved on and are now better educated with better jobs (or at least equal to) than many of our snooty customers, I would guess.
On the day I had several returns, to the same store, I brought my big wallet. There was also no rhyme or reason I which of the transactions were returned back as cash. Some of the transactions returned directly to my debit card. I think I had 4 returns. Two came back as cash, one was directly to debit and one was to a credit card. So it is not exactly predictably.
This time around I had one return and simply preferred not to have 8 ones in my wallet. In my mini wallet. I do not think it is an unreasonable ask if you are already going into the till. The cashier appeared to be new since she had to call for assistance to complete the return as well. She might have just generally been a flustered person. I don’t know. I was polite and patient during the transaction.
She had no problem explaining it back to the manager when he came to re-open the drawer.
It does not matter which one of your wallets you are using. It depends on the original transaction. Give the girls a break. Have you ever been the new one?
One of my leftover habits from cashiering is organizing my money by denomination and putting the bills the same way. I am shocked to see now that is no longer a requirement in both cash drawers and when handing money back.
I've been this way since I was 16 and had my first cashier job. Even my wallet is organized. It IS required at my store where I am a cashier. Well, they SAY it's required but they don't push it. Which is why I have to organize every single drawer I am assigned to in a day. And it aggravates me when the cashier prior to me leaves a messy drawer/area.
I used to frequently hand them a $5 and then dig around and if I found the needed change to round things off so I would get quarters or dollars back then I would give it to them. However, if they already punched int he $5 and the machine told them what change to produce, when I handed them coins to even it out, they woudl just stand there staring at the read out on the register trying to figure out what to do. I finally gave up.
Now for fun I sometimes give them a $2 bill or aa gold dollar or one of those dollar coins that look like a quarter. Some do not even blink an eye, others run and get the manager. "Look at this thing that guy gave me, is this money?"
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