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Baggers are already becoming a thing of the past in my city. In a typical store with 10 registers, 2-4 are actually open with 1-2 baggers between them.
Self-checkout is becoming more and more popular.
Ditto. I occasionally see baggers at the traditional grocery stores, but I do most of my shopping at the big box stores, where either the cashier is also the bagger (and everyone in line has a full cart), or you go to the self-checkout line. I tend to favor the self-checkout line so I can bag my own, especially if I'm on my lunch hour and I need certain items all in the same bag so I can take them into the office for refrigeration and/or immediate consumption. This means that sometimes I need items bagged together that would not normally go in the same bag.
I had an incident happen today that reminded me of this thread. I bought something that came to $1.58. I gave the cashier $20.08 because I thought that would be helpful somehow. She handed me back $18.08 and I knew that was wrong, but she’s an old lady and since I can’t do the calculation in my head either, I just let it go. Don’t judge me.
I had an incident happen today that reminded me of this thread. I bought something that came to $1.58. I gave the cashier $20.08 because I thought that would be helpful somehow. She handed me back $18.08 and I knew that was wrong, but she’s an old lady and since I can’t do the calculation in my head either, I just let it go. Don’t judge me.
I'm not judging you but it would still be better to say something because her cash drawer won't balance at the end of the day. Being under may be a little more of concern but being over isn't really great either because the reality is that she took 50 cents of your money. I'm not saying it's a huge deal but if she's getting it wrong and taking extra money from other people too, someone is going to explode over it at some point.
So I would say nicely that "Oh, gee, I don't think that's the correct change" and see if she can figure it out - even if the register didn't calculate it right or she didn't input it right to start with, I've seen a cashier bust out a pen and paper if they need to, but it's really worth it to get their drawer to balance at the end of the day.
I had an incident happen today that reminded me of this thread. I bought something that came to $1.58. I gave the cashier $20.08 because I thought that would be helpful somehow. She handed me back $18.08 and I knew that was wrong, but she’s an old lady and since I can’t do the calculation in my head either, I just let it go. Don’t judge me.
I find that totally relatable; that's the kind of thing my brain does in
these situations. I can totally see how the cashier would be thinking
about the ".08" part of ".58" rather than the ".50" part.
Sometimes, I even conflate the number of pennies in a dollar with the
number of minutes in an hour. This is when my brain has been totally
fried by my day. And I'm almost positive there's some dyscalculia
coming into play with my brain, because the numbers and numeric
values get twisted around much like letters and words would for
dyslexics. There's a strangely reasonable rationale for my conclusions,
as faulty as they actually are.
Now, if I'm on the other side of the register, as a customer, I can get
creative with the change no problem, because I'm approaching it from
the other direction and somehow it's easier to me. But I make sure
that I hand it all to them *before* they've entered anything into the
register, so they don't have to figure it all out after the fact.
We should replace numbers with letters, so that when purchasing,
say, broccoli, if you have enough letters in your wallet to spell the
word "broccoli", you can buy it. HAH!
Not sure about the US but in the UK cash is rapidly becoming obsolete. I don't carry cash with me and I don't know many people who do, except older people.
There's just no point anymore.
Anyway, tills usually tell you how much change to give so mental arithmetic is not really needed for these jobs anymore - but if you're really bad at it, or just don't have the confidence, I wouldn't bother getting a job in retail unless it explicitly excluded till work, or you had an excuse that prevented you from doing it. I have a younger cousin who is woeful at maths, so instead of working in retail she works in a kitchen. Much better fit for her.
Last edited by dunno what to put here; 02-08-2018 at 02:34 PM..
Not sure about the US but in the UK cash is rapidly becoming obsolete. I don't carry cash with me and I don't know many people who do, except older people.
There's just no point anymore.
Anyway, tills usually tell you how much change to give so mental arithmetic is not really needed for these jobs anymore - but if you're really bad at it, or just don't have the confidence, I wouldn't bother getting a job in retail unless it explicitly excluded till work, or you had an excuse that prevented you from doing it. I have a younger cousin who is woeful at maths, so instead of working in retail she works in a kitchen. Much better fit for her.
Same in Canada. You can go to any podunk hole-in-the-wall roadhouse in the Yukon Territory and they will have a POS terminal. And your card better have a chip, because that's all they use now. I can drive from Alaska to America and I don't need any Canadian currency.
Same in Canada. You can go to any podunk hole-in-the-wall roadhouse in the Yukon Territory and they will have a POS terminal. And your card better have a chip, because that's all they use now. I can drive from Alaska to America and I don't need any Canadian currency.
To me, in my few visits to Canada, it was always part of the charm using a different currency. (Technically, I'd still be doing so by using a card, but it's not the same.) I don't know... I think something of value is lost when everything is electronic. I prefer cash for most purchases, especially smaller transactions. Swiping a card doesn't quite produce the same sensation of loss that handling over physical currency does, so I think it does tend to induce overspending.
Not every place has separate baggers. In most of the supermarkets around here, the cashier bags as well as rings up. Sometimes I see someone jump in to help bag during very busy times, but I try not to shop at that those times in the first place, so I don't see them that often.
Not every place has separate baggers. In most of the supermarkets around here, the cashier bags as well as rings up. Sometimes I see someone jump in to help bag during very busy times, but I try not to shop at that those times in the first place, so I don't see them that often.
I understand that. But the point was made that in situations where there are baggers as a regular thing, eliminating that role would eliminate some people's jobs and someone else said that no people would lose their jobs. Of course that's wrong, even if it's not a universal thing to have that category of employees.
To me, in my few visits to Canada, it was always part of the charm using a different currency. (Technically, I'd still be doing so by using a card, but it's not the same.) I don't know... I think something of value is lost when everything is electronic. I prefer cash for most purchases, especially smaller transactions. Swiping a card doesn't quite produce the same sensation of loss that handling over physical currency does, so I think it does tend to induce overspending.
I like crossing the bridge at the Thousand Islands where the toll can be paid in either $2.75 US or $3.75 CAN and I casually pull up with my Jersey plates and hand the toll person two toonies and wait for my Canadian quarter in change.
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