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I understood the scenario just fine. I worked in retail 10 years so I have seen it all. In my experience the reason cashiers generally can't do math is because those are minimum wage jobs which usually filled by students who are just passing through and don't really care, or by people who are lazy or less intelligent. When you pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. It sucks but many big box stores are struggling and have high turnover rates as well so I don't expect things to change much in the future.
I'll clarify for you, if the bill is $4.85, I might give a cashier $5.10 so I can receive a quarter as change. And sometimes the cashier will attempt to give me the dime back saying I have overpaid. Other times they'll type it jntomthe till and understand be goal (and maybe clarify if they are out of quarters that day). I'd consider that basic math.
If I am making a more complex ask, I'll evaluate if there is a risk of holding up the line.
You're shifting the "even number" upwards by ten cents. $4.75 to $5.00 is an easy equation. $4.85 to $5.10 is more complicated. It's an extra step away from "simple". That's the way the human brain works. It's previously trained to do with "even numbers" (in this case, 1/4ths of a dollar).
This extra step is simple for one well-trained in mental arithmetic. You are probably both smart and well-trained in arithmetic. Some aren't either. They suck at counting change on the spot. There are some smart people that aren't well-trained, and they suck at it, too! The best damned change-counter in the world will mess up from time to time.
You're expecting people to be perfect, and these people are getting paid the lowest possible legal minimum wage. Maybe people aren't as smart as you. Either way, your thread comes off more as complaining about your conveniences, as opposed to genuinely wanting an answer as to why young people are dumber. And it certainly doesn't sound as if you're going to contribute to the solution.
So I went to a big box store for a return today. I had paid with my debit and they needed to give me cash back. It was $4 and some change. So I asked the cashier if I could just give her $1 so she could give me a $5 instead.
So she took my one. Then tried to hand it back to me with the change. So I said can you trade this for a $5? She had shut the drawer (and not yet handed me the coins). Then she had to get the drawer open again. Then she got the $5 and put the change back. And shut the drawer. Then finally she got someone to open it again and I got all my change.
Several years ago I stopped trying to maximize my quarters because people were just too confused when I gave the a dime with my bills when the total change was 85 cents.
When did basic math get so hard for people?
Can you weave a wicker basket, stuff a goose down comforter, forge horse shoes, make a wooden hub for a farm cart?
Although I will say, it's not really a cashier's job necessarily to give people back bigger bills if they want it, because they may not have it in their register. Cashiers are not bank tellers.
Actually I used to work for a bank years ago and our tellers could only make one transaction at a time so they didn't get scammed by making change. If someone started asking to break bills and making change they had to make each request separately and slowly and close their drawer after each request. Customers would try to switch money around all the time, give me 2 tens for this 20 and then wait, break down one of the ten into singles. You do this enough and it can confuse a teller and can easily throw off their drawer. Of course not all people who want change are scammers, but we trained our tellers what to watch out for when people who do try to scam.
Actually I used to work for a bank years ago and our tellers could only make one transaction at a time so they didn't get scammed by making change. If someone started asking to break bills and making change they had to make each request separately and slowly and close their drawer after each request. Customers would try to switch money around all the time, give me 2 tens for this 20 and then wait, break down one of the ten into singles. You do this enough and it can confuse a teller and can easily throw off their drawer. Of course not all people who want change are scammers, but we trained our tellers what to watch out for when people who do try to scam.
That is exactly what we had to do as tellers as well. As a cashier, we were also taught to put the bill the customer gave us on the register in sight of the customer so if he said he gave us a twenty instead of a ten, the bill was right there. I also always taught the cashiers that there was a line on the counter: this side of the line is your money, that side of the line is the customer's money. So if you count out 5 ones for a five and put that five on your side when sliding the ones over to his side, he can't use his five ones and take back his five to ask for a ten without "breaking" the line.
As a matter of fact, I used to tell the cashiers to get territorial with that line and if a customer's hand crossed it, to be just as aggressive as if the customer tried to reach into the register.
I know as a cashier at 7-11, I could make change in my head as fast as adding 2 + 2 and yes, I always counted it out to the customer, too. Things started to go bad the day the new machines came up with the total change to give the customer instead of me doing the adding and subtracting. Now that totally confused my thinking. LOL
I did not have a problem getting cash back. I have yet to figure out how and when cash is returned vs crediting tbe card directly. My returns at Target seem to be 50/50 when I paid with debit. I have no idea where that assumption came from. I wanted the cashier to help me minimize bills, the same as when you get cash back and a cashier asks you if you have a oreference on which deniminatioms are returned to you. When I was cashiering, one of the requirements was to be able to disoense and count back change confidently, quickly and accurately. Apparently this is no longer required.
Perhaps, I made my request while the drawer was opened, and she kept it open for several moments. This transaction ended up taking 3 visitis from the manager, The first because she needed to ask for help to do the return. The last two were because she did not get the $ correct. So I am not making any assumptions, again I was there during the transaction.
. I'll clarify for you, if the bill is $4.85, I might give a cashier $5.10 so I can receive a quarter as change. And sometimes the cashier will attempt to give me the dime back saying I have overpaid. Other times they'll type it jntomthe till and understand be goal (and maybe clarify if they are out of quarters that day). I'd consider that basic math.
If I am making a more complex ask, I'll evaluate if there is a risk of holding up the line.
I have a few things to say.
First: Anytime I've really needed to return in a big box (not exchange) and I paid debit, I have gotten cash money back. If I have to make a return on Amazon, eBay, etc. I get it put back on the card. It's just the way it is for some reason. Either way, the store will transfer you the money.
Second: Unless I'm at a bank, I am not asked. Nor have I asked as a cashier for cash back or change preference. Maybe I'm waiting on say 10s or the cashier has the ability to give me a twenty and must give me two tens. I don't care. I'm not fussy. Most things I can do with a $20 bill anyway. If I need specific cash back, I ask before it is done.
Third: Counting back was important, then we got new technology. I'm sorry it is a "such a grandpa thing" I don't like it, but it is mostly redundant now. I honestly wish it wasn't, but companies favor fast transactions now, not accurate. They worry about 40 items per minute, not counting back. We have coin machines so we don't even to count coin change if cashiers are given $5.00 for a $4.85 bill. You find that nickle and dime to make $5.15 after the coins are given, you have an issue.
Fourth: From my experiences with returns, some returns do need manager approval. I needed one last Black Friday (2016's, not this past year's) due to two price adjusts I missed on movie purchases based on rival ads to Walmart. The manager was needed. Also I have seen cases of "simple" returns requiring more. Never assume if they are new, unless it is blatantly obvious of that with various problems.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801
No. I was not trying to be helpful. The cashier did not need any help from me. I was simply stating a fact that I thought a cashier would immediately identify with because she handled money all day long and thought that surely it was something she had noticed.
I was wrong, and I was surprised that the statement of something I thought was so obvious to any cashier on the planet confused her.
Done with this. Sorry I mentioned it.
I don't see anything wrong with what you said but I think the deer in headlights response will be a common one. It's probably on a par with going into McDonalds and telling the fry cook that french fries are made from potatoes, it's not that they're confused by what you said but confused as to why you are saying it, lol.
If you had said it to me I would have stood there waiting for the punch line...
ETA, whoever mentioned the fifties and the stacking of bills, YES! OMG yes, a lot of our cashiers do this, and definitely not just the young ones. Most of our older cashiers do this, moreso than the young ones, so it's not just a 'young person not being taught' kind of thing.
First: Anytime I've really needed to return in a big box (not exchange) and I paid debit, I have gotten cash money back. If I have to make a return on Amazon, eBay, etc. I get it put back on the card. It's just the way it is for some reason. Either way, the store will transfer you the money.
Second: Unless I'm at a bank, I am not asked. Nor have I asked as a cashier for cash back or change preference. Maybe I'm waiting on say 10s or the cashier has the ability to give me a twenty and must give me two tens. I don't care. I'm not fussy. Most things I can do with a $20 bill anyway. If I need specific cash back, I ask before it is done.
Third: Counting back was important, then we got new technology. I'm sorry it is a "such a grandpa thing" I don't like it, but it is mostly redundant now. I honestly wish it wasn't, but companies favor fast transactions now, not accurate. They worry about 40 items per minute, not counting back. We have coin machines so we don't even to count coin change if cashiers are given $5.00 for a $4.85 bill. You find that nickle and dime to make $5.15 after the coins are given, you have an issue.
Fourth: From my experiences with returns, some returns do need manager approval. I needed one last Black Friday (2016's, not this past year's) due to two price adjusts I missed on movie purchases based on rival ads to Walmart. The manager was needed. Also I have seen cases of "simple" returns requiring more. Never assume if they are new, unless it is blatantly obvious of that with various problems.
It seems like we have had different experiences.
I use debit most often at Target - as it is the big box I go to most often, and my returns come back on both cards directly and as cash. The cashier seems to have no choice in the matter so it must be complicated on their backend.
I do not understand the lecture above about using the word "new" to describe this cashier, obviously you were not in the room to read the situation. I worked in retail for a while, I know the ropes.
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