Cashiers really can’t do math anymore (person, member, money)
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But this person who hands back change for a living apparently had never connected that one of each is the change for 59 cents. I think it was an odd thing to not understand, given that she must have done it hundreds of times.
That seems like really obscure knowledge. I have a number of years of cashiering experience, and I never made that connection.
Yay for you? What is your point? My point is that in the general population there isn't a lot of use for being able to being able to calculate change back because it's a rarely needed skill.
Unless your job requires you to use an abacus or a slide rule, your skill in it is worthless in an everyday setting except to give you bragging rights?
Subnetting, yeah, there's a handy application that everyone needs to know to get through their days. I'm fairly certain that 'most' people who are bemoaning the lack of cashiering skills don't have those wonderful math skills you are bragging about either, lol.
The OP asked when did the skill of counting change become a lost art. The answer is that it became a lost art when cashiers were given computers to calculate the change back and made it unnecessary for them to use that skill. Is it that incomprehensible?
I don't think that's entirely what the OP was pointing out, though.
No, they aren't taught how to count back change the way we once did because they don't have to. Counting change that way is obsolete.
But a person who grew up and went to school in the United States should still be able to quickly understand when the change that the machine says to give is fifteen cents and the customer hands them a dime to get a quarter back that 15+10=25 cents and that 25 cents is what a quarter is.
Yesterday, I was at our HEB (major local grocery chain). I handed the cashier a 10% off coupon for a specific item retailing $6.89, but the coupon failed to take. So, the cashier had to override the computer on the register. Instead of entering $0.68 off the original price, he took out his personal phone and tried to use its calculator feature. It took him several tries and a disturbingly long time before he looked up and announced authoritatively that he was going to give me $0.68 off the item. All this time I had thought he was using his phone to look up some particular feature about why the coupon was not taking because he was taking so long.
Scary.
Actually that should be .69
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801
I think that's kind of the OP's point. How did a person who can't do simple arithmetic get a job as a cashier? My cashier days predated electronic registers (I used to be able to look at the total and immediately calculate the sales tax in my head. State tax was 5% at the time, so it was pretty easy, though. Now it's 6.875%), but I'm pretty sure I remember having to take a basic arithmetic test to get the job.
I used to own a Subway sandwich shop and on the back of the franchise applications there were 8 basic math questions. I had the labor department call me and ask me why I didn't hire a particular person. I pulled the application out and the math section was blank. I told them if they can't fill out the application I can't hire them.
It might be more common than we think. A friend of mine called one day in disbelief because her friend was baking and the recipe called for 3/4 of a cup of some ingredient. She looked at her measuring cups, couldn't find a 3/4, so she called my friend to ask her if she had a 3/4 cup measuring cup. My friend told her to use the 1/2 cup and then the 1/4 cup. There was silence on the other end of the phone, then, "Are you SURE?" The woman had three children and was in her 40s.
That is our education system. Maybe instead of teaching Geometry and Trigonometry to students we need to freshen up every year on all the "real life" math. Save the hard core math for the math majors. But that is for another thread.
^^^^
Maybe one day they won't sell measuring cups and everything will have to be weighed on a scale. What about wrenches, nuts, bolts, sockets? I think for a long time though people do have to use basic math in their lives.
Anyway even with all of the technological advances we still do need the basics....for now anyway.
That is scary. I wish I'd never read it. 10% should be automatically identifiable on sight.
And I think you should have gotten $.69!
Yeah, a simple metric system trick. Just move the decimal one place to the left for 10%, two places for 100%, three places for 1000%, and so on.
Lol, yeah I think I should've received $.69 back. But it's a brilliant business strategy to maximize profit, eh? Rounding down instead of up. And why we rarely see prices ending in $0.01!
But the young fella was very polite and sweet, so I'd gladly have the likes of him as a cashier interfacing with customers. Unlike so many rude ones who don't even greet or acknowledge you when they ring you up. But that's a whole 'nother topic to gripe about.
When I worked as a cashier in a bakery while in high school, we used to give customers return change by counting up to the full amount. Meaning, if they handed me a $10 for an item costing $5.35, I would first hand them $.65 while stating "$6.00," then as I handed them four $1's, would count out "$7.00, $8.00..." until I reached $10.00 total. This assured the customer they were receiving correct change for the correct amount given me, while assuring me that I was balancing out my drawers at the end of the day.
One day the electronic feature on the cash register malfunctioned and I had to calculate and provide change manually. This practiced greatly aided in being able to rapidly calculate change mentally.
Sadly, I have not encountered this practiced in any place today. They just hand me the change while verbally repeating the total change displayed on the register.
Well, I also used to count change back that way when I was a cashier decades ago, but that's before some cash registers even told you what the change would be.
I still do it when I volunteer in concession stands when we're doing things in our head.
However, at my store, the receipt and the cash register does the math and shows the change. That is the number that is in front of you. To try to do the math in your head and count backwards, like the old days, just doesn't make sense and I'm sure would lead to more errors. I don't expect my employees to do that, I am fine with them counting back the change that is shown on the register.
And we also keep calculators and paper by the register for those rare times when power goes out or the register goes down. They can do it.
"That is our education system. Maybe instead of teaching Geometry and Trigonometry to students we need to freshen up every year on all the "real life" math. Save the hard core math for the math majors. But that is for another thread."
Yes, I totally agree on that.
(except now you're going to have the subnet and abacus diddling guy come on here and say Geometry and Trigonometry aren't even close to hard core math.......... cuz he's like... a really smart guy that can do tricks in his head.)
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.
One of the reasons we always had the money facing the same way was because if you were counting fast, a face change would catch your attention and you'd see that you had say, a five in your twenties. And I do mean counting fast. Once a fellow vault teller and I had a contest to see who could count the fastest. I forget who won, but I know I counted down, by hand, $10,000 in 20s in about 7 minutes. That's 500 bills.
And counting from largest bill to smallest is the easiest way to count. For instance, if you had a hundred dollars you needed to give out, it's much easier to count it as twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, ninety, ninety five, six, seven, eight, nine, and one hundred if you were giving out the money in 4 twenties, a ten, a five, and five ones.
Keeping money organized is the crucial step in being able to balance the register at night. I shudder to think of all the outages those cashiers must have all the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubbleT
Probably because larger amounts of money are often weighed or counted by machines, so no need to visually verify denomination by the corners like we used to have to do. I rarely count deposits by hand unless it's been a really slow day at work.
Oh, you never verify denomination by the corners, ever. Always verify it by the face. Too many people will cut the corners off a twenty and then bring that twenty in to get it replaced. To get a bill replaced, you have to have more than 50% of the bill and the serial number has to be on it someplace. So it's easy to replace a twenty with cut corners.
Anyway, the scammer then tapes the corners of the twenties onto the corners of a one, folds it up so all you see are the corners, and then goes into a fast food place or a busy store and pays for something by handing over the folded bill. If the cashier doesn't unfold the bill and look at the face, he or she is going to give back change for a twenty when the bill is actually a one dollar bill. If anyone handed us a folded bill, the first thing we were supposed to do was unfold it and check the face.
It seems like the OP was making a return and wanted her refund in cash instead of refunded back on her debit (even though her wallet is apparently too small for cash, so that still makes no sense). People typically are not handing over cash during a return, so I could see where the cashier was confused. Especially since it seems like the OP worded it oddly, asking for $5 back instead of her change as well.
This really has nothing to do with making change, since the OP was being refunded a certain amount and not paying for a purchase. Next time the OP should go to the bank if she needs certain bills. A cashier is not your personal ATM.
I always hated the customers who treated me like a bank. They would want $100 cash back( which is fine), but then would say they need the $100 in small biills preferably $1 and $5. Then they'd get angry when I didnt have that type of money in my register. Just take your change how the cashier is able to give it to you. If you need specific bills, or $20 in quarters to do laundry, that is what banks are for.
I worked at an ice cream chain place through school and people frequently tried to pay with $100 bills to get change back (always lovely 20 minutes after we first opened and didn’t yet have enough change in the register) or would pay in ALL coins rather than rolling coins at the bank or something. Eventually my bosses stopped accepting $100 bills, mostly because we were getting some counterfeits but also because we were not a personal bank for you to break your 100 by buying a $3 cone.
One thing I hated was people who would give me cash then after I put the transaction into the register, give me inexact change. I have NEVER been good at math, it has never been my strong suit, especially not under pressure when we had long lines on busy nights. After my experience working there, if I’m going to pay with cash and change I ALWAYS tell the cashier “hold on I may have the change” before I hand over the bills, before they put the final transaction in the register because I know what it’s like to be flustered by customers who surprise you by unexpectedly handing you change once it appeared they were done paying and you already cashed the register out.
Yeah i think it is corporate. I normally have to make returns at Wal-Mart because that has the most returnable items for whatever reason. They just give cash and not put it back into the debit account. I guess the mechanics are "too complex" for Wal-Mart system or the system just don't work with walmart.
As for the "lecture" you seem to paint the cashier with that brush. I know that depending on the store and the situation, managers are needed in various cashier situations whether price corrections, returns, exchanges, checks, etc. based on company policy.
I just had a return at Walmart the other day. They just put the refund back on my card.
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I thought it was something as obvious as the fact that the penny is a different color.
10% should be automatically identifiable on sight.
