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Can't say grocery store lines are moving all that faster, though. Just this week I made the mistake of buying a pizza at Harris Teeter. By the time I got out of there, it had gone cold.
We as a family went grocery shopping just once a month, fist full of coupons, as my area was a "test market" area, so coupons loaded the mailbox and the local newspaper. Us kids went off with the coupons while mom and dad bought the staples that didnt have a coupon. We'd have at least 2 baskets full. ( buggies for you southerners)
We'd have a register tape receipt down to the floor from the old clickety-clack register run by the cashier, who was the mother of a school mate of mine.
And of course we got lots of S&H Green stamps!!!
Licking them and sticking them in the books...yuk!
On another note,
I knew in the very early 80s when personal computers came out that along with them and things like phones and pagers, that soon every one would have what i then called a "PCD"...A Personal Communications Device...and oh, looky...a smart phone IS ONE. It does a lot of what computers do, acts as a phone and texts as a pager, and of course you can make calls. The one aspect i didnt see coming was GPS. Missed that one. I also knew we'd have programs fir things on the PCD, and looky....we "have an app for that"!!!
I use tge self checkouts and have no problem with the simple ones like Walmart uses. Complicated ones i dont like.
*and I'll use paper coupons and count out my pennies at the cashier whenever I want!*
I worked as a cashier at Frank's Nursery and Crafts. We didn't get scanners until maybe 1992, so up until then we had to key the prices off the price tags. And we had to MEMORIZE the sales ads.... not too big of a deal until the Christmas Craft Sale Booklet came out each November. This was a booklet with around 75 pages showing holiday craft items and decorations. I remember dreading this because each page had a half-dozen or so tiny items on sale, some only a few cents off the regular price. But if you accidentally charged someone 59 cents instead of 55 cents for their unpainted plaster Christmas ornament, it was almost like you reached into their throat and pulled out their still-beating heart. Some people understood that it was a simple error and just asked you to correct it - no big deal. Others would literally scream at you and a manager would have to come over and calm them down and explain that we had to do all the sales from memory and we were not trying to steal anything from them.
I think everyone should have to work as a cashier or in fast food for at least a year when they are young. It gives you a whole new appreciation for the crap they have to put up with, and hopefully makes you a nicer person.
I never figured out why those, still in the stone age, that must write a check at the check out, will not have the check book out until the entire order is rung up and totaled, then will start filling it in. It drives me crazy.
This wasn't substantially long ago. Does anyone remember a time before cash-register machines, when purchases were recorded in ink, on a paper ledger?
Only in my own printing company. But I DO remember before credit card scanners, when there was an actual paper BOOK you had to look up someone's credit card number to be sure it was valid. Sheesh! With that imprinter machine....some places still keep them around for when the power goes out. But now the cc numbers are no longer embossed on many cards.
I remember actually being able to write a check at the store, or signing the little notebook they kept with a promise to pay later if I didn't have the money.
This wasn't substantially long ago. Does anyone remember a time before cash-register machines, when purchases were recorded in ink, on a paper ledger?
Heh! Some years back I got a job as a desk clerk at one of the local motels. Both the owner and the manager were even older than I am, and I'm OLD! The two of them showed me how to enter each guest's name and room charge in in blue ink in an old fashioned legarbook.
Back in the early 90's I got a Christmas job at Sears in their electronics department. People would come in and want to buy a TV or a stereo or whatever that was "made in America." I had to sadly inform them that even RCA TV's were all being made in Korea or Japan. American businesses had all flown the coop for warmer climes after NAFTA was passed.
I miss "made in USA" electronics, clothing, shoes, etc.
In the Sixties our town still had a number of little ma and pa grocery stores scattered in the neighborhoods. You walked in and handed your list to the person behind the counter and they went and got everything you needed while you waited at the counter.
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