Cashiers who cannot perform basic math

[Tweak155]

I guess.

I would have hesitated too because the resulting number of bills would be the same, and it's an unusual sort of thing. Cashiering is very repetitive, so when something happens to break the repetition, it's like hitting a speed bump.

Was she suppose to read your mind???

so what did you expect her to do?? Were you trying to an ahole??

Having been a cashier before, this ends up beneficial for both the customer and the business. It's better to have too many 5's than too many 10's, too many 10's than too many 20's, etc because you can give change in more scenarios.

Either you haven't had to be a cashier or you were a bad one too 😉

 

[Jeff7]

Having been a cashier before, this ends up beneficial for both the customer and the business. It's better to have too many 5's than too many 10's, too many 10's than too many 20's, etc because you can give change in more scenarios.

Either you haven't had to be a cashier or you were a bad one too 😉

Yes, and $1 bills can handle even more scenarios than $5 bills.
Or if I'd get close to running out of anything, I'd just page the supervisor and get a refresh of anything needed. They in turn got at least one delivery of cash per day. There's only so much on-the-fly optimization you can do against a stream of pseudorandom inputs, and I also didn't think it was a good idea to inconvenience customers in any manner just to help my till. They were already generally impatient and agitated by that point, and the cashier is the last barrier between them and the door.

Of course, I was just out of high school and working part time, and I can't say I delved too much into the behind-the-scenes logistics of cash management.
(Though I do wonder how much money/labor a business has to put into managing physical cash, versus the fees of credit cards that they always complain about, while also ignoring that people tend to spend more if they're using credit vs cash.)

First job was convenience store clerk and our register didn't calculate change so you either learned how to do it or found another job. Was given a 5-minute tutorial by the manager and then it was on you. We had a regular who would always try the quick-change scam on the new kids so was given a heads-up on that also.

If clerks had to do it themselves they'd quickly get it. But since the machines do it for them, that's why they are stymied when you offer more money after the calculation has been made. I don't think it's a lack of math skills, it's that they are asked to solve math problems they haven't been taught how to solve. I doubt if any of the current crop of cashiers have even been shown how to handle those situations. "If a customer offers you more money after the register has calculated their change, just add the two together and give them that amount."

I did that at an earlier cashier job while still in high school. The register was pretty old, along with the rest of the place - it was an old-fashioned tourist attraction, and I worked at the gift shop. The register was electronic, and nearly all transactions were cash. I got the hang of counting back change first, and doing the register entry second on the small transactions in order to let customers get on their way faster. (Credit cards used the carbon-copy thing, and so weren't nearly as quick to use as they are now.)

 

[Stopsignhank]

The same thing happened to us as the OP. Forget all the numbers but we gave her the bill, then my wife found the change. When my wife tried to give the change to the cashier she said "But I already put it in" and pointed at the cash register. We knew she meant, "I already put the total in the machine and it tells me how much to give you back. I can't change that."

We laughed about it for a good 10 minutes in the car.

 

[slayer202]

only assholes use change

 

[JEDI]

My bill at an Italian restaurant was $10.27. I handed the cashier $20 and started fishing for change. I then gave him $0.27, but by then he had already rung me through the register.

He stared at the $0.27 like I gave him an advanced physics problem. He pulled out a notepad and started scribbling away. At this point I felt bad for him, but I was confident he would eventually figure it out and didn't want him to feel worse by telling him the answer.

Eventually he realized the notepad was not enough, so he pulled out a printing calculator from underneath the counter. After a couple more very uncomfortable minutes of him furiously punching in numbers and generating about seven inches of printed calculations, I gave up and told him to give me $10. I think I could have asked him for $20 and he would have complied. He looked that desperate to finish our transaction.

I suspect his generation is so reliant on calculators in school that they never learn the basics.

Anyone else run into cashiers who cannot do basic arithmetic?

Cashier lutz- $1.06 and i give her $5.26. i get back 4.75

 

[SketchMaster]

People who are capable of higher functions don't often stay in retail very long. After the savvy kids are gone you are left with people that either didn't have access to a good education, didn't have much luck in the genetic lottery, or maybe just had bullies (family or not) beat their self confidence down to nothing by the time they were 18.

They are doing their best with what life handed them, keep that in mind.

 

[Jeff7]

People who are capable of higher functions don't often stay in retail very long. After the savvy kids are gone you are left with people that either didn't have access to a good education, didn't have much luck in the genetic lottery, or maybe just had bullies (family or not) beat their self confidence down to nothing by the time they were 18.

They are doing their best with what life handed them, keep that in mind.

Yeah.

There was a guy at Burger King who was damn efficient. He had to have memorized the entire menu on the register, was very quick, and was also good at managing the line when there were backups of people standing and waiting.

He was only there for several months. I don't know where he ended up afterward. I'm sure he was overkill for that kind of position, but he was quite good at it.

 

[DrunkenSano]

This is why they get paid minimum wage and why minimum wage should not be raised.

 

[kt]

This happened to me just today - but this lady was like 40's maybe, so she should be able to do math right?

Total came to $12.00 even. I give her a $20 and a $5. She looked at me and handed back the $5 bill saying she could just use the $20. I just rolled my eyes and took it back.

You're an asshole for complicating a transaction unnecessarily. An even bigger asshole for rolling your eyes. Your extra $5 bill is not exactly a lifesaver to her, just take your $5 bill + 3 $1 bills of change and stop wasting everyone's time.

 

[madoka]

I'm somewhat surprised so many of you don't use cash more often.

After getting my credit card number stolen a couple of times, I stopped using it except online at shops I trust.

 

[silicon]

Years ago my mom worked at Montgomery Wards, yeah I said years ago -- anyway as an employee she got a 10% discount and she went to by something for, like, $4.49 and the clerk wrote down on a notepad --10c, 10c, 10c, 10c and decided the 10% discount on $4.49 would be $0.40. My mom asked her, 'what about the $0.49' and the clerk said, 'oh, you don't want that do you.'

OK, this had to have been about 40 years ago so you can't blame millennials for that. Face it, there are a lot of stupid people that learned nearly nothing in school. There could not be an easier percentage to figure than 10% -- just move the decimal place for fuck sake.


Brian

So many people cannot perform math at any level and need all kinds of help even with the simplest of calculations. To be kind some have no head for math so it comes as no surprise they can only hold mediocre jobs at best. I suppose the opposite will be the savant able to calculate pi to the nth digit. Maybe companies should insist on a certain level of math proficiency as a job requirement. But they would have to pay them more.

 

[Tweak155]

You're an asshole for complicating a transaction unnecessarily. An even bigger asshole for rolling your eyes. Your extra $5 bill is not exactly a lifesaver to her, just take your $5 bill + 3 $1 bills of change and stop wasting everyone's time.

I didn't literally roll my eyes, genius. I didn't give any hassle, just took the bill back and the change. Great useless assumptions you make though.

 

[1sikbITCH]

If they were competent functioning adults they would not be working in menial positions.
Just like cops. If they are smart enough to be a cop, they are smart enough NOT to be a cop.

 

[Tweak155]

Yes, and $1 bills can handle even more scenarios than $5 bills.
Or if I'd get close to running out of anything, I'd just page the supervisor and get a refresh of anything needed. They in turn got at least one delivery of cash per day. There's only so much on-the-fly optimization you can do against a stream of pseudorandom inputs, and I also didn't think it was a good idea to inconvenience customers in any manner just to help my till. They were already generally impatient and agitated by that point, and the cashier is the last barrier between them and the door.

I think you're looking too far into it, yet not far enough if you're going that far.

 

[johnjohn320]

This happened to me just today - but this lady was like 40's maybe, so she should be able to do math right?

Total came to $12.00 even. I give her a $20 and a $5. She looked at me and handed back the $5 bill saying she could just use the $20. I just rolled my eyes and took it back.

So you wanted $13 in change instead of $8?

And yeah, I saw your reply about wanting more 5s in the till than 10s...given that you have no idea what she had too much or too little of at that moment in her till kinda makes that a silly point. I have to agree with the flack you're getting in some of the replies here; asking for a 10 and 3 singles instead of a 5 and 3 singles is just getting silly. It's not a freakin' bank, saying "but I want my change this way" to a clerk...c'mon man.

 

[Tweak155]

So you wanted $13 in change instead of $8?

And yeah, I saw your reply about wanting more 5s in the till than 10s...given that you have no idea what she had too much or too little of at that moment in her till kinda makes that a silly point. I have to agree with the flack you're getting in some of the replies here; asking for a 10 and 3 singles instead of a 5 and 3 singles is just getting silly. It's not a freakin' bank, saying "but I want my change this way" to a clerk...c'mon man.

I didn't ask for anything. The point was she had no idea - either as a consumer or a cashier, why on earth I would give her a combination of those bills. I didn't give any hassle, make fun of or etc other than make the observation. Sorry to step on everyone's panties.

 

[johnjohn320]

I didn't ask for anything. The point was she had no idea - either as a consumer or a cashier, why on earth I would give her a combination of those bills. I didn't give any hassle, make fun of or etc other than make the observation. Sorry to step on everyone's panties.

Maybe she thought you were accidentally overpaying (misheard the total, accidentally grabbed two bills stuck together from your wallet, whatever) and was trying to be nice? Happened from time to time when I cashiered in high school and college.

But nah, you're probably right. She was probably just an idiot, let's all laugh at her.

 

[Tweak155]

To make everyone feel better, here's the order things happened:

I gave her a $5 bill from my wallet in expectation to find a $10 bill or 2 more $5's in my wallet. I only found one more $5... Knowing that wouldn't add up to $12, I grabbed a $20 and did not reach for / ask for the $5 bill back, which clearly confused her. After having a puzzled look on her face she just said "I'll just give this back to you" or something along those lines, and I just took it back. I then got my $8 in change from the $20.

Everyone OK now? Or do more tears need to be shed?

 

[Tweak155]

Maybe she thought you were accidentally overpaying (misheard the total, accidentally grabbed two bills stuck together from your wallet, whatever) and was trying to be nice? Happened from time to time when I cashiered in high school and college.

But nah, you're probably right. She was probably just an idiot, let's all laugh at her.

It applies to the topic which you chose to click on, not my fault you're disappointed in the results. Perhaps make better choices in your life if you're so upset.

 

[rh71]

did you say $10? Getting to 10 is basic common core! Kids upcoming today would easily be able to do it! 😀

At any rate, it's just the individual. I was at a McD's drive-thru and the girl couldn't even get the order right, let alone the math. After the 4th time correcting her, I just said yes to what she was trying to repeat as I was in a rush. My wife was quietly like OMG but I'm too nice to say that or act frustrated to the cashier.

 

[kt]

I didn't literally roll my eyes, genius. I didn't give any hassle, just took the bill back and the change. Great useless assumptions you make though.

You said, "I just rolled my eyes and took it back". So I made NO assumption, dickwad. But you made plenty though. YOU made the assumption that she needs $5 bills more than $10 bills. And you also assumed she has a $10 bill in the cash register. Maybe she doesn't so that's why she gave you back your $5 bill and try not to roll her eyes at you.

 

[kt]

To make everyone feel better, here's the order things happened:

I gave her a $5 bill from my wallet in expectation to find a $10 bill or 2 more $5's in my wallet. I only found one more $5... Knowing that wouldn't add up to $12, I grabbed a $20 and did not reach for / ask for the $5 bill back, which clearly confused her. After having a puzzled look on her face she just said "I'll just give this back to you" or something along those lines, and I just took it back. I then got my $8 in change from the $20.

Everyone OK now? Or do more tears need to be shed?

Yea, I feel so much better now knowing you're being the idiot and not her. Absolutely gratifying.

 

[Tweak155]

You said, "I just rolled my eyes and took it back". So I made NO assumption, dickwad. But you made plenty though. YOU made the assumption that she needs $5 bills more than $10 bills. And you also assumed she has a $10 bill in the cash register. Maybe she doesn't so that's why she gave you back your $5 bill and try not to roll her eyes at you.

I suppose every time you see the emoticon 🙂rolleyes🙂, you assume the poster actually rolled their eyes, too? It can also be an expression to convey an emotion.

Also I made no assumption about her bills in the drawer, I could see them plainly in my view - illustrating yet another failed assumption on your behalf.

Anything else cupcake?

 

[Tweak155]

Yea, I feel so much better now knowing you're being the idiot and not her. Absolutely gratifying.

Glad I could be of service to you.

 

[boomerang]

I'm somewhat surprised so many of you don't use cash more often.

After getting my credit card number stolen a couple of times, I stopped using it except online at shops I trust.

I just heard on the radio here in Michigan that they're finding CC skimmers inside gas pumps. In a check of 6000 pumps they found 15 skimmers. Not good.