It really happened! (dumb ass clerk)

[jsc1953]

@Colophon

What ever happened to the proper way of making change, i.e. counting upwards from the total cost, from smaller coins to larger, until you get to the amount tendered? (

That was also in the days before the cash register would tell you how much change was required.

So as registers get smarter, checkers get stupider.

[jsc1953]

@chowder

Coloured American notes :eek:

What is the world coming to?

You got that right…undoubtedly a sign of the collapse of American civilization, and therefore, the world’s. It’s the end times, I tells ya.

Here’s some pretty pictures.

[Aspidistra]

@InvisibleWombat

I would think that someone even considering visiting the U.S. (much less moving here and getting a job) would figure out that there are 100 cents in a dollar. Quarter dollar is every bit as precise and informative as 25 cents if you know that.

If you’re going to complain about the coinage, complain about the dime, which doesn’t say “ten cents” or “a tenth of a dollar” or “10” or “.1” or anything else even remotely useful to people not familiar with U.S. currency. It just says “one dime.”

well, the original story didn’t actually specify WHICH of the coins the girl was finding particularly confusing.

Anyway, for a non-American, quarters are confusing just by their very existance. I have had to think hard about a lot of the examples given here (87c and you give her $1.12? That’s …ummm…ummm) and I’m actually good at maths! I’m pretty sure everywhere divides their currency into 100 little units to 1 big unit - “25” denomination coins are a lot rarer, and harder to handle if you’re not used to them

[Robot_Arm]

@Baker

The DMV clerk wanted her to take all kinds of tests to get the Texas license, because “we don’t accept foreign driver licenses.” My friend had to get the supervisor, because she couldn’t make the stupid clerk believe Alaska is a US state.

“It’s a state, and it’s BIGGER THAN TEXAS!”

The clerk never would have believed that.

[Rigamarole]

@chowder

Coloured American notes :eek:

What is the world coming to?

It’s OK. When the Treasury Dept. unveiled their plans for colored currency I was worried at first, being simultaneously resistant to change and proud of our currency being different from everyone else’s that we were going to be getting Euro-style Monopoly money.

But they have been done very tastefully IMO, and all the notes still retain some green. Check them out:

The new $10 bill
The new $20 bill
The new $50 bill

[Projammer]

It’s going to be a sad day when I invent my cash register that the cashier just has to put your money in one side and hand you the change from the other. (Yes, I know about self checkout lines. I use them whenever possible.)

But I have no doubt that they will still find ingenious ways to fowl up the system and provide us more fodder for the posting.

SunRazor I do apologize for spoiling your enjoyment, but I seriously doubt the young lady shares your ailment. You would not have been confused by someone handing you odd change and would have simply entered the amount tendered into the register and handed them their change. Nor would you have been amazed that someone had the ability to do that calculation in their head.

[mks57]

@SnakesCatLady

In 1990, my husband and I were living in Hawai’i, where he was stationed in the Army. When his grandmother died back here in Columbus, his mother had to go through the Red Cross to get emergency leave authorized. The person from the Red Cross repeatedly asked Mom for our APO number. Mother kept telling him that Hawaii was a state and therefore didn’t have APO numbers, and he kept asking for the APO number - and insisted he could not process the request without one. He kept saying that “all foreign duty stations have an APO number”. She finally got pissed (her mother had just died, and she was flat on her back after having back surgery) and told the idiot to hand her off to a supervisor.

When I was in the Army stationed in Hawaii, I did have an APO number (APO SF 96225). I assumed it was for ease of mail routing in case we were deployed somewhere.

[chowder]

@Rigamarole

It’s OK. When the Treasury Dept. unveiled their plans for colored currency I was worried at first, being simultaneously resistant to change and proud of our currency being different from everyone else’s that we were going to be getting Euro-style Monopoly money.

But they have been done very tastefully IMO, and all the notes still retain some green. Check them out:

The new $10 bill
The new $20 bill
The new $50 bill

You still have a long way to go before you can match our really pretty pictures.

Incidentally this thread reminds me (sort of) of a rather crap fim called “Idiocracy”
What happens is: This guy is put into deep freeze and is supposed to be thawed out after 12 months.

They forget and he emerges 500 years later. The populace of the USA is so dumbed down by mindless TV shows and the like that he, a below intelligence guy, is now the most intelligent man in the USA if not the world.

Just because he can add 2+3 and come up with 5. He ends up as the Prez.

Not a film I’d recommend though

[Colophon]

@chowder

Incidentally this thread reminds me (sort of) of a rather crap fim called “Idiocracy”…

Plot Keywords:Mob Scene / Hit In Crotch / Dystopian / Gay Slur / Product Placement…

How can I not add this to my DVD rental queue?

[Roadfood]

@RedSwinglineOne

About a year ago I was at the local Mcdonalds during the busy lunch rush and I see that cashier whose line I am in (she is a very tiny meek asian girl) has given all three customers in front of me the wrong change. She gets the bills right, but completely screws up the coins to where the customer has to help her. When she is counting out my change, (nothing complicated, I didn’t give any extra coins or anything) she seems to be randomly grabbing a couple of each coin. One manager notices what she is doing and says to another manager, “Hey, has she been trained on how to give change?” The other guy says nonchalantly, “yeah but she doesn’t understand American coins.” Then he turns back to what he was doing. My problem is not with the poor girl on the counter, but the supposed manager (he was wearing a tie anyway), who didn’t think that a cashier who does not understand the value of coins was a problem.

Actually, what I find scary about that story is that a manager could believe that the two statements “she has been trained on how to give change” and “she doesn’t understand American coins” could both be simultaneously true.

[Roadfood]

@Rigamarole

It’s OK. When the Treasury Dept. unveiled their plans for colored currency I was worried at first, being simultaneously resistant to change and proud of our currency being different from everyone else’s that we were going to be getting Euro-style Monopoly money.

But they have been done very tastefully IMO, and all the notes still retain some green.

The reverse side is still green, so the term “greenbacks” can still be used. Now if they ever make a bill where the reverse side is not green, that’ll be time for the revolt.

[Zsofia]

@InvisibleWombat

Please tell me you’re kidding.

I would think that someone even considering visiting the U.S. (much less moving here and getting a job) would figure out that there are 100 cents in a dollar. Quarter dollar is every bit as precise and informative as 25 cents if you know that.

If you’re going to complain about the coinage, complain about the dime, which doesn’t say “ten cents” or “a tenth of a dollar” or “10” or “.1” or anything else even remotely useful to people not familiar with U.S. currency. It just says “one dime.”

And the nickel says “five cents,” but the print is small enough that it would be impossible to read in dim light or in a hurry.

The quarters, however? I have no problem with them.

Traditionally when one gives change, one counts up. The item is $2.46 and you give me 5 bucks. I start with pennies, 47, 48, 49, 50, then quarters, 75, $3, and then two bucks. Isn’t that how you’re supposed to count out change, or do I not understand it still?

[Zsofia]

@Zsofia

Traditionally when one gives change, one counts up. The item is $2.46 and you give me 5 bucks. I start with pennies, 47, 48, 49, 50, then quarters, 75, $3, and then two bucks. Isn’t that how you’re supposed to count out change, or do I not understand it still?

I just realized that quote was misleading - I meant to quote :

You don’t subtract when you make change, you count up. So, what you meant is that I don’t need counting very often.
Please tell me you’re kidding.

I just realized you might have meant please tell you I’m kidding when I say I don’t need to count often. Yes, indeed, I am kidding.

[UncleRojelio]

@chowder

You still have a long way to go before you can match our really pretty pictures.

Incidentally this thread reminds me (sort of) of a rather crap fim called “Idiocracy”
What happens is: This guy is put into deep freeze and is supposed to be thawed out after 12 months.

They forget and he emerges 500 years later. The populace of the USA is so dumbed down by mindless TV shows and the like that he, a below intelligence guy, is now the most intelligent man in the USA if not the world.

Just because he can add 2+3 and come up with 5. He ends up as the Prez.

Not a film I’d recommend though

Isaac Asimov wrote a short story along the same vein called “A Feeling of Power”. Unlike the above movie, the story is worth your time.

[NinjaChick]

@WhyNot

Would you believe this isn’t the case anymore? We’ve gotten our stupid cashiers so dependent on the machines that in some systems now, you have to enter what denomination of cash your customer gives you (often, the screen shows you some options with pretty pictures - $20 or 2 $10s or 1 $10 and 2 $5’s - and you pick one) and you have to give back the exact number of the exact bills and coins specified on the screen ($5, $1, 2 quarters, 1 nickel, 3 pennies.) At the end of the shift, the till prints out a report detailing how many of each thing should be in the drawer, not just a total.

From a management point of view, this serves three purposes - it makes a till lightening fast to count down, and pinpoints exactly where any error is without having to rub two brain cells together, it cuts down in cashier error while making change, and it makes it harder to steal from the store. The most common employee cash theft is done by taking money but not ringing up the item. You then later, at some slow moment, remove the extra cash from the till and pocket it. This newer system makes it harder to keep track of how to remove the correct amount - you need to remember not only that you didn’t ring up $3.58 four times, but to take out 12 singles, 8 quarters, 4 nickles and 24 pennies. If you take out a ten, 4 singles, a quarter, a nickel and 2 pennies, you’re going to get caught because you’ll have too many singles and not enough 10s in your drawer at the end of your shift, even though your total balances out.

You do understand that the actual cashier has exactly no say in how they’re required to key things in, right? Having worked at a place that had a similar system (bills were entered by denomination, coins weren’t), I can tell you that it’s incredibly annoying for the cashier. I could key in 25.50 faster than I could hit the ten button twice, then the five button, then key in .50. Didn’t matter; management gets what they want and if you don’t play along, you get fired.

[descamisado]

@NinjaChick

You do understand that the actual cashier has exactly no say in how they’re required to key things in, right? Having worked at a place that had a similar system (bills were entered by denomination, coins weren’t), I can tell you that it’s incredibly annoying for the cashier. I could key in 25.50 faster than I could hit the ten button twice, then the five button, then key in .50. Didn’t matter; management gets what they want and if you don’t play along, you get fired.

Not being familiar with this system at all, are you at least able to key in $10 x 2, etc.?

[Moirai]

Handing a clerk money and telling them what you are handing them (“here’s a twenty”) is a classic short con. The con turns on the clerk believing what you say without actually checking the bill (you handed her a ten). Works VERY well on stupid people and busy people.

[WhyNot]

@NinjaChick

You do understand that the actual cashier has exactly no say in how they’re required to key things in, right?

Of course I do. The “stupid cashier” line wasn’t a label for all cashiers, but finding one (only one of many) reasons given for some managements switchover to these new systems. If your stupid cashiers can’t make change, are easier to scam and/or are stealing from you (while the harder to find and train smart ones do fine), you start to look for ways to make sure your money isn’t going out the front door in anyone’s pocket.

[Jackmannii]

What do the Cash Register Morons do when they hold a garage sale? Expect everyone to pay with exact change?

[Sunspace]

@EJsGirl

Handing a clerk money and telling them what you are handing them (“here’s a twenty”) is a classic short con. The con turns on the clerk believing what you say without actually checking the bill (you handed her a ten). Works VERY well on stupid people and busy people.

That con works a lot better if the banknotes are the same size and colour, though, doesn’t it?