Not my kid, but the college-aged kid of a friend, didn’t know where to put the regular address.
Or the stamp :smack:
Pairing this with the time thing: Don’t they teach this in school?
I’m a tweener in this thread at 28, and I vividly remember being taught analog time and how to write a letter in school.
email hadn’t come around yet, but there were definitely digital clocks and we were still taught how to read time. And doesn’t the school itself use analog clocks? How do the kids know what time it is then?
I have never been in a school that didn’t have analog clocks. So that’s why I don’t put much stock in all these claims that kids today don’t understand analog clocks.
My theory is that they write everything they want to say, stream of consciousness, run-on. Then they just throw a handful of punctuation at it and leave it wherever it sticks. Sometimes they throw 2 handfuls of punctuation, based on how important the writing is.
I’m with you on this.
That’s even sadder.
Whenever I’m confronted with a teenager who can’t make change, I shake my head and think, “They’ll never replace us.”
Whenever I’m confronted with a teenager who can’t make change, I shake my head and think, “Why didn’t the idiotic Boomer who runs this low-rent joint buy a cash register for their staff?”
Then I remember that cash registers have been a standard piece of equipment for every business for 40 years and I realize that this complaint is absolutely meritless too.
I bought booze, at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) a week ago. The person running the cash, who by law must be at least 19 years of age rang in my order of $30.20.
I handed him two twenty dollar bills, and before I could reach in my pocket he rang it through. I then handed him a quarter and he froze. Then he said “do you mind if I just use the bills?”
In other words he could not figure out the change from $40.25 to give back on an order of $30.20.
Mind boggling, isn’t it?
I hope you told him you did mind, and you wanted a sawbuck back.
Maybe he couldn’t figure it out, or maybe he was afraid he’d get in trouble if he accepted/gave back a different amount than what the cash register said.
Not entirely sure what you mean, but I consider someone not to know how to count change if they can’t figure out what I’ve given them. (Huh? It’s $1.56. How come you gave me $2.06??)
Also, see Leaffan’s example above. We okay now?
Because I have never witnessed a cashier screw up the change like that. With a cash register, I don’t even know how it can happen. And why is it just teenagers? I know many more adults who no concept of math than teenagers.
Your having so little experience with these things must be the explanation. And maybe you’re feeling kind of cranky, huh?
I’m always cranky, but I’m waiting for you to explain how someone can “screw up change” with a cash register. Showing befuddlement at $2.06 for a $1.56 purchase can just mean the person you’re doesn’t put any value on round numbers and doesn’t care what kind of coinage they get back.
Why do people have to be stupid? Probably so the complainer can be S-M-R-T.
He clearly didn’t want to void out the transaction and start over. No stupidity required.
Void out what and start over with what? Are you kidding me? He owed me $10.05. That kind of math is something I can do in my sleep! You should not need a machine to subtract 30.20 from 40.25. Anyone who does need a machine to do this is a complete imbecile and shouldn’t be handling money.
Did he just call me stupid?
Because such a cashier expresses their puzzlement before they actually punch “$2.06” into the register and let the machine show them that the math works out to a couple of nice round quarters. The cashier doesn’t screw up the transaction, he just expresses a total lack of understanding for the reason he’s being handed six cents on top of the already-sufficient $2.
You don’t have to void the transaction if you’ve got a brain and can do some basic math in your head. at the end of the transaction, the cash drawer doesn’t care exactly what came in and exactly what went out; there’s only one quantity that matters: the difference between in and out.
THANK YOU, Machine Elf. I wanted to explain that but I just couldn’t muster the energy.
He wouldn’t have had to void it; he just needed to adjust what he gave back. It’s not like the cash register keeps track of the number of 20s, tens, quarters, etc., and he would have to account for the number being off. (ETA: Thanks, Machine Elf!)
How did he even know he was supposed to put a return address?
I had an acquaintance who had just graduated college and was writing his first postcard ever. He filled the whole back of it with the greetings, not realizing room needed to be left for the address.