And given USCDiver’s post above you, and the fact that I think he gets his username from the SC USC, he might be that guy. Suck on that goddamned potato!
People on this board complain about this all the time, but I have literally never had this happen to me. The cash register tells you the change, why would a cashier give a shit how much you give them as long as its the same amount or more than the total and you’re not dribbling it out in fits and spurts?
I used to do this to help the clerks - I used to be one, and I remember running out of ones - but no more. Too many think it’s a scam.
The last straw came at a convenience store in Memphis. I gave the clerk a fifty for a fillup, and the cost came to $30.25. Before she could open the register, I offered her a quarter (“So you won’t have to give me all those ones in my change”, I explained) and she glared at me suspiciously.
I waited patiently, avoiding any hint of hurrying her, as she toyed with an adding machine. Several minutes passed before a policeman came into the store. She apparently knew him, and motioned him over, conferring with him for a few more minutes. She finally declared, “I owe you $20”.
Vote for the school bond.
Worked as a cashier for quite a while - had lots of people try to scam me… The ones I really hated had trained their kids to fight and scream at the register so I wouldn’t notice the items on the items on the lower shelf (BOB-Bottom Of Basket) “Did you see BOB today?” was the code…
Then there were the ones who folded the bills in half and handed me a wad of bills,expecting me to count the ends of the money…
Being a cashier is mind numbing.
I’ve had people try to get me to leave the register unattended. Like I’m too stupid to hit the key that freezes the machine so it can only be unlocked with my code.
Really? It’s happened to you “quite a bit” that people don’t know how to count? How old are these customers, 3? It’s true that a lot of folks don’t carry cash anymore, but they didn’t stop teaching counting or addition in 1998.
No cashier should have a problem with being given X amount for a Y total given that the register does the math. (As long as I’m not paying with, e.g., $100 bills and they don’t take those.)
Once there’s an extra step in the transaction, e.g., “Let me have those ones back, I found a five …”, then the cashier can freeze and reboot the transaction.
There is no functional difference between being handed $1.25 for a $1.17 transaction or 1.01 for a .76 transaction.
I doubt they don’t know how. They just don’t want to be bothered. There are a lot of people out there for whom thinking is a chore, and something they try to avoid doing if possible.
I never understood until I got sick for a while and it literally hurt to think.
Same reason the can’t mentally make change, and have to have a printout that tells them Price $8.24, Tendered $10, Change $1.76.
Namely: Their public school has failed them.
I have a good friend who recounted the following. He was in a small store when the power failed. He picked up something for $1.99 and offered the cashier $2. I think he would have been happy to forget the change, but the cashier insisted. She took a piece of paper and wrote 2.00 on it and 1.99 under. Then said, “9 from 0, better borrow a 1. 9 from 10 is 1” and she wrote down the one. “Now I have borrowed 1 from 0 which means I have to borrow 1 from the next 2 and that gives me a 9, so 9 from 9 is 0” and she wrote down a 0. “Now 1 from 1 is 0” and she wrote down another 0. She looked at him unbelieving and said “One cent change, is that correct?” He assured her it was and took his penny and left.
Yep, definitely me. I loved to watch the look on their (your) face change from consternation to amazement when the register did the math for them (you).
Sometimes the person running the cash register is barely trained on how to do it. It’s not that the person can’t do the mental math in their head, they just don’t know how to enter things into the register correctly. Rule #1 is Don’t Fuck Up the Drawer.
I worked in a video store when I was younger, I was responsible for stocking and mingling with customers to help suggest movies. I may have had cashier duties an hour or so per month,usually a bad combination of smoke and bathroom breaks among the cashier staff up front. I could handle basic transactions, but anything more advanced left me looking like a moron. I could probably convert your combination of Iraqi Dinars and a Japanese credit card into a movie rental in my head, but I had no idea how to enter it on a register.
Yeah, but that’s Yurpeen money and I know there has to be a quid or a franc or a mark in there someplace. And what’s it in mixed lira and centavos?
I used to do this too. I liked getting quarters; quarters are extremely useful. When something is $4.36 and I hand them $5.36, no problem. Hand them $5.11, they have absolutely no idea what to do with it, even if they haven’t punched the numbers into the register yet.
Years later I have amassed a mountain of quarters, so now I just use my card or hand them bills and take whatever change comes back. I just throw it all in a big can anyway.
This kind of pisses me off. Sorry. I had to take a lot of math classes in college, including some pretty difficult stuff (at a good school, and I did fine at it). I have worked as a software engineer at major internet companies you probably use every day, figuring out really complex algorithms and doing lots of mathematics. But I happen to be horrible at mental arithmetic. I always have been and I probably always will be. My brain just doesn’t work that way. It offends me when people suggest that being bad at doing arithmetic means you’re stupid or uneducated. Different people are good at different stuff. I know it seems easy to you, but it’s not for everyone.
/rant
I often get a deer in the headlights look when I do it. I usually tell them what I should get back.
But I catch almost every cashier off guard at they tell me the total is Eight Thirty.
Me: “Eight Thirty? Its past my bedtime”:
or
Looking at my watch: “Eight Thirty, I think is closer to Four O’clock”
I believe this is a more accurate summation of the problem.
Cashiers can count change, but it takes a minute to switch modes because counting change isn’t a part of their normal workflow. It’s like if you are reading digits and are suddenly asked to read them in Spanish. I’m sure you are capable, but it’ll take a second to get in the groove.
Added to that is the scammers. The thought process is basically “Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Wait, some other number now. Is this guy trying to scam me? No? Okay then, what is he need? Got it. Let’s count that out. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next. Number. Change. Click. Next.”
Way back when I used to work for QuikTrip (a convenience store in Oklahoma and Georgia and I’m sure other places) we were taught how to count change back. It’s simple once you learn it, even if you are bad a mental math. When you’re handled bills you count up from the total they owe you. As you count up, you take that amount out of the register.
i.e. Total is $12.35 and I’m handed a $20. You say: "$12.45 (take a dime out of the till), $12.50 (take a nickle), $12.75 (Take a quarter out of the till) $13.00 (another quarter), $14.00 (take a $1), $15 (take another $1 out of the till), and $20 " (taking a $5 out of the till). How much change did I give you back? I don’t know because it doesn’t matter. I counted up from what you owe me.
Now, more specifically if I’m give bills AND loose change, then I count them individually the same way.
i.e. Again $12.35 is owed and I’m handed a $20 and a quarter. I count up from .35 to .45 (take a dime out of the till), to .50 (taking a nickle). Now I’m done with the change part, I work on the bills the same way starting with $12.00; I go to $13, $14, and $15 (taking 3 - $1 bills ) then go to $20 (taking a $5).
It’s easier in real life than typing it out here.
Except you just gave back $8.15 when you only owed $7.90 