My lunch hours are usually spent rushing around trying to do errands without trailing two young children. So it was two days before Thanksgiving with me sprinting around the local grocery hunting and gathering for our holiday dinner. Even in my haste I try to arrange items in my basket so that the cashier is not tempted to put together fragile items with the heavier goods. Even so, the cashier behind the counter that day still managed to place the bananas not only in the same bag as the canned goods, but under them. Then large jars of apple sauce went in on top of the eggs. Oye! So there I was pulling items out of bags as fast as she put them in and rearranging it all. Also things like large bottles of laundry detergent out of the single bag it was placed in… I don’t need any more plastic bags thank you very much. Normally I take in my reusable ones, but not at this particular store, it completely baffles them.
Once finally all rung up my total was $212.20, which I paid in cash. I don’t normally use cash, I use my debit, but I had just been to the bank and knew I was going shopping so I happen to have cash. I hand over $220.00. The cashier presses some keys and the cash register tells her she owes me $92.97 in change. She stares at it. She presses another key. Now it tells her she owes me $127.19 in change. She stares some more. “I don’t think that is right.” I say trying to be helpful, because she seems completely mystified. “Yeah, I must have done something wrong.” (Gee, ya think?). She continues to stare another moment and then reaches for the twenties in her cash drawer, has second thoughts, then pulls out 2 fives, then puts them back. I interject at this point, “You just need to count backwards from my total.” She then stares at me instead of the cash drawer. “Okay,” I say, “I gave you $220.00, just give me eighty cents, that makes $213.00, then give me seven more dollars.” She follows my direction and thanks me profusely saying, “I would have never figured that out.” Now, believe me, I am in no way some kind of math wiz, I hate math, it was my worse subject in school, I practically get hives attempting to check over my 8 year old’s homework. But one would think you certainly don’t have to be mathematically gifted in order to be able to count backwards. It’s a sad state of affairs if I have to give instructions to anyone on how to count.
I didn’t want to mention that her cash drawer is probably going to come up a couple hundred dollars in the black at the end of her shift; I was in too much of a hurry to try and explain that one. Poor thing.
©KKW 2008
Once finally all rung up my total was $212.20, which I paid in cash. I don’t normally use cash, I use my debit, but I had just been to the bank and knew I was going shopping so I happen to have cash. I hand over $220.00. The cashier presses some keys and the cash register tells her she owes me $92.97 in change. She stares at it. She presses another key. Now it tells her she owes me $127.19 in change. She stares some more. “I don’t think that is right.” I say trying to be helpful, because she seems completely mystified. “Yeah, I must have done something wrong.” (Gee, ya think?). She continues to stare another moment and then reaches for the twenties in her cash drawer, has second thoughts, then pulls out 2 fives, then puts them back. I interject at this point, “You just need to count backwards from my total.” She then stares at me instead of the cash drawer. “Okay,” I say, “I gave you $220.00, just give me eighty cents, that makes $213.00, then give me seven more dollars.” She follows my direction and thanks me profusely saying, “I would have never figured that out.” Now, believe me, I am in no way some kind of math wiz, I hate math, it was my worse subject in school, I practically get hives attempting to check over my 8 year old’s homework. But one would think you certainly don’t have to be mathematically gifted in order to be able to count backwards. It’s a sad state of affairs if I have to give instructions to anyone on how to count.
I didn’t want to mention that her cash drawer is probably going to come up a couple hundred dollars in the black at the end of her shift; I was in too much of a hurry to try and explain that one. Poor thing.
©KKW 2008
Funny, I was just thinking about how people have lost the ability to count change back the other day - we are so reliant on technology, which doesn't work more often than we would like!
ReplyDeleteTricia