Pluggers by Rick McKee for January 08, 2014

Obviously, that cashier failed (or is failing) in math. Give the man $5 back, kid.

That’s exactly why he works for only minimum wage.

It’s all so sad….

Most cash registers do the math for the cashiers these days.

It’s called subtraction, sweetie. First and second grade subject. Give the man his $5.

In University, I worked for one of the NHL teams in the concession stand and my till’s display was shot. I could punch everything in, but no totals were displayed so I had to do everything in my head. At the end of the night when my money was counted, I was exactly 25 cents over (compared to what the central computer said I should have). Only change I made that day was I didn’t let people take their stuff until it was paid for (normally, I would do things like hand out the drinks while waiting on their burgers, dogs, or fries).

How many remember the day(s) when the cashier actually counted out your change as they gave it to you? I seriously doubt that a lot of them could do that now even though the register tells them how much to give you.

I think the cashier was surprised to see cash! So many people just swipe their debit cards.

That’s why they aren’t WORTH minimum wage. Counting change out of a drawer is a lost art today. I remember how, but I’m OLD.

I thought I was the only one who noticed that the younger generation doesn’t know how to handle money. Failure of the education system if you ask me.

Oh, so true!!!

No biggie. Key in $11.27 and the register will tell you to dispense $5.00 in change!

I learned to make change growing up in my parents’ store (and to put bills all facing the same way). I was recently in a Mickey D’s and the lunch came to $12.77. I handed over $13, then dug for two pennies so I would just get a quarter in change. But I was too late, the droid had already punched in $13, got what the machine told him to give me back, and he wasn’t able to take the 2 cents because he couldn’t override the cash register to tell him a new amount. Sad.

To really confuse them, hand them the exact amount including tax before they ring it up.

And why did he give him $11.27? Why not $10.27? Then all the clerk had to do was give him $4 back. @dirpharmer: I did my shopping yesterday and the groceries rang up at $241 even. Me and the cashier were in shock. And I had that exact amount to give him.

In late 1960s when I worked summer job at Arby’s our cash register had numbers and we knew how to count change. Today fast food cash registers have pictures of food on keys and computers count the change. When you try to make it easy for the kids at the counter they get confused. ☺

Yes, I’ve had this happen several times in the last several years. No wonder more people are home/cyber schooling their children.

And now there are a lot of people calling to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Years ago when I learned the schools were allowing students to use calculators I commented that their basic math skills would dry up. Guess what – it’s happened, and more often than not people now are unable to do simple math in their heads, much less percentages. Sad.

When the computer came along some thought processes disappeared. Take away the batteries and most people can’t do math. It’s really a shame. Now, the trend is to no longer teach cursive. Another giant step backwards.

Several years ago I went to Burger King for supper. The bill came out to about $7.65. I gave the girl at the counter $8.00 (3 X $2 bills. 1 X $1.00 bill, and a Susan B Anthony dollar coin.) She asked me what the coin was. I told her it was a $1.00 coin. She looked at it and turning to her manager, asked, “is this coin real?” He said it was and sounded very frustrated with her. she then gave me 65 cents back in change. Not wanting to mess with her head any more I just said, “Thanks!” and ate my burger and fries. I guess I owe the King a ‘Whopping’ 20 cents.

Boy this is right on. I blogged about this years ago. These kids today are clueless, even when all they have to do is enter the amount tendered into the cash register, and pay back what it says in change. They don’t even have to think about it the way we did, and they STILL can’t get it right.

As a math teacher, I abhored calculators. As a science teacher I loved them.On a side note, you would be amazed at the number of HS student who cannot read an analog clock.

I don’t think giving that kid an extra $5/hr is going to improve his math skills. But it reminds me of a story I read in the ubiquitous Readers Digest, to the extent that the writer was placing an order at a fast-food joint when the power went out, at which point the kid behind the counter said, “Well, I guess we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way,” and pulled a calculator out of the till.

The dumbing down of America at it’s finest…and they want $15 an hour??? I think not…

I agree with stlmaddog5.

Also, with regard to those who say that all the kid has to do is look at the register, my experience is that the kid makes the “it was only $6.27” comment BEFORE he enters the amount in the cash registered automatically thinking the old man is just dumb.

Not just the younger. I have a friend who was a checker at the local grocery chain. She eventually became a lead and was responsible for training other checkers. She was stunned to run into people who were absolutely blank not only on the math, but on the concept of “counting backward” in the change-making process. And this was about 15 – 20 years ago!

Don’t blame the young people for not being mathematically proficient. Blame the teaching system.

That’s what happens when they only comprehend “swiping” a card through a reader… no thinking necessary. customer doesn’t even have to sign the ticket anymore.

It hurts to have that happen and then have to hear the SOTM (S…head of the month) complain!!

And people wonder why our children are so far behind other children around the world. I don’t blame the teachers for this mess. I blame the so called leaders for this. Remember “new math”? Tom Lehrer wrote a song about new math. “He said that if you do base eight, its like doing base ten, if you’re missing two fingers”. Oy!

How you make $11 in bills:

A $5 and six $1s.A $10 and a $1.Two $5s and a $1.

There’s AT LEAST one crazy unnecessary $1 bill in there.

The cashier is confused by the unnecessary bill, not the math involved.

If it was just a $10 bill, it would make sense.

I can’t believe that none of you see that the problem isn’t the math, but rather the Plugger handing an unnecessary bill to the cashier who will then have to hand that bill back for no apparent reason.

Pluggers are people who do things that make no sense and confuse people, not with simple math, but rather the illogic of their actions.

How you make $11 in bills:

A $5 and six $1s.A $10 and a $1.Two $5s and a $1.

There’s AT LEAST one crazy unnecessary $1 bill in there.

The cashier is confused by the unnecessary bill, not the math involved.

So many idiots missing the point.

I remember when I first worked in a store and somebody did that to me. They were kind enough to explain it to me since that wasn’t covered by the management. Of course that was so long ago we used registers that had flags jump up in a window with the sale amount after you pressed (hard) the correct buttons. I don’t think any electricity was involved.

A similar incident happened to me twice during the holidays. I took a holiday job at a national retailer’s local store in the electronics dept. which also sold DVD’s and Blue Ray discs the discs were separated either as Movies or TV box sets , a cashier called back asking for a price check one of my younger co workers attempted to locate the title for the check but could not and asked me to help I asked her what the title was she said it was “21 Jump Street” and she could not find it anywhere in the “Movie” section I then asked her if she looked in “Television” as it was a TV series long before it was a movie I soon became the dept expert on DVD price checks.

Tom Lehrer’s song has the chorus line, “Hooray for new math, new math. It wont do a bit of good to review math. It’s so easy, so very easy that only a child can do it!” You have to look at my other comment to understand this.