This happened twice in the last two days or I wouldn't waste anyone's time with it.

I went to the register and the total cost of my items was $8.42. I gave the teenage mouth-breather $10.47 and he tried to return the two pennies to me. I gave them back and said, "you owe me $2.05." He entered it in the register and by golly I was right! Same thing yesterday with different numbers.

If you don't trust me and you don't trust yourself why not just enter it in the cash register with enough computing power to send a man to Mars?

In deference to a certain thread, this post contains free-range sarcasm.

You expect the current generation to do math in public? Optimist!

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50 Years of DSOTM

I've never been to good at the numbers learnin so it's your fault for giving him such a ridiculous number to change

It has little to, I believe, with either education or age.

It's got everything to do with being lazy.

Laziness is encouraged in the sales/store industry today if you ask me. Anything out of the ordinary is discouraged. Hell, look at BK/MickeyD cash registers... they use pictures, not item descriptions...see the little picture, punch the key. No engagement of braincells required.

Your mistake was asking the cashier to think. Shame on you.

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USPSA A_97882

To the op, why would you give the cashier such a ridiculous amount that makes no sense. Just so you could get a kick out of it. You do realize this is a cashier and not a rocket scientist. JMHO

Numbers have always been hard for me (mathematically). But when I got my first job I ASKED and learned about making change.

Todays cash registers will tell the employee how much to give back!!!!

I can empathize with those who don't "get it" but I cannot stand laziness and not even trying to learn.

There's an app for that.

I often give odd amounts to get even numbers back. I don't want to carry a change purse! But, I usually hold back if I think that cashier won't be able to handle it.

My first job involving a cash register taught me about counting money, when, in my first two weeks, a guy quick changed me out of $20. I knew as he walked away that I had been taken, but by the time mall security arrived he was long gone. After that, I learned how to count money the right way.

I recently had to cover for one of my supervisors who did the daily deposit. Even after all these years, in the ten days of doing the deposit I was right every time I counted it. Felt good.

It's nothing new. Back in the early 70's, I went to a local drive through bank to cash my paycheck. When the money came back in an envelope, I counted it and told the teller she made a mistake. "I don't make mistakes." I was told, so I drove off with $20 more than I should have had.

The next day I received a phone call from the bank. "We gave you too much money yesterday." I replied that I had tried to tell them that, and what I was told. "Well, you need to bring it back, and when will you be here?". I told them I wasn't making a special trip for their mistake and would return it next time I was near the bank. A couple days later I stopped and returned the $20. You'd have thought I was Jessie James.

It wasn't long after I joined the local credit union.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

My Dad told a similar story about the US Army Finance Center at Fort Belvoir. He was a civilian working for the Corps of Engineers and the Finance Center had just instituted a policy of "you walk away from the counter, you don't come back claiming a mistake." They gave him too much and he'd walked away. He returned to the counter trying to return the extra and they very nastily refused it, including the cashier supervisor saying something. So he left.

Got back to his office and later that afternoon, when they were balancing their registers/books/whatever, he got a phone call to return the money. He told them to go **** themselves. 5 minutes later his boss walked into his office and asked about it. 15 minutes later, the MPs showed up to escort him back. He told them to arrest him or go away. There was literally no proof that he'd committed a crime so they left.

The next morning he went over to the Finance Center and returned the money. The manager tried to make it a policy that he couldn't cash his payroll checks there after that. Dad took that to the Base Inspector General and that was the end of that.

Dad's boss actually took some flack of Dad's actions, but he took Dad out to drinks to laugh about the stupidity of it all.

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USPSA A_97882

Before I started my first job at the burger place my mom helped me practice counting change back to a customer - there was no such thing as the register doing the calculations for you.

These days on something like that I tell the cashier why I'm giving them what I am; so that they know it's to get back quarters or bills instead of 87 cents in change.

If it's over 5 bucks nowadays I just use the debit card. It's simpler, and more polite to the people in line behind me so they aren't waiting longer while the kid tries to figure it out.

I was in Subway just last week. My bill came to $4.12. I gave the young man a five and twelve cents. He actually had to call the manager over for help. The manager looked at me,rolled his eyes, and then said, "Just give him a *** dollar back." I don't think that kid ever figured it out. As for the education part, it's taught, but that doesn't mean they retained any of it.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

ive encountered this several times over the years...........it baffles me how A-B = ? turns into a complex math problem for so many......

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There's nowt so queer as folk

I am curious why you would give him 10.47 when you clearly could have given him 10.42? LOL Did you just want a different nickle than the one you gave him, or are you also a fairly recent graduate of our modern education system?

Just asking?

I wasn't there, but I'm guessing the OP didn't have any nickels . . . one quarter, two dimes, two pennies - .47. At least it did when I went to school.

You all want fries with that?

you know, i don't think this has anything to do with education.
i think these are all rich kids.
me n my friends never had to work at learning how to figure correct change.
none of us ever had much money n there's no way we'd take a chance on losing a penny.
so we all could do this stuff in our head.
i can do this faster than their machines, but that's because money was hard to come by.

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susie

If these kids are our country's future, we're screwed!

My daughter started working in our pawnshop on Saturdays when she was 13. We have never had a cash register much less one of those fancy electronic things. Customers were amazed that she could actually count back change. Don't know how or when she learned maybe just good common sense. She even figured sales tax in her head most of the time.
And get this, she hated math and it was her worst subject in school.

I look at things a little different than the rest of the world I guess...that makes me odd man out many times. At least the kid is working, and at his age and station in life he no doubt would rather be elsewhere. But he's not, he is right there putting in time.
I have a lot of respect for teenagers that have what we all refer to as "menial" jobs. They are not fun, they are not high paying and given some of the comments on here they don't garner much respect and are thus not even a good stepping stone to a better job, but still the kid is there putting in his time. When I see a teen working a "first job" I try and help him/her out if they get confused...not add to it and complain later.
Now the "grown ups" on the local Navy base...yeah, you want to make fun or disrespect someone, there's your target. Friday afternoon at 1:00pm all the 14 acre parking lots on the base have about three cars in them!!! These people mosey on in to "work" at 9:00am, take a 2 hour lunch and leave at 2:00pm on the days they do show up. Meanwhile 1/3 of the money I make goes to finance all this...and you have to complain about a teen working his first job????? I would hire a kid who worked at McDonald's before I hire one of those people that work for govt. contractors any day.

I live in a city with a major University and a large hub of government. It's amazing how many 'workers', from tenure senior professors, six figure administrators, to the lowest floor sweeper, get paid for 40 hours but really work 20 or less. They're not even particularly shy about it. It comes from their sense of entitlement.... plus both the governor and state legislature are evil (they feel) and "out to get them", this is how they fight back. Stick it to the man. FORWARD!!!

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

Once upon a time I worked for 14 years at one of those contractors...I couldn't stand it. Thankfully, they weren't my primary source of income so I retired early. We had this project manager that {absolutely no B.S.} showed up about 2 days a month!!! He was a 90K a year man. The company makes their profit by marking up his hourly rate. So, to pay him $46.00 per hour {or whatever it was} they charge the govt. about $90.00, it's called the "loaded rate". As long as the govt civil servant project engineer didn't complain the company wasn't about to. And we all wonder why or how this country is 17 trillion {with a T!!!} in debt????

It is amazing on how numb people are getting today! Basic life skills are not being taught! I had a similar experience ! Picked up a item around $ 1.25 and another for around $1.00 , So even with my poor math skills I know that is less the $3.00 :O She say that will be $4.95 :O I question that say how much is $1.25 and $1.00? She says $4.95 that's what the register says ! In a snotty tone says you want me to recheck it Duhhh She does and guess what? LOL No common sense today with a lot of people!

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9mm Shield

"Now I know why tigers eat their young"

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Get off my lawn!

I also know why some people should not breed Just go to Wal Mart and see their young going wild

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9mm Shield

Speaking of Gov't. stupidity, I retired because it was so bad. My job was to work with the contractors on Gov't. contracts to make sure the items specified in the contracts were correct and were delivered. I did that job for over twenty years but then the bean counters were put in charge. They insisted that all of the paperwork had to be done according to their specifications. A simple one paragraph "Statement of Work Objectives" wouldn't work anymore. A contract package which was 10 to 15 pages long turned into a document 100 to 200 page long. Nothing had changed except the paperwork required by the bean counters. The bean counters would judge the success or failure of a contract upon how well the paper work was done, not on whether the Gov't. receive what is had written the contract for or not. It was so bad that a contract where all of the money was spent and the Gov't. received absolutely nothing and this contact was considered to be a successfully managed contract because all of the paperwork was done correctly!

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Bill

Now, let us be fair to today's recent high school graduates. Because they most likely learned Common Core Math, the answer to $10.47 minus $8.42 is a purple dinosaur and five rocks of crystal meth. How was the poor kid supposed to reference his answer to your request for correct, no pennies change?

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Virtue,Liberty & Independence

It's been deteriorating for several years. In the 60's when I got out of the service and returned home, my mother was a 5th grade teacher. One evening I offered to help her with grading some test papers. She originally gave me a stack of math papers, but then when I was dumbfounded by them, just laughed and told me I wouldn't know how to grade the. It was "New Math", and you needed a numberline to get the calculation correct. It was the mose round about way to get a math answer I ever saw. She told me these kids will be lost in business and that she complained to the school board about it, but it was mandated and she had to teach it. We made sure our children memorized the times tables, and knew how to add and subtract in their heads, and make change. I had a young lady at a grocery store check out that I gave the correct coins to which was more than the purchase price, she got out her cell phone for the calculator app to figure it out.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

In the 70s Captain Kirk, Spock, and the gang ran around clicking open a small gadget and talking into it. How many of you, today, don't have a cell phone?

Did you ever see the episode where several of the crew of the Enterprise went back in time and had to carry money, buy things, and get change? They were terrible at it.

Forty years ago tv predicted we'd be where we are today. Just imagine where we'll be in another 40 years.

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

I don't use cash. My credit cards pay me 1-5% on purchases. That's the type of math I like.

Call me a curmudgeon but my cell phone hangs on the kitchen wall and has a long curly cord!!! I have neither need nor desire to have a cell phone.

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Bill

It's not ridiculous. Why should I want 98 cents change when I can include the 2 cents in my payment and get a full paper dollar back? I hate carrying coins and get rid of them every chance I get.

I went to those same schools 50 years ago but I came away with certain life skills like how to write a check, balance a checkbook, and yes, counting change. When is the last time someone actually counted your change back to you instead of just dumping a wad of bills and coins in your hand?

Typo correction courtesy of Old Bear. Apparently typing isn't one of the life skills I learned!

Exactly! And this is why I wanted the nickel and every other nickel I can get:

Mass Inflation Ahead — Save Your Nickels! – SurvivalBlog.com

Some cash registers provide the change in a little slide goody...

I entered the public school system in 1951, graduated in 1964 and received a far better education than most kids do today. Your statement doesn't hold water in any kind of a bucket.
I'm itching to make other comments but will restrain myself.

If you don't like carrying coins (neither do I), and making change with folks who suffer difficulty with simple math irritates ya, why antagonize yourself with paying cash?

I'm not going to enter a school debate, but I will say that any parent in America who allows their child to grow up without being proficient with simple math (absent some type of learning disability) no matter how poor the school is, has failed their child and should hang their head in shame.

Really, there is zero excuse for that kind of neglect.

i resemble that remark..................NO cellphone. ipod. tablet, bluetooth, atm card, facebook, twitter, etc.....

how do i get along.....JUST FINE.....

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There's nowt so queer as folk

RIGHT ON !!!

there was then and now............i'll take then and when i'm 104 i'll still be 2 steps ahead of now.....

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There's nowt so queer as folk

Since the day people learned to write their thoughts down on stone tablets, the old have complained about the young, and pinned for the "good old days". Let's face it, that's just what the even the book of Genesis is (in my day, we lived in paradise. . .).

And yet, despite knowing this with our "better" education, we are repeating the same behavior, and believe it to be true. If it were really true, the Romans would have been living in high-rises, and we would be living in caves. And yet, here we are living in conditions that the most pampered emperor would envy. And all this despite every generation's belief that the young are not up to snuff. Well, every generation is the equal to every other generation. No better, no worse. They come into the world they didn't create, are shaped by it, then try to reshape it, then get old, then complain about how much better it was in their day. Then they die, and in two generations are forgotten. That's life.

Not much sense in having a cell phone out here in the boonies. I had one once but it never would get any signal so when it finally became outdated, I never bothered to replace it. I'm far to dumb for a smart phone.
Peace,
gordon

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better have that checked

I disagree with your assessment kpap. I do what the OP did all the time. I'd much rather have a nickle in my pocket than 5 pennies. And if I have the singles in the wallet to get a larger denomination bill instead of a couple singles back, I'll do that too. Just yesterday when getting groceries, my bill was $51 and change. I didn't have any coins to clean up the metal side of the exchange, but I did have a few singles, so I handed the clerk a $100 bill and 2 singles so I could get 2 twenties, a ten, and the coins instead of 2 twenties, a five, and three singles plus the coins.

That's it in a nutshell. I love how everyone wants to 'blame' an entity, when it's the parent/s that are ultimately responsible.

I had one guy recently telling me how bad this future generation is. I told him to lay the blame on the previous generation for raising idiots.


Unfortunately, for many, school is for daycare, feeding their kids and every dang thing else. Many 'parents' feel as if it's not their responsibility to raise, teach and feed their children. Apparently it's the taxpayer and system's responsibility to raise your children.

The problem lies with parenting, or lack thereof.

I wish I had time to go around giving minimum wage clerks goofy change combinations to see how smart they are.

The old line about leading a horse to water but you can't make him drink applies to education. Schools have the kids for 5 or 6 hours per day (instruction time) 180 days per year. Teacher tries to use any kind of discipline , the teacher is fired. Kids and parents have to be involved in some fashion.

Why bother using actual money?

Just shop at places that you can pay with your smart phone. Then no one needs to use all that "higher Math"

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Still Running Against the Wind

One of my favorite games at a register is when the bill comes to something like 5.02 and I give the clerk 5.05 saying that I don't have any pennies. The clerk gives me .03 back. I then exclaim, oh wait now I have the 2 pennies and hand them back asking for my nickle back. Its amazing how many clerks will comply.

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James Redfield
LM #497

It is easy to blame the schools for lack of math skills in their students.

Next we should talk about those who employ these math challenged clerks.

It would seem simple enough to have a "per-employement" math test during the interview. NO CALCULATOR ALLOWED!

I have seen university students get totally ABSURD answers because of improper use of their calculator.
A calculator (and also a computer) does exactly what you TOLD it to do - NOT what you WANTED it to do.

Bekeart

Ya know...

I wanted to come in with something relevant, intelligent, and wise.

But I'm a teacher and the end of the first 2 weeks of the year, after two weeks of inservice, after summer band. I'm just too dang diddly tired.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

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Soli Deo Gloria