Posted on 02/15/2021 6:53:19 PM PST by SamAdams76
Before barcode scanners, being a supermarket checker was a tad more complicated.
I worked at Famous Barr in Clayton, Missouri after school around 1967 when I got my driver’s license. I got stuck in the basement toiletries department. I really wanted lady’s shoes, but they wouldn’t let work there.
I was collecting silver coins because silver mintage ended in 1964 and it was already getting scarce. For every silver dime or quarter I found, I replaced it with one of the cupro-nickel pieces of junk of the same denomination. It didn’t take long for store security to ask me in for an “interview.”
ITdepartment, have you tried turning it off and on again?
/the it crowd
and that 2¢ would get you at least six penny candies
I worked at a fast-paced burger and dog joint in northern NJ. During lunch, the place would get mobbed. There were about 7 or 8 employees working the counters taking orders from the customers. “Three dogs, one with onions, one with chili and cheese, one plain, 2 burgers, 3 fries, 2 large cokes, 1small root beer, 1 birch beer. You barked out the order to the cooks, all the while figuring out the tab in your head like that (snaps his fingers). Usually, by the time you gave the customer his change, the food was up. The entire work area was a square about 15 x 15 and to top it all off you all shared a single cash register. You never saw 7 or 8 people work so fast, ducking, bobbing and weaving like some junk food ballet. It was organized chaos, it was fun, it was entertaining (people came just to watch). This scene would last from 11:30 to 2:00 every day, tapering off till it picked back up for dinner.
Young people have no idea what it means to work in the fast food industry.
I learned to type on IBM Selectrics, in school; but all I had at home was a little 1950s-era Remington manual.
I much preferred the way the little Remington worked; the electric typewriters were too slick and touchy.
Last year I purchased a mechanical computer keyboard to bring back some of that experience. The chunky mechanicals make fast typing a lot more accurate.
I was a checker in high school...bag boy, bottle sorter, shelf stocking,, worked some produce.
Loved checking. I could make that NCR sing.
I really liked retail. You got to meet a lot of interesting people.
I remember a couple of really drunk guys who were buying gifts of perfume for their ladies at Christmas time. They had no idea what they wanted, and asked our advice.
We salesgirls got a pretty good commission out of that one...
Cash registers are for wimps. Real cashiers conduct their business out of an empty cigar box.
I’ve always wondered how they did that without ‘scanners’. Did food have price tags on it, back then? I can’t recall.
I do know that the checkout folks at our local have all the produce down to memory, and are almost always correct. Now and then, someone doesn’t know what an artichoke or parsnip is, and has to look up a code.
Regular sized candy bars were $.06 when I was in elementary school. It was an outrage when they jumped up to $0.10.
(I never thought I would be THAT guy saying, “when I was a kid.”)
Now I’m seriously craving a chili cheese dog. Thanks a lot ; )
Love golden flake!
My daddy would give me about 50 cents - a dollar on Sundays - to ride my bike down to the 7-Eleven and buy him a newspaper - and I could keep the change.
I got rich on that!
When I was young these checkers were simply amazing their fingers on those registers were AMAZING! They KNEW HOW to count change too!!
Don't let Cosmo Kramer get hold of one of those!
Every so often a cashier had to yell "Price check!" on an item that was unstamped or the cashier would yell "Hey Bob how much is this copy of Tiger Beat with David Cassidy on the cover?" and I'd yell louder "It's not for, me, Bob! It's for my sister! I'm just buying it for her!"
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