The Futer is Heer...

9/8/01

[pabianice]

Was at Stop and Shop today -- one of the new really big ones. Went to the deli counter and asked for five potato pancakes. They were priced at 75 cents each. The young women working the counter bagged the pancakes and then tried to enter them into the deli tagging machine. For some reason, the machine would not accept the SKU code. She was stumped. I offered, "Well, five at 75 cents is $ 3.75." She just stared at me and kept trying to enter the SKU. Still stumped.

She called over another young woman working the deli counter. This generated several minutes of key poking and head scratching. "$3.75," I offered again. No go. They kept poking the machine and all kinds of item names flashed by -- sliced ham, knishes, pickles. Still no good.

Almost five minutes had passed and another worker came over to see what was going on. No help. Finally, one of them pushed a key and out came the tag, for $ 2.45. I felt bad about cheating them, but frankly didn't want to work at it any longer, so I took the bag and went on shopping.

So the future is here and it is filled with clerks who can't do the multiplication tables. Our economy is in a lot more trouble than a stock market slump.

[freeper12]

You think thats bad...I was vacationing in the bahamas, and bought a bag of 20 scones, for $0.40 cents a piece...not only couldn't the clerk do this math in her head, she also only could use the "+" key on the calculator (not a register, just a calculator)...40+.40+.40.+.40...you get the picture....

[dubyagee]

I once worked with a girl at a grocery store who thought that because there were three tomatoes in a bag, she had to weigh them three times...

[DallasMike]

So the future is here and it is filled with clerks who can't do the multiplication tables.

Can they do their "gazindas?"

Two gazinda four twice, two gazinda six three times, two gazinda eight four times....

[Waco]

So many liberals, so few sharks, so little time. Sigh. What's really curious, virtually all their mistakes are in my favor. Most don't seem to care, either.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Example: Buy something for $6.20, and give the cashier $21.25. They'll invarably look down at the confusing assortment, relieved that they just have to punch the numbers into the machine. A couple of weeks ago I purchased something at a small shop, and the woman actually counted the change back. That hasn't happened to me in eons.

[Thinkin' Gal]

i

[Godel]

Example: Buy something for $6.20, and give the cashier $21.25. They'll invarably look down at the confusing assortment, relieved that they just have to punch the numbers into the machine. A couple of weeks ago I purchased something at a small shop, and the woman actually counted the change back. That hasn't happened to me in eons.

This happens to me all the time. Sometimes they'll just look confused until they plug the numbers into their little toy and it explains it to them. Sometimes they will try to hand back the money explaining I'm giving them too much. Argh.....

[concerned about politics]

2+2= what ever makes you feel good.
3+2= correct. Here's your diploma.

Bring in the next batch, and get the government to send more money.

[Thinkin' Gal]

What irritates me is that they'll hand me a pile of change and say, "$___ is your change". Sometimes they'll even count it out. What good does that do? How are they [or the customer] going to know that "x" is the right amount, unless it's counted up from the purchase price? Maroons.

[lennydetroit]

Buy something for $6.20, and give the cashier $21.25

I love to do just that! The other day I bought some things at a local convenience store that totaled $5.56. I gave the clerk $11.31. The register didn't have an automatic calculator, and she was lost! I explained that the change would be a $5 bill and three quarters. At first she didn't want to take the tendered amount, but finally laid $5.75 on the counter in one pile and pulled $5.56 out of the register and laid it in another pile, then proceded to count it all out by hand.

Regards, Lenny

[Clay Moore]

I walked into a fast food place several years ago. There was a manager or such helping a trainee try to operate the cash register. Trouble was the trainee not only could not make change, I really do not believe she could have counted a group of coins that you handed her...

[Vermonter]

I've had the same type of problem here at our local small town grocery store. Bless the owner, he hires lot's of high school kids and gives them their first jobs, but they just don't understand!

I recall one time attempting to pay for a small purchase and being handed the wrong change...too much. I explained the mistake to the clerk and she was totally baffled, the computer/register said I was due X and that's what she insisted on giving me. No amount of explaining was going to change her mind. I hope she's learned by now.

[upchuck]

How hard can it be to make change?

You won't believe this...

There is a chain of gas stations here in town that have very fancy computerized cash registers including a CRT like you'd have on a PC. When you give them your money and they punch in how much you handed them, the cash drawer opens and

(Are you ready for this?)

On the screen is a picture of the cash drawer with flashing numbers in the various areas of the cash drawer showing how many they should give you. Unbelievable!

If your purchase is $18.10 and you hand them a $20, the screen shows a 1 blinking where the dimes are, a 1 where the nickels are, a 3 where the quarters are and a 1 where the $1s are. And they say the numbers as they pull the change. When they get to the quarters, they say, "1...2...3" as they pull out three quarters, one at a time.

I had a hard time believing this company couldn't find people to make change. Silly me! I once asked a manager about this. She said they came up with this system to cut down on shortages when the employees cashed out. Then she said, "But it's not all a bed of roses. We had an employee once who didn't put the right denominations in the right places. Lost almost $600 before we realized what she was doing."

Talk about being dumbed down!!

[Nogbad]

A true story:

At a large supermarket a man was waiting to have a small number of purchases checked out.

At that moment there was a bolt of lightning and the power went off.

The man vainly pleaded with the cashier that he was a professor of mathematics
and was able to calculate the total value of his bill with pencil and paper.

The cashier refused to accept his story, and waited several minutes for the power to come back on
before she would allow him to pay.

[Betty Jane]

I was in a convenience store a couple months ago that had new registers. The register told not only the amount of change, but, also the number of each denomination. For example if my change was $2.42, the register showed 2 $1, 1 .25, .10, 1 .05, and 2 .01.

The experience with too much change happened to me this afternoon. My bill was $8.75. I gave the guy a twenty, and he punched in $200.00 by mistake. The kid was totally confused. He knew he shouldn't give me $191.25, but he couldn't figure out what to do. It was sad.

[FormerLib]

I remember the first time I went into a fast food place near DC. The cashier handed me my bag, dumped some coins on the counter in front of me and announced, "Fitty-fo' cent yo' change."

I looked around and then back at her before replying, "You're welcome." That seemed to confuse her.

[FormerLib]

Had the same thing happen at a local Little Caesar's pizza place. The power went out as we pulled up to pick up our pizza. There was our pizza, sitting on the oven and there we were with the correct change but nooooooooooooooooooo!

Morons!

[FormerLib]

You better have a look at this.

[Thinkin' Gal]

"Fitty-fo' cent yo' change."

LOL, a budding rapper.