Innumeracy in Kansas ...

Here's what happened at the market today. I bought a few things in the 12 items or less. I should have known there was going to be problems, the person in front of me had 14 items, 2 over the limit. So, everything is smooth with my three items (two packages of spinach and some butter), I put a $20 bill out so I can bag my own groceries, get the change quickly and leave. The bill comes to $5.67. The lady (call her Nancy) opens the till, starts to get the $14.33 together (that's what the register says she should give me in change). Thinking on my feet, I reach into my wallet and pull out a $1 bill and hand it to her while she's getting my change together. She looks at the bill, puzzles over the $14.33 in her hand, finally, she hands me $13.33 and closes the till. I look at her and said "that's not the right change." So, she had to ring the manager, special call, who came over and punched in a code. Nancy opens the till, takes out the extra $1 bill and hands me $14.33 and closes the till. What was she thinking? I told her I gave her an extra dollar so it would come out even change, fifteen dollars. She puzzles then calls the manager again. Long wait, manager comes over, she once again explains, manager opens the till and walks away. Nancy hands me $15.33 and closes the till. The problem is, it was five one-dollar bills. I told her "look, if I had wanted one-dollar bills, I wouldn't have given you an extra $1 to begin with." She puzzles. After all, it was just the $14.33 and the one-dollar back, so it was right. She said to me: "You should have told me that's what you wanted." So, she called up the manager again, long wait, the manager opened the till and left. Nancy put in the five one-dollar bills, and now had three five-dollar bills in her hand, which she handed to me and closed the till. Well, she got that right, the problem is that she forgot to give me my coin change, the 33 cents. At this point, I was just having fun, so I told her, "hey how about my change." She puzzled, not remembering that she owed me change, looked at the receipt, double checked that I hadn't pocketed the change, then called the manager. Long wait. Manager opened the till and left. Nancy took 35 cents out of the till and closed it and handed the 35 cents to me. Now I had three five-dollar bills and 35 cents. I was 2 cents to the good, so I left the 35 cents there on the counter and told her she could use it for future customers to make their pennies work out right (see how nice I am?).

So, this is a real story -- just happened a few minutes ago. I had to write it down right away, it was so unbelievalbe. Most customers use credit cards, check cards, or else she just reads the right amount of change off the register and gives that to the customer. It was just too much for her to add 1 to 14 and get 15.

The moral of the story is, there's no moral.

People in this state are dumber than dirt.

--Dorothy

Quote: DorothyGale

She said to me: "You should have told me that's what you wanted."

Yup, I agree. I always assume the clerk is a drooling moron and I say in a loud voice "This means I get back three $5 bills." I always expect inferior service, why would I expect anything else..

I really think the moral of the story is to use a debit card.

Screw debit and credit cards. I have to wait about three hours behind the eejits who haven't yet got their card out yet, then another twelve while they fumble with their key pad and another seventeen before the thing spits out a receipt.

A pox on credit cards and debit cards for $5.63 worth of coffee from Starbucks. A pox, sir, a pox.

Dorothy,

As a fellow resident of Oz let me just say this... There is a reason Mr. Brownback came back and was easily able to get himself elected. And it wasn't gambling. ;-) ;-)

Quote: DorothyGale

People in this state are dumber than dirt.

That's for sure. I hear somebody there tried to hand an extra dollar to a cashier so as to get back 15.33 rather than 14.33. Can you imagine that!! Some poor clerk who all day long just looks at the numbers displayed and makes that change suddenly has to do something different! All those poor people in line behind that woman! Can you imagine. Its like asking an assembly line worker who has been tightening a right side wheel for twenty years to suddenly tighten a left side wheel!

By the way, I always thought you were from Australia.

Quote: DorothyGale

People in this state are dumber than dirt.

I think you're giving too much credit Kansas. I imagine something like that could happen in almost any state, because people in the US are very generally bad at math :-\

Quote: EvenBob

Yup, I agree. I always assume the clerk is a drooling moron and I say in a loud voice "This means I get back three $5 bills." I always expect inferior service, why would I expect anything else..

In the clerk's defense I will say working a register is one of those jobs that just kills your fast-thinking. Customers think they are "smarter" because they have their change ready when they the customer have had time to think about it where the clerk has been working an assembly-line for hours on end. OTOH, if the clerk is feeling "off" and you as the customer give a friendly reminder a smart one will shake off that feeling and do the correct thing.

Quote: DorothyGale

People in this state are dumber than dirt.

--Dorothy

Maybe so - but they also seem to be patient and nice too. Were you from where I'm from guess what you would have got.

The real moral of this story is - when you hire someone to operate a machine that makes all the decisions you neither have to pay them very much or expect very much from them other than good machine operating skills. If you want a mathematician, hire a mathematician. The days when a clerk had to think, never mind cipher, are long gone. I call this the "McDonaldization of America" syndrome.

Quote: Martin

The real moral of this story is - when you hire someone to operate a machine that makes all the decisions you neither have to pay them very much or expect very much from them other than good machine operating skills. If you want a mathematician, hire a mathematician. The days when a clerk had to think, never mind cipher, are long gone. I call this the "McDonaldization of America" syndrome.

This is the case at all levels. This week I was talking to a guy who worked at "The Big Shop" at US Steel years ago. TBS was a machine shop that fixed the machine tools from all the other mills US Steel had in the area. Or a "mill that fixed mills" if you like. It closed about 1982. The guy told me he recently met someone who worked in a machine shop and admitted today's guys were "operators" and not "machinists" of old. Computers now do all the set-up.

But it makes sense. You used to need 100 good people say to run a big shop and they needed years of training. Now you have 30 people who need months of training to run a computer designed by 10 people with years of training. From a business standpoint it works better.

I tried looking for state quarters at Disney World, and the cashiers didn't even know what QUARTERS were called since they were from all over the world. Plus many guests use dining plans and room charges in place of cash. They could give the change printed out on the receipt, but just barely, so I wasn't going to get fancy. I was happy just to get back what I was owed.

Quote: DorothyGale

People in this state are dumber than dirt.

People haven't known how to do change for a long time in most states.

Part of your story I like is the line "You should have told me that's what you wanted". The cashier isn't even aware that your objective is to minimize the small bills.


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