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From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Re: Quality of education  Was: ...
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On 25 Mar 1997, Kevin E. Bertsch wrote:
> I especially like playing with young
> grocery clerks, who can't figure out what change to give me when the
> bill is, say, $7.62, and I give them $8. They punch $8 in, and then I
> 'find' $0.12 and give it to them. Now the cash register says the change
> is $0.38, and they have to do the simple sum in their heads. Most of
> them practically have to count it out on their fingers. 

It's not just young clerks, it's clerks of all ages who's brains
have become lazy from smart cash registers.  Back in the days when
I had cashier jobs, I was taught to count the change back to people
starting at the amount of the bill and ending with the amount they
paid me, e.g., if the bill was $7.62 and the customer gave me a
$10, I'd count it back like this:

  $7.62, $7.65, $7.75, $8, $9, $10

If the customer gave me $8.12 as in your example, I'd count back
from $7.50, which is $7.62 - $0.12 (since the 12 cents can be
thought of as reducing the bill to $7.50):

  $7.50, $7.75, $8

It's really a pain these days when a cashier just dumps a handful
of change and bills in my hands and I need to count it back to
myself.  I like your little trick of getting cashiers to think and
I think I'm going to start using it myself!

Good idea!
Nancy

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