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I’ll bet that these days they’re trained NOT to do this without the help of the cash register.</p>
<p>I agree. But I was taught to run a register at my parents store at the age of 12 and could do it then. I fear that the inability to do such simple math is only an indicator of how we just let machines do things and trust that they are accurate.</p>
<p>I don’t expect much from cashiers. I tend to try to get rid of my pennies so in your situation lakemom I would have given exactly $9.36 or $10.36 so it’s easy math for them.</p>
<p>That’s kind of my point. Why do you need to make it easier for them? We are talking addition and subtraction, not algebra. They are handling money and change for hours each day. </p>
<p>We simply have allowed the register to take over and the cashier just plops the change and bills into your hand. </p>
<p>I was taught to count back the change. So if you were giving change back of $20 for a $14 dollar purchase. You would place one dollar first in the customer’s hand and say $1 equals 15 and 5 dollars (for a 5 dollar bill) equals $20.</p>
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So I won’t be annoyed and I can focus on things that make me happy.</p>
<p>So I guess this is also a thread to post what we do to keep from being annoyed :)</p>
<p>Yes, that’s my new year’s resolution! :D</p>
<p>It annoys me greatly when I’m sitting in the aisle seat on the express bus and someone wants me to move in to the window seat. Tough noogies. I was there first and I’m not switching.</p>
<p>
Oooh…this reminds me of something else that annoys me. People who keep me waiting while they look for their little coin purse so they can get rid of pennies.</p>
<p>Possibly un-PC question: are there men who do this?</p>
<p>
If there are, I have never seen it.</p>
<p>However, men have to taaaaake out the wallet, ooooopen the wallet, seeeeeeee what is in the wallet, and then puuuuuuuuuut the returned bills into exactly the right spot. Then they have to drrrrrrrrrop the coins into their pockets and puuuuuuuuuut the wallet back into the pocket before finally shiiiiiiiiiiifting it around and moving on.</p>
<p>So it’s six of one and half a dozen of another.</p>
<p>I certainly agree that many people, of both sexes, seem genuinely surprised that they actually have to pay for their purchases.</p>
<p>Waiting in line at the concession counter or fast food restaurant, and then the people in front of you finally take a look at the menu and discuss what they’re going to order when it’s finally almost your turn.</p>
<p>People who drive around and around the parking lot looking for the closest space. </p>
<p>People who wait in your blind spot while you load your purchases into the car and prevent you from backing out of the parking space that they are so anxious to occupy.</p>
<p>FYI, Hunt, I don’t give 36 pennies. In that example I would just give a penny, a dime and a quarter. I’m mindful of the cashier and the line behind me. I also don’t have a coin purse. I have a ladies leather wallet with a little zippered area for coins. :)</p>
<p>
My wife would make the same claims–and she’s annoyed by the giant container of coins on my dresser.</p>
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I often see people who are shocked to find, after waiting for long periods of time at a bus stop, that they still have to pay the fare. Frankly, I don’t want to pay $6 each way either but that mean bus driver doesn’t give me a choice.</p>
<p>In my house, I’ve started to tease my DH that Real Men Don’t Carry Change.</p>
<p>Every day, I find piles of change in some out of the way place in our house. I now have a huge baggie filled with change. It gives me great joy (should I post in the other thread??) to count out exact change for a cashier so I only get paper money back as change.</p>
<p>I figure that at this rate, I can keep doing that for around five years. The problem is, I don’t use cash that much anymore.</p>
<p>For years we have kept a big glass jar on the kitchen counter for dropping loose change in. Every year on New Year’s Eve we count and wrap the change. Once we have our total, we have always had a family meeting and figured out how we want to spend it as a family. It’s often a couple hundred dollars. We’ve treated ourselves to a Martin Luther King get away weekend, a new electronic and one year it paid the adoption fees on our new dog. :)</p>
<p>We took my nieces to a Nutcracker matinee at the San Francisco Ballet. I don’t live under a rock, and I don’t expect perfect silence at a Nutcracker matinee from our child or anyone else’s. They will forget and need to be shushed every now and then. However, the family right behind me brought a two-year-old boy who was obviously sick, and was loudly coughing and sniffling NONSTOP over my shoulder throughout the performance (AND talking during every break in symptoms). For the first time in my life, I complained to the usher at intermission, but she said there was nothing she could do because the performance was sold out. How does that stop you from kicking disruptive people out?</p>
<p>There were two parents and two children in the family – have one take the sick child home! Jeez.</p>
<p>People who leave cookies, chips, or candy out for public consumption in the office kitchen when I’m on a diet.</p>
<p>People who fail to leave cookies, chips or candy out for public consumption in the office kitchen when I’m not on a diet.</p>
<p>People who eat all of the kind of cookies I love, and leave behind the ones I don’t like.</p>