% discount on top of % discount is one way stores try to make it sound like the price will be VERY low instead of just letting you know reg price and final sale price. The stores count on it confusing most of their customers (and staff). The staff are always surprised when I can figure out the rough price in my head.
“Whaddaya mean 50% off plus 25% off isn’t 75% off!!??”
A Dunkin Donuts in my area had to close for the day when its register stopped working because employees couldn’t just push the “small coffee” or “donut” buttons and have the machine tell them how much the total was and how much change give. Too much math to figure it out on their own.
DD grew up modestly (very modestly!) middle class/middle income so doesn’t have much to live up to. She is a go-getter with breathtaking soft skills and likes the nicer things in life (which she wasn’t given) so I have no doubt she will have a higher income than us. She also seems to be attracted to go-getters with money. She plans to live in Chicago after graduation, and I think there is more opportunity there for a non-STEM grad, and she would definitely have a better standard of living than in high priced California where we live.
Actually, the Dunkin Donuts might not have closed because the workers couldn’t have figured out costs (though figuring sales tax in some jurisdictions can be…amusing), but rather because of some corporate or franchisee policy that, say, required them to push the right buttons so that inventory could be more easily kept track of.
Never assume malice when simple ignorance may be the cause; similarly, never assume ignorance when imposed inflexibility may be the cause.
My parents both had great union jobs, good retirement and owned their house outright before age 45. I didn’t even buy a house until I was 38 and will need all 30 year to pay the mortgage. DS is gong to med school and will have $250,000 plus debt the moment he gets out of school. I certainly hope that he can pay that off and at least own a home, but it isn’t certain at this point.
Just to (maybe) give parents some hope: I comfortably pay a mortgage on a 3 bedroom home (and Mr R’s modest student loans) while earning less than 50k a year (household income). It is possible if one is willing and able to live in lower COL areas 
I should add though that I have no interest in the “finer things” in life and my only real splurge is eating out (at cheap-ish restaurants). We own outright a 2008 and 2004 (?) car that both run very well and even have enough to be owned by a dog and take little vacations.
" even have enough to be owned by a dog and take little vacations."
I love this!
Not the little vacations (though that’s great, of course), but being owned by a dog. :o3
So complete brain fog moment (that is completely irrelevant), but we have a 2008 and 2012 car. I haven’t the foggiest idea where the 2004 came from.
Of course we are owned by our dog. And she knows it… lol
I will add in full disclosure that my loans are in deferral (as I’m still a student) and that my insurance premiums are covered by my funding package. However, we also make significantly less than 50k and I used that number because we live about on par with our friends in that income range in the same area.
And we don’t live in a bad area. We live in one of the best school districts and lowest crime areas of the state. It’s not very high income but it’s solidly middle to upper-middle class.
I am not saying it is easy. It is really freaking hard to get well-paid jobs (with good benefits) especially right out of school. However, if one can get one of the middle-income jobs (ie in the 50k range), then it is still absolutely possible to be a homeowner. It just might mean making choices that one doesn’t want to make (and that’s OK! Everyone has different priorities and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that).
Given his present trajectory, he has a good shot at having a better quality of life due to a better education and more practical perspective regarding life, money and careers.
The second is correct. Current cash registers used in supermarkets and franchises like Dunkin keep a running tab of initial cash placed in drawer by the manager/owner at a given period, purchases made with the applicable price charged/cash taken in, order cancellations, deductions for coupons/special offers, cash taken out by management/employee when it exceeds maximum limit set by franchisee/management, etc.
Periodically, franchise/business owners and/or managers run periodic checks to make sure the amount of cash in the register matches EXACTLY what’s on the record. If there’s any discrepancy…especially if there’s less cash than there’s supposed to be, the cashier will be called to explain the discrepancy.
All information from some friendly casual chats with the supermarket clerks while having my purchases scanned and bagged.
The technology is far removed from the cash register experience I had while working the cashier at a small store from 6th till sometime in the middle of 9th grade. Back then, the store owner had to take a bit of a leap of faith in hiring someone who was reliable and honest and periodic checks were done manually in a notebook the owner kept for such purposes.
I understand the points you raise @dfbdfb and @cobrat and realize the functions modern cash registers have that help with inventory, record keeping, etc. However, those operations can be suspended to keep a business running and to keep money coming in the door. No small business wants to lose out on the better part of a day’s receipts and have wasted inventory. Having learned of the closure from a family member of the store owner, in this case they felt they could not handle volume and keep customers happy with workers who weren’t used to taking care of the transactions manually. Having worked in a retail situation at the age of 12 in a family business, I found the mental math came pretty quick after a few hours. Technology definitely simplifies many things but can also make us lazy with certain skills.
I don’t think a Dunkin’ Donuts is quite on par with a small mom and pop shop 
One of my good friends is a manager of a Taco Bell. When the power went out due to a snow storm last year, they closed down the shop. Generators went on to keep the food fine and cooking but other networks were down including the cashier system. They couldn’t take orders and they were told by her boss (regional manager) to shut down because they couldn’t accurately keep track of inventory without the system. This is just their company policy. It makes sense.
I worked at my grandfather’s plumbing shop for quite a while. We did everything by hand because he didn’t want computers. I understand how vitally important it is to keep a mom and pop shop open come hell or high water… but we weren’t moving in bulk like Taco Bell.
My husband and I own a business. I don’t think my son has the same drive and determination we have for professional success. He’s a comp sci major with a good internship this summer so he’ll have a good living working. I just don’t think working for someone else reaps the same risks or rewards.
My daughter is a business major and has worked at our business for years here and there. I don’t know if she will work in the family business or not. I want her to pursue her own dreams, but the reality is we don’t want to work forever and need a plan of succession or to sell in a few years.
“All information from some friendly casual chats with the supermarket clerks while having my purchases scanned”
Besides a friendly hello, please and thank you, and maybe a few seconds’ worth of casual chitchat about the weather, I think it’s rude to expect hardworking people to satisfy one’s need for conversation. Let them get back to / on with doing their jobs so they can get to the next person in line.
Pizza girl you must live in a more urban area than me…lol. The grocery clerks and I know each other’s names and chit chat with all the surrounding cashiers and customers around while checking out.
While house hunting in a different town I got some looks from my realtor when I told him it would be sad to leave the town where the grocery store, post office, dry cleaners and other local places knew me by name.
Regarding the idea that a doc graduating with 250K might not ever own a house. I really don’t think you need to worry. A friend of my S’s graduated with almost that much debt and walked into a 175k a year job. Shouldn’t take long to pay that off. My H finished med school and residency with about 100K debt more than 25 years ago and we had a house a few years later, even though he was in the comparatively underpaid primary care.
Docs will do okay.
Regarding absolute vs relative, relative is all that matters. One lives in their own world and “feels” successful
relative to others around them.
Given the focus on education and success on this board, most of the people here will do above average.
In the end, choices we have and make are all the difference, and no matter the economy, college attended,
parent upbringing, some will rise above and some will not prioritize traditional monetary success.
My own family recently expressed lament that their nearly graduated Ivy League son, wants to be a teacher !
They had expectations of huge financial success like his dad, but this kid is smart enough to do what he wants.
I see nothing wrong with wanting to be a teacher, a stable job doing something he may find satisfying.
To me, this is socio-economic success (not to his parents who will likely view this as under performing financially).
I bet his peers in college are OK with it.
One of the challenges of a continued rise in generational economic success, is the lack of need to
succeed by each successive generation. My kids have wanted for less than I did, probably wont be motivated
by money as much a I was when I was there age (same as for my relative who wants to teach).
If they are smart, they will take advantage of not having to take student loans as I did, but
they may also decide on something other than the highest economic potential career, to offset that advantage.
“Pizza girl you must live in a more urban area than me…lol. The grocery clerks and I know each other’s names and chit chat with all the surrounding cashiers and customers around while checking out.”
I grew up in a city in the NE, but I now live in the suburbs in the Midwest. But I also don’t kid myself that the grocery store clerk really cares about me beyond social pleasantries and I certainly am not going to delay him or her from finishing my order and moving on to the next person in line just because I want to ask questions about their cash register policies.
^ Two of DS’s friends were graduated from an Ivy but chose to be teachers. I think another of his friends chose a very low income job (at least now) for a charity organization which helps the poor, actually the homeless (he actually started this charity organization, as I heard.)
But he does have a couple of friends who will be or have been doctors, i-banking, or at a big law firm.
.
My parent had a very secure but not a high pay job. They had good pensions after retirement. They never needed to pay mortgages before almost 40 yo (had been living in the house which he eventually inherited from my grandparents.) At my age now, they had owned two houses without mortgage.
Even though I bought my house when I was 36 yo, somehow I still had not paid off my mortgage mostly because we moved and refinanced several times.
I actually believe they had a more stress-free life than I have. But, unlike me, they had always been staying not far from their birth place.
DS will not owe as much as $250,000 (less than a half of this amount) in his student loans. Hopefully, he could manage to buy a house at a younger age than 36 (when we bought our first house.)
I actually think DS’s life could even be more stressful than mine (e.g., living in a larger city where the COL is higher.)
One of our cars is a low-end 2010 (bought as a new car) and the other is a mid-range 2009 (bought as a newer used car.) But we passed the latter car to DS a few years ago so we only drive one car now (my wife has a car but I do not, and she drives me to work everyday. She prefers that I do not drive the car myself and luckily, my job does not require the travel.)