So i'm on the way home and I need to get gas. No biggie, it does happen every few days.

Anyway, I stop at the gas station and fill up. While i'm there I figure that since I haven't had time to get to Indiana to get smokes(thery're ALOT cheaper there) and i'm down to only a few in the last pack, I might as well bite the bullet and just pick up a carton to get me thru until I can get there.

Walk in, tell the kid working "Pump 12 and a carton of Marlboro Light box please" and toss a hundred on the counter.

He gets this pissed off look on his face and says "Got anything smaller dude, I can't make change for that, I just made a drop!"

WTF???? I felt like asking him when was the last time he got gas AND a carton of cigarettes.(yeah, he smoked, I saw 'em in his pocket).

The total: $97.41

Sometimes the youth of America really really scares me!!






-- Modified on 11/6/2004 9:44:06 PM

It's for the same reason you can't purchase anything from a fast food establishment should the "registers" fail. Their highly trained professional staff cannot make change without the register prompting them.

I do a backbend in front of the doctor, then the triple splits.  Hmmm.  he says.  But the computer says you have a bad back.  Hrrrmph.  I says.

Now this one.  Try going to the bank when their computers are down.

Have a great day.

Aah , the new math ! , It seems a few slipped past the " no child left behind " program

Oh yea...been their, done that. Just the other day, computer system crashed and drive thru line was backed up. I waited in line for about 30mins. Good thing I was in no hurry.

Your back is fine and..........your front is really, really nice also.

Thank You

Or when I hand the clerk 120.65 for the bill is 110.83.  Gawd I love to see the look on their faces without the computer telling them what the change SHOULD be!  Have the new breed of Generation X, Y or whatever  letter they are on forgotten how to add / subtract / multiply / divide?  No wonder they are a big user of CCs.  They do not think like us older folks in terms of compounding interest and the idea of paying your bills on time.  

Made a cash deposit, $2k, week last Thursday afternoon in the ATM, money was still on hold following Monday am.  Then a letter arrived in the mail from Fraud Prevention saying that an additional 6-day hold had been put on the deposit because they had reason to believe that my CHECK may be fraudulent! HUH?? All this for opening a new account, Wa Mu if you care.


-- Modified on 11/20/2004 7:19:08 AM

I was shopping for a used car recently. Anyway I found several potential candidates, and began making phone calls.

I call on one ad and a kid, who sounded about fifeteen, or sixteen answered the phone.

I ask if the car is still for sale(it was waaayy overpriced but I figured what the hell). I was told yes it was but it was the father who was selling it, and the kid said he knew nothng about it. He then asked for my name and number, which I proceeded to give him.

My name is Cliff, and I told him. Dead silence for several seconds, followed by a "Can you spell that please?" After I realized that he was serious, I told him. Its times like that when I am really scared for the future of the nation.

Cliff

Geez I would have to quit smokin' and driving! I like the new drug your on LMAO!


Jamie

This was supposed to go under the first post...........

Now I got it.

huh?

The creator of "No Child Left Behind" should've implemented "No President Left Behind" first.

Not to mention the Susan B. Anthony dollar.

I collect coins.  Not long ago, I bought some half dollar rolls from a bank, hoping to find some silver halves.  I decided not to take the rolls back to the bank, but to just spend the halves after going through the rolls.  I stopped at a Dairy Queen and paid for my Blizzard with some of the halves.  The teenage cashier had to ask someone what they were.

To be fair, half dollars rarely circulate anymore, so it didn't really surprise me that happened.  You would still think they would've at least knew of them from their early math classes in school.

Why would they teach US currency in MATH?  Math helps you figure out change, 'tis true, but the two aren't really related.

This was when I was in grade school back in the mid 1970's.  Images of all denominations of coins were included in various math problems and general addition drills within our math workbooks.  Of course, that was 30 years ago, so I can't comment on whether this may still be in practice today, particularly in the lower grades.

as a teenager I worked in a retail store. We had old-time cash registers with rows of numbers on them, not today's keypad.

We were trained to make change correctly since the register didn't tell us what to give back.

In your case, I'd have taken your money laid it on the register shelf and said, "15.78 out of 20.03." or perhaps "15.75 out of 20."  

Got the change out, counting up from the sale amount to the tendered amount, got a quarter, makes 16, got 4 ones, makes 20.

Turned to the customer and said, "15.78 out of 20.03," hand them the quarter, "16.03," hand them a one, "17.03," another one, "18.03," another one, "19.03," and one more, "20.03."

I've communicated twice what the sale and tendered amounts were, counted the change twice, plus if there was a question, the customer's tendered amount was still on the register shelf in plain view.

Many days even with multiple people running a register, we were right to the penny! Wonder how far off they are these days, when they just plop the change into your hand?

I believe thinking skills are out the window. Too often people today just swallow what they're told without even evaluating stuff. It shows up in the incompetence we see around us. It's too bad because kids today deserve better.  They'll do better if they're challenged, too.