I was at the store yesterday and purchased something for $5.37. I gave the young girl a $10 bill. She looked to be high school age. Long enough to have several years of basic math under her belt. She rang up the order before she realized that I had also given her the .37 cents. She looked crestfallen when she realized that the change due on the register was no longer valid. She turned to the other clerk (who also looked to be in his high school years) with desperation in her eyes.
He told her she would have to use the calculator since she had already rung up the purchase.
Use the calculator?? I say again…Use The Calculator (note the use of capital, exclamatory, disbelief letters).
She stared at the open till in what appeared to be a look of complete brain freeze or maybe she was saying a hopeful prayer that the correct change would magically leap into her hands. I stared at the till with her. This I have to see. Tick tock. No change was floating up. That was disappointing.
An older lady…obviously the supervisor…came over and asked what the problem was. The girl told her the dilemma. The lady quickly pulled out a $5 bill and handed it to me. Gosh, she didn’t even bother with the calculator. She must be some kind of financial wizard or something.
I do not consider myself to be a math whiz. I have ten fingers that I use frequently for higher math problems, and use my calculator for really big numbers. But I didn’t think $10.37 minus $5.37 was a college trick math question!
Am I worried that these people will someday be in charge of my social security payments? You bet your cash register I am!
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