printOn Facebook, Bob Murphy has presented a scenario that annoyed him:
… was at a restaurant in the Boston airport. It was very relaxed, just a few customers. My bill was for $14.85, and I paid with a $20 bill. The waiter gave me a $5 bill as change, then sauntered back to talk to the bartender. Discuss.
My take on Facebook: The young waiter probably can’t do simple math unless he closes the till, or something. The Korean young woman who mans the dry cleaners I frequent does all calculations in her head, as quick as a whip. Just as we were taught at school back in the day (I’m old, I know). Okay, be a pedant, Rob. You wanted a bill (as in an invoice). You wanted the agency to control the change you gave. But this is US youth you are dealing with. The other day, checking out at a big-box store, the same sort of simpleton insisted that the product I was purchasing (I told him the per-unit price) looked too expensive. There was no arguing with this hubristic creature. He would not check himself. He ended up shortchanging his employer to the tune of 90% of the item’s total price. I wanted to pay full price, but the young man kept shouting me down. “No, this looks too expensive to be true.” I knew this was an expensive item. He would have none of it.
Look, the adults who employ the youth adulate them, and do not wish to correct them. That’s been my experience. So let them live with the losses these pests incur.
Postscript: Meantime the Korean-owned dry cleaners I visit is making a mint, as other such establishments close down in my vicinity. The owner values every penny; he employs a sharp cookie to front his business. She’s sweet and genteel too.
The young waiter probably can’t do simple math unless he closes the till, or something.
Are you serious? The math in question is easily done in one’s head. I think its more likely laziness on the part of the waiter than a lack of math ability.
I know plenty of college graduates that have a hard time making change. I believe Ilana, you call this generation “The Age of the Idiot?” Well to be honest, “idiot” is too nice of a word.
(I’m 29, so I guess I’m part of said “stupid youth.” I just hope I’m not that big of an idiot.)
I once went to a restaurant (actually, twice–two consecutive days) where the waitress asked me “if I wanted my change back.”
My vocal answer was, “Yes.”
My silent answer was, “I’m not giving you a g*dd*mn tip.”
Clarification: I do tip, around the 15-20% range. But I don’t tip when the wait staff are a bunch of presumptuous incompetents.
One is often ammused at what the “yoof” are incapable of. Luckily I woke up in time to correct my course. I can do all high school algebra and about half of geometry in my head. granted, I am a member of Mensa, so I don’t expect everyone to be able to do it, but at least one should try. I mean, I was totally clueless about cars until I decided one day that I need to change this. I’ve subsequently learned how to do things like installing bigger brakes, performing minor services and debugging simpler electircal faults.
It’s really not that hard once you get your hands dirty.
Ingemar – Many people (myself for one) often leave the amount and tip and if you left an amount roughly equal to amount and tip, it is reasonable to ask if you want the change back. If you left a $ 50 on a $ 13 check, it would be a stupid question but if you left $ 45 on a $38.55 check, it might be quite sensible to ask if you needed change back.
Do you want a chuckle? Get a hand full of 50cent pieces and try to buy something at a drug store or a fast food place. Those vacant, staring twits who pass for American students nearly hyperventilate trying to figure what a half dollar is.
James, are you kidding? Half dollars are so rare they are usually worth seventy-five cents to a dollar to a coin collector. I’m getting a better kick out of the cashiers that give me one of the new silver dollars that look like fifty cent pieces in change. I’m not getting rich counting change, but, one of these days, my wife and I will get to go to supper and even tip like Ingemar. On topic, a couple of years ago, the ARBYS had a cash register blow out. The manager had a pocket calculator and it was fun watching him teach the clerks how to figure and keep a running count on a tablet.
Clarification, my wife reminded me that the new silver dollars look like quarters, not half dollars. You could be walking around with dollars as loose change.
Recently, while standing in a service counter line at a local grocery store, a man around my age (mid fifties)asked the clerk if he could get a bottle count on his returns, since the “recycle” machines were typically inoperable. The service clerk called a “courtesy clerk,” (bag girl) to help with the situation. The CC asked how many bottles the gentleman had, and he replied that he had twenty-seven bottles in his cart. The young lady then said nervously, as though she were on an emergency mission, “I’ll have to get a calculator to see how much we owe you. The gentleman looked at me in disbelief, and we both said simultaneously, that the amount was $1.35. With her snotty valley girl accent the girl who was about nineteen or twenty said, “how do you guys ‘like’ know that?” I replied with a tinge of sarcasm, “we learned the old math.”
Even with knowing the return rate was five cents, she was lost without her calculator.
LOL Classic analysis
@William, yes, but how did it make you feel?
Dimwit valley girls are one thing – try dimwits in the Pentagon that spend tens of billions of dollars!!!
Actually, today’s youthful dimwits are the TSA employees of the future! Here is another article on how they protect America from killer grannies:
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/mother-41324-search-adult.html