Old Fogy Rant: My Trip To The Supermarket

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Where does this level of ignorance come from? Is it that the public schools are swirling down the toilet because of poor funding? Or are some people just dumb?

I just got back from grocery shopping. Among my purchases were a dozen cans of cat food (I was in grave danger of being killed and eaten, so this purchase was essential). I brought my stuff to the checkout counter where a young woman (maybe 18-21) was working. She started to scan the cat food cans, and the following conversation ensued:

Checkout Person: How many of these are there?

Me: A dozen.

Checkout person: A dozen?

Me: Yep.

Checkout person: (blank stare) Ummmm ... that's twelve, right?

Me: (stunned pause) Uh...yyyyeah.

So I thought most people learned that a dozen was twelve by the time they finished elementary school. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, though, since there are studies suggesting most people couldn't find France on a map. Like my dear departed granny once said: "No wonder we have wars." Geez.

[LSK]

1. you should have asked her if that was an even number

:evilgrin:

[Deja Q]

2. Sad.

Not just because SHE passed the personality profiling test (which includes rudimentary math) to get the job... but because she only adds credibility to corporations' desire to offshore while calling Americans stupid.

[Generic Brad]

3. I had a similar experience yesterday

I had to wait ten minutes for two clerks to figure out how to give the guy ahead of me $2.87 in change after he gave her $205.00 in cash to settle a $202.13 bill. The first clerk was a trainee who had never given change for cash before, so she called a supervisor to help her. Then the two of them argued whether or not he was owed $1.87, $2.87, or $3.87. They eventually got it right.

The guy was so patient I swear he was a living saint. As for me, I was watching in disbelief just fighting the urge to blurt out "$2.87" like I had a monetary version of Tourette's syndrome.

[SoCalDem]

4. How odd. modern registers do everything but hand the money to the customer

:)

[Generic Brad]

5. But clerks can still make mistakes

The clerk in this instance typed in the amount that was owed, not the amount that was received. When she realized what she had done, that's when she called for a supervisor. And that's why they had to figure it out in their heads.

[Deja Q]

6. Well, they do plip out the coinage; they still rely on a human to

hand out the paper currency.

And once everything switches to plastic-only (debit, credit cards), we won't need to worry about cash or even checking accounts. I'll miss my check slips with the custom design on them. :cry:

[Roon]

7. I went to the liquor store the other day

and the cash register was broken. The clerk didn't know how to make change and I had to tell him how much to give me back.

[LuckyLib]

8. The female clerks, according to my teacher friends, are the ones

who were doing their nails in class on a regular basis. The males? Who knows! The idiocy of some service personnel cannot be underestimated. And my favorite of their responses to "thank you."??? "Yup."

[TimeChaser]

9. Around the time I was leaving my summer job at Kmart

they hired someone who could not do math. Most of the time, the cash register tells you how much change to give, but she even had a hard time counting the money people gave her. I was supposed to be training her on the register, and some customer handed her 80-something in bills. She looks at it and looks to me "I don't know how much this is." :banghead: How do these people get hired?

[Robb]

10. Dang kids. (spits) ...in MY day

(cough) I tells ya. (wheeze)

What was I talking about? Don't lie to me, ya little runt! :rofl:

At my girlfriend's daughter's graduation, I had to ask three seniors who the valedictorian was. This was because the first two didn't know what the hell that was. Sadly, the kiddo was among them. :eyes:

I intend to abduct my grandson at every opportunity, with the Dingbat Child Embiggenment Program. While I am quite certain he will be able to ride a motorcycle by age four, I'm all over the flash cards. ;)

[SOteric]

11. Maybe she was homeschooled by dumb people.

No. I don't really believe that, but it makes me feel better to think so.

[NMMNG]

20. Could be

There are (that I recall) no "dozens" in the Bible--only cubits and such. :P

[SoyCat]

12. They also don't know the names of rather common vegetables. Oh well.

[GoneOffShore]

18. Nor do they know which way a screw turns.

It's the video games, I've heard.

And try saying 'turn it clockwise'? Ooooh, the looks you'll get.

[SoyCat]

21. ! You gave me a good laugh.

[idgiehkt]

13. strange

I remember a co-worker asking me what time it was and me showing him where a clock was and him looking at me and saying "I can't read that". I cracked up because I thought he was joking but he said "no one ever taught me". He was in his early 20's, he could only read digital clocks...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

17. That is sad.

I remember learning that in Kindergarten.
Duckie

[WindRavenX]

14. well...

...I can't count back change because I have problems visualizing numbers-- it's been attempted to teach me half a dozen times, but I don't understand numbers in my head-- does that make sense? I am mildly dyslexic.

[last_texas_dem]

27. I know what you're saying

I've worked as a clerk at a couple of former jobs and never mastered counting back change the way they wanted me to. It was funny 'cause I could actually calculate change better than most of the people I worked with. For example, my co-workers often yelled to me to tell them the answer if they wanted to calculate change quickly without using the register. But I couldn't count back the change to add up to the amount the customer had given me (for example, if they gave a twenty to pay for a $12.26 order; they wanted you to count the change out to them, counting up to twenty, as you handed it back) to save my life. I understand the convenience of handing back the change that way, but I didn't understand the necessity of doing it that way as long as you were giving the customer back the correct change.

[NV Whino]

15. You should have said you had

a baker's dozen.

:rofl:

I laugh only to disguise the tears.

[Kat45]

16. And they turned me down for a job at Target??!!!

:rofl:

[radwriter0555]

19. There is a reason why there are different jobs for different people. Not

everyone is of the same intellect and ability as everyone else. Perhaps she's perfectly suited for this job and terribly unsuitable to work in a bank.

I try very hard not to put down people who aren't particularly smart. I used to know a bag clerk at our local grocery store who was beautiful, very clean, tidy, sweet, polite, and once you started talking to her, flat out, she was dumb as a post. Not because she was ignorant, but because she wasn't able to be any smarter. She was borderline retarded. But you'd never know it to talk to her for 5 minutes, or to look at her.

Ignorance is a choice.

Intellect isn't.

Be kind.

[Jokerman]

22. Six of one, two dozen of the other.

That means that they are the same, right?

[madinmaryland]

23. You should have told her you had a "baker's dozen" and seen

what she would have said.

:rofl:

[sakabatou]

24. A lot of stores now-a-days

have little or no training for their employees.

[Ariana Celeste]

25. I had an experience like that

buying gourds last year, the little ones were 3/$1. The chick at the counter asked how much they were, and I said just that- 3/$1. Her reply? "So 50 cents a piece?"

:wtf:

She had to have been about my age, too.

[MountainLaurel]

29. On the flip side

A friend of mine working as a cashier at a Wal-Mart-type store had a customer freak out on him because he said, after asking for a price check, "Oh, they're 25 cents each." Her reply: "No they're not, the sign said 4 for $1!" He could not get this woman to understand that the two are exactly the same thing.

[Ariana Celeste]

30. oh maaan

that's bad, too.

[hfojvt]

26. good thing you didn't get a gross or a score

nobody knows what those are any more. At least you have to walk a few furlongs or search a fortnight in the average city to find somebody who does.

[LynneSin]

28. I would have told her it was 8

Get a few free cans of cat food out of it

[NewWaveChick1981]

31. I can think of two separate "Stupid Clerk Alerts"

One was when my great uncle was visiting us from Hawaii around 1978 or 1979. We went to K Mart so he could buy some things, and being the joker he was, he laughingly told the clerk he was paying with "Hawaiian money". She totally freaked out, called the manager, and they both had a hissy fit over taking "Hawaiian money" despite the fact that it was IDENTICAL to "'Murikan money". :wtf: He was so stunned at the stupidity he just left his stuff there. We went elsewhere, and they KNEW what "Hawaiian money" was... :rofl:

The other was when my stepfather and I went to a drugstore once so he could buy some aspirin and a few other things. The total bill was $3.51, so he gave the clerk $4.01. She was befuddled about having to count back the change, and it was taking her FOREVER to figure it out. I told her, "You just owe him fifty cents." She didn't believe me and called the manager. My stepfather, who had NO patience for outright stupidity, said, "Give me my money back." He took it and left, and he never shopped there again.

Unfortunately, your "how much is a dozen?" story is all too real... :yoiks:

[mykpart]

32. I used to work with a high school graduate who didn't know

who Christopher Columbus was. When I told the story to my teenaged neighbor, he didn't know either. He told me, "I used to know, but I'm no good at Texas history!"

[bumblebee1]

33. I've run into the same thing.

There have been times that I've been in one of our local supermarkets. Some of the clerks couldn't tell one vegetable apart from another. I know the parsley family can be confusing.

I work with a woman who is also one of our "Relay for Life" committee members. I bought two t-shirts from her for a fundraiser. I was watching her counting back change using the "additive method of subtraction." I made the comment to her, "you worked in retail? I noticed how you count back the change." She did reply, "Yes."