Long ago and far, far away in another time and place, people knew how to give you change. You gave them money (bills and coins) to pay for something and they gave you back change in a very organized and easy to hold way. That doesn't happen today. Today, you get change in a disorganized, easy to drop way.
Used to be that there weren't cash registers that automatically calculated the change that was due back and the clerk had to actually count it out. They started with the amount that was due and counted the rest into your hand starting with the smallest domination until they reached the amount that you gave them. What you ended up with was an assurance that you were getting the right amount back and a tidy pile of coins in your hand with any bills on top of them. It was easy to grip the coins while you were putting any bills away. It all made perfect sense.
Today, the amount of change that is do back is calculated by the register and the clerk puts the whole pile in your hand at once with bills on the bottom and coins on the top. If you stop to count it, others in line behind you get annoyed that you're holding things up, and then you're lucky if the coins don't slide off the bills before you get them put away.
I don't know why we've gone to new this method, when the other way was so easy and so much more user friendly. I long for yesteryear.
You know, I worked in a bookstore just less than a decade ago (I guess that's a long time, though it doesn't feel it), and we were still counting change "the old way" then. I think this is one factor (of many) in why I try not to use cash very much, and when I do, I very much prefer to use exact change.
ReplyDeleteI almost always use a credit card these days for the same reason.
DeleteWhen I use the drive through at the bank, they don't count my bills out to me, as they do when I go inside. Consequently, I have to count them in the car before I leave the window, and I hold the cars up behind me. I sometimes get the feeling that those drivers behind me are a bit irritated that I haven't gotten out of their way.
ReplyDeleteI think people who are behind someone counting out their money are just going to have to learn to take a deep breath be patient. In my opinion, we move too fast as a society today anyway.
DeleteAround here I can tell you it's because people don't know math and how to count change. When my youngest son was 16 he worked at a Subway/Churches chicken portion of a truck stop. He was the only one who could count change the "old" way or for that matter the only one who could balance his drawer at the end of a shift to the exact penny. My son and I used to have date days where I would meet him at work and we'd share a Subway sandwich. One visit, his boss came to me and told me it was refreshing to have a teen who could work a register. He believed it was because I home schooled, but in reality I think it was because I gave my boys small amounts of money as an allowance as young as 2 and would stand in a store and help them work out the tax needed and how much they would have left if they spent their money on that particular item. His boss said kids today have no idea how to handle money and they have had to use the registers to tell them how much to give the customers back. They even have pictures of the food on the registers as using the prices confused many people who worked there. I think it's a sad state and one we need to correct somehow.
ReplyDeleteI wish that your story weren't unusual, but I think it is. You taught your boys some very important money management and math skills from an early age. I heard somewhere recently that mental math and making change along with handwriting were skills that were on their way out. I guess that I will continue to be annoyed with the way I receive change these days.
Delete