The cashier at the store asked me what 24 cents minus 14 cents was.

[Deja Q]

IT'S TEN CENTS.
ONE DIME.

:cry:

(I didn't yell but I had to fight to not giggle in shock! :wow: )

No wonder corporate america uses the excuse that Americans are stupid. (and maybe the cashier was tired at the end of the day too, I'm not mindless of that possibility either...)

[Robb]

1. Maybe in your fascist math world...

...of "numbers" and "adding" it is.

I say it's a quarter. God loves me. :P

[Deja Q]

2. I also see only 4 lights!

:rofl:

[Evergreen Emerald]

3. I had a total of 10.15

I paid with a $20 and 25 cents. I could see the look of confusion on the cashier's face. I stood there as she pondered this for awhile. Pretty soon she gave me $9.85. I shook my head as if to say, nope try again. And she said, "what then?"

[grace0418]

4. That happens to me all the time.

I worked as a cashier and never had a register that figured out the change, so I always had to do it in my head. When I give cashiers change in order to avoid getting a bunch of pennies or singles back, I'm amazed how many of them have no idea what I'm doing.

[Awsi Dooger]

16. Happens to me all the time

Let's say the total is $9.68. I'll look at my change and give them $10.18, wanting two quarters. The dumbfounded looks and varied reactions are amazing. It's not like I'm trying to hide my intentions. I'll say, "Here's $10.18, so that's 50 cents extra." Many of them just refuse my change, punch in $10 and hand me the 32 cents.

It also occurs in Las Vegas sportsbooks when I'm buying or cashing sports betting slips. Let's say I cash a couple of tickets but then bet more than that amount during the same trip to the window. Many times the ticket writer thinks they owe me money, instead of the other way around. Once at Harrah's I was overpaid $100 and didn't catch it until rounding the corner. I went back and handed it back to the writer. She was thrilled because it would have come out of her salary. It also helped me in the long run. The sportsbook manager was there and saw it. He has kicked almost all of the local sports bettors out of there, paranoid they might know something, but I'm welcomed and greeted. I'm convinced it's due to that one incident.

[patsimae]

5. Got fired from my first job

I was 16, and I didn't know how to make change.

If somebody say, gave me 10.25, and the total was 5.25, for example, I was totally lost.

I was very literal minded, in spite of my good grades and test scores in my Catholic high school.

She was probably a dumb teenager, like I was.

[Floogeldy]

6. You are so much smarter, and better, than cashiers.

That's great.

[Bill McBlueState]

8. all of them?

Or just this one, who couldn't do 24 minus 14?

[Floogeldy]

12. Probably includes those . . .

. . . who couldn't do 23 minus 13, too.

:D

[tallahasseedem]

7. I honestly think it is the result..

of a generation that has used calculators instead of having to learn basic math. However, this is kind of bad.

[democracyindanger]

9. What is 24 US cents minus one Canadian dime?

Aha!

[AlienGirl]

10. The cashier might have been discalculic

I have dyscalculia (can't do math in my head) and have worked as a cashier. More than once, I have looked like an utter idiot because I was trying to subtract one two-digit number from another, and just not able to do it without pencil and paper. I'm sure my customers thought I was stupid as hell, too...but how many of *them* have as many poems memorized as I do, or know as much about animals?

I wish our society had more options for the marginally-employable like me.

Tucker

[Jamastiene]

13. I have never heard of it, but tonight I learned that I too have it.

Dyscalculia is a real disability?

[AlienGirl]

15. Yep! It can be tested for and everything. nt

[AlienGirl]

17. P.S. It often goes along with prosopagnosia, which I also have. nt

[lildreamer316]

14. Umm...thanks for that info there..

I didn't even know that Learning Disability existed unil I just read your post. I just googled it and I think that is exactly what my husband has--he was misdiagnosed as ADHD (he does not have the hyperactivity bit). Thank you SO MUCH!!!

[hfojvt]

11. I hate it when you goto the store

and get hit with a pop quiz like that.
Is that worse than the bookstore clerk who wanted me to spell both Joseph Heller and Howard Fast?