Sunday, January 04, 2009

What do they teach in schools nowadays?

Last night, while in Princes Risborough, I spent the un-princely sum of £1.20 and paid with a £20 note.

After handing over the note, I then realised that I had a 20p coin, so handed that over as well. In my world that is called 'making it easier' for the assistant.

The cash register told the girl serving me to hand me back £18.80. Giving her the extra 20p totally blew her mind and she could then not work out how much change to give me. Duh!

1 comment:

James (UK) said...

Yep, seen this too... :-(

One wonders if it truly is just "parenting skills" and computers they teach now.

I know when I took a saturday job at the CO-OP supermarket I was made to take a written test which consisted of about twenty questions like;

"A man buys a packet of cigarettes for £2.10, gum for 10p and pays you with a £5 note."

"Using the pictures of coins below, indicte how many of each you would give him to make up his change, along with the total amount"

I was taken aback at just how easy they were, but it seems these days, very few people, especially the young, can "work out" anything like this in their heads.