When the tills are down...

Louisecharlotte

I'm not defending the cashier here, but it is very easy to get flustered and do silly things when something goes wrong in a shop and you have a queue of people to get through. I know from experience that I've made silly mistakes at work when tills are down that I wouldn't make any other time.

We had a power cut the other day at work but decided to keep the shop open and had to do things manually. The queues were out the door, and people were tutting and getting very irate about having to wait. We pride ourselves on our customer service but even I know it wasn't up to scratch that day, purely because we were trying to provide good service under pressure.

But again, I'm not defending the cashier in OPs case, as anyone should at least be able to work a calculator!

WolfSong2000

I'm not sure on this one...my maths is beyond appalling (really quite shamefully bad), but I have worked very successfully in retail in the past. I deal well with people, and am good at making sales, but really struggle with maths. I'm not stupid - I'm at a good university on course for a 2:1 with my history degree, but maths and me just don't agree. It's getting worse, and now the thought of even doing basic arithmetic under any kind of pressure literally makes me panic and shake because I know I'm going to mess it up, and I get frustrated and angry at myself because for everyone else it's stupidly simple.

It really does affect my life, although thankfully not on a regular basis, so hasn't stopped me from being successful in past retail jobs.

Any of that make sense? lol.

Wench

I used to work on a OneStop, when our tills went down, ( well when the scanny reader wotsit stopped working ) I'd just charge people 99p for stuff that wasnt price marked or labeled up.

Needless to say, some people got some right bargains, It was mostly on frozen food where sticky on price labels had fallen off.

Probably explains why I no longer work there.

LemonGrove

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

I'm not sure on this one...my maths is beyond appalling (really quite shamefully bad), but I have worked very successfully in retail in the past. I deal well with people, and am good at making sales, but really struggle with maths. I'm not stupid - I'm at a good university on course for a 2:1 with my history degree, but maths and me just don't agree. It's getting worse, and now the thought of even doing basic arithmetic under any kind of pressure literally makes me panic and shake because I know I'm going to mess it up, and I get frustrated and angry at myself because for everyone else it's stupidly simple.

It really does affect my life, although thankfully not on a regular basis, so hasn't stopped me from being successful in past retail jobs.

Any of that make sense? lol.

It makes sense, just don't do a job where the OP might visit you, as if on the off chance that everything goes wrong and your maths skills are shown, they'll be !!!!ed off at you for having such a problem.

beth464

I'm 20 and have worked in retail for a bit, and I know how flustered doing any kind of mental maths in front of people makes me. I don't think anyone our age is good at mental arithmetic anymore because we simply never have to use it. We've grown up around calculators and computers. I've never liked maths and my mental maths is appalling but I still managed a B at GCSE which just shows how little they value skills like that nowadays.
So if the tills went down in my shop I'd be just as flustered as the cashier in the OP's shop. This is coming from someone doing a computer science degree and with a grammar school education. Don't be too quick to judge!

pulliptears

I worked in retail on and off for years and I have no maths skills whatsoever. In fact, my OH has always thought I had undiagnosed dyscalcula because the sight of a maths puzzle or similiar can frustrate me to tears. Even something like working out the time frames in a Flash program for uni can leave me angry and frustrated.

I was good at my job though, my till always balanced, and where change was needed if the tills were down I just counted up from what they had given me (i.e £2.68 for shopping they hand me a fiver, 2p is 70, 10p is 80, 20p is £3.00 and a £2 coin is £5)

LemonGrove

I can relate, I got an A in Maths for my GCSE's, but whenever the teacher put me on the spot by asking me something I just completely froze up and almost always gave the wrong answer. But when we were given time to write it down and work it out without someone waiting on me I did fine.

kelloggs36

I bet she got an A* for her GCSE though!!!

Humphrey10

tbw wrote: »

its crazy that so many supposedly reasonably well educated people are unable to do basic mental arithmetic.

I wouldn't expect shop assistants to be reasonably well educated. If they were, I'd think they would be doing a more pleasant job where they'd earn more. I can't think of many jobs that require fewer qualifications and skills. The supermarkets near me employ many people with special needs, and many sixthformers and school leavers ie people with no experience.

tbw wrote: »

I don't think its unreasonable to expect a shop assistant to have these basic skills and I can well understand why the OP got irritated.

With modern tills, shop assistants don't need to add up. Why require them to have a skill they don't need? Many people can't do sums without calculator or pen and paper, why prevent these people from doing a job they are perfectly able to do?
Though I do think the supermarket should have made sure that in special situations like this, with no tills, the people serving the customers should be able to add up.

tbw

Humphrey10 wrote: »

I wouldn't expect shop assistants to be reasonably well educated. If they were, I'd think they would be doing a more pleasant job where they'd earn more. I can't think of many jobs that require fewer qualifications and skills. The supermarkets near me employ many people with special needs, and many sixthformers and school leavers ie people with no experience.


With modern tills, shop assistants don't need to add up. Why require them to have a skill they don't need? Many people can't do sums without calculator or pen and paper, why prevent these people from doing a job they are perfectly able to do?
Though I do think the supermarket should have made sure that in special situations like this, with no tills, the people serving the customers should be able to add up.

I'm not talking university degree level here! I suppose I am old fashioned but simple calculations with small amounts such as the OP mentioned are so basic that my 10 year old grandson can do them! Anyone, I seem to recall the OP said she had a calculator and couldn't use that either.

I don't think shop asistants would like your implied suggestion that they are not of a reasonable standard of education.

I do understand that its harder to stay calm and work things out in front of an audience though.