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The 75 cent trick rides again

BillHoyt

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It's been a while since last I played the 75 cent trick. I saw an opportunity this afternoon at a local store. My tab came to $14.81. I gave the cashier $20.06 and watched him as he glanced down at the cash, back up to the register display and back again to the cash.

"Finally, he said, "I said $14.81, sir."
"I know," says I.
"But," he continued perplexedly, "you gave me 20.06!"
"Yes, I want the quarter back."

This threw him a bit. He looked back down. Was he actually expecting to see a quarter in his hand? The one I "wanted back?" I can only speculate. He turned to the register, and keyed in the cash tendered. It now told him my change was to be "$5.25"

Fascinatingly good fun, this 75 cent trick.

Cheers,
 
BillHoyt said:
It's been a while since last I played the 75 cent trick. I saw an opportunity this afternoon at a local store. My tab came to $14.81. I gave the cashier $20.06 and watched him as he glanced down at the cash, back up to the register display and back again to the cash.

"Finally, he said, "I said $14.81, sir."
"I know," says I.
"But," he continued perplexedly, "you gave me 20.06!"
"Yes, I want the quarter back."

This threw him a bit. He looked back down. Was he actually expecting to see a quarter in his hand? The one I "wanted back?" I can only speculate. He turned to the register, and keyed in the cash tendered. It now told him my change was to be "$5.25"

Fascinatingly good fun, this 75 cent trick.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

I do that a lot to get larger change. Some people just CAN NOT COPE, they will not even use their fancy register to cope, they will slap the extra coins on the counter, take the 20, give me the change back,and shove my countered change back at me.

***sigh***

I then hand them back the appropriate change and ask "now can I have my (five, ten, whatever) please"....

A few people, bless their souls, get it. Some don't. The very occasional gets upset.
 
Can you please explain the trick? I didn't quite understand it. What kind of coin values do you have?
 
Yup thanks for that ratcomp I managed to figure that part out on my own, :) but whats the whole gag?

You give them exactly enough money to get a quarter back in change, and they get confused? Is this the joke or is there more to it?
 
Oh, I get it now. I thought you were playing some kind of joke on him, not just that you wanted a whole quarter back. I always assumed this would be one of the first thing you would learn while working in a store. I've never seen a cashier not being used to it before...
 
GreyWanderer said:
Oh, I get it now. I thought you were playing some kind of joke on him, not just that you wanted a whole quarter back. I always assumed this would be one of the first thing you would learn while working in a store. I've never seen a cashier not being used to it before...
Click to expand...

here in America, it's common for cashiers to be completely stupdefied by simple mathematics.
 
Hm. Probably one out a hundred transactions, I'd guess.

They seriously need to eliminate the penny, along with the nickle and the dime.
I suspect that after a hundred years of inflation a penny is worth about a
quarter today.
 
Having worked with both modern and old fashioned cash exchange, the issue is most people working registers don't know how to count back change.

That and the fact that they are tired or really high doesn't help.
 
Sorry,

By the time I got back to this thread, the websit was down. The coin denominations in the U.S. are:

penny (.01)
nickel (.05)
dime (.10)
quarter (.25)

The trick relies on the cashier's innumeracy combined with the arrogance to believe they know how to make change when clearly they don't. If the bill ends in an amount between .76 and .99, you give them enough so that they ought to give you back a quarter.

I've had bizarre results, including one cashier throwing me my change in disgust, after arguing with me about my having given her too much. IIRC, in that case I gave her 5.24 for a 4.99 tab.

People just can't do simple math. Ironically, all they need to do is key the amount into the cash register and it will do it for them. But, you know, we're in the age of "feel good" education, and their math teachers gave them good grades and pats on the head whenever they said "2+2=5." Hey, at least they tried, and the important thing s that they feel good about themselves.

Cheers,
 
GreyWanderer said:
Oh, I get it now. I thought you were playing some kind of joke on him, not just that you wanted a whole quarter back. I always assumed this would be one of the first thing you would learn while working in a store. I've never seen a cashier not being used to it before...
Click to expand...

A few decades back, most cashiers knew how to make change here in the U.S. Now they can't tie their own shoes.

Cheers,
 
Does it p anyone else off when they hand you the paper then put your change on top of it?:mad:

Most cashiers do this now..

I believe this also comes from handing back what the little numbers tell them to.. i.e. 2 dollars and 35 cents..

... here's your 2 dollars ...and.... on top of it... your 35 cents...

When they used to ' count ' change it was...

( change first ) 35 makes three and 2 makes five..:)


When they hand me those bills, I always jerk my hand out of the way and put the bills away, before they have a chance to throw the change on top.. They have to stand there like an idiot for a bit, with their hand stuck out, untill I reach for the change...:)
 
I never really thought of this as a "trick". British decimal currency has no quarter, just 1,2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence coins as well as the pound (and now two pound) coins.
I often used to add whatever was required to get (generally) a 20 or 50 back, to avoid receiving a lot of pennies. This usually seemed to be appreciated by shop staff, as it simplified their job.

I notice in the last few years that it seems to cause confusion with anyone under about thirty years of age, particularly in supermarkets. In (increasingly rare) family run corner shops, it is still pretty common, even among youngsters, who are generally Asian and (racist comment) seem to pay more attention in arithmetic classes.

Still, now clock radios come with calculators, I suppose mental arithmetic is as useless a social skill as knapping a flint axe.

Welcome to dinosaurdom, Bill.;)
 
Diogenes said:
Does it p anyone else off when they hand you the paper then put your change on top of it?:mad:

Most cashiers do this now..

I believe this also comes from handing back what the little numbers tell them to.. i.e. 2 dollars and 35 cents..

... here's your 2 dollars ...and.... on top of it... your 35 cents...

When they used to ' count ' change it was...

( change first ) 35 makes three and 2 makes five..:)


When they hand me those bills, I always jerk my hand out of the way and put the bills away, before they have a chance to throw the change on top.. They have to stand there like an idiot for a bit, with their hand stuck out, untill I reach for the change...:)
Click to expand...

You're right! That tendency has been growing. I wonder if it is related to the register displays? There's clearly little thought behind it. Also, a lack of self-correction. I don't know how many times I've watched customers try to catch the change before it slides off the bills. I've also watched many change-spills, and have had several myself.

Cheers,
 
It would be nice if cashiers could calculate in their heads, but they are not required to for the position. Their job is to handle money and give correct change.
 
Soapy Sam said:
I often used to add whatever was required to get (generally) a 20 or 50 back, to avoid receiving a lot of pennies. This usually seemed to be appreciated by shop staff, as it simplified their job.
Click to expand...

What I now refer to as the 75 cent trick used to be something I did to simplify cashier's jobs. Long ago, back when snakes wore tennis shoes, they used to appreciate it. Now I use it to infuriate them. Why? Because, as they got more innumerate, I got more scowls whenever I did this.

I understand Randi often confronts cashiers when the whip out the old counterfeit detecting pens. One of which, BTW, the aforementioned cashier used on me. Just made me giggle all the more to watch him whip out his magic pen and then get confused by the change I gave him.

Cheers,
 
T'ai Chi said:
It would be nice if cashiers could calculate in their heads, but they are not required to for the position. Their job is to handle money and give correct change.
Click to expand...

In which case, they should do what? Simply key in the amount tendered and wait for the little box that steals souls to tell them what to give back? Then what? If they don't get what's going on, what is to prevent them from adding .19 to my .06 "overage" and give me back more change than I gave them? That would satisfy the register but p*** off the customer.

Cheers,
 
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