Receipts
Art imitating life here, too. In my retail days, there were times when the electricity went out. With flashlight in hand, we’d handwrite receipts as we walked customers around and hand them off to the cashier who would total and cash out. I would’ve just liked to close the doors and say “sorry, come back later.” Oh well.
, it is SO sad that so many young people today are unable to do simple arithmetic, like calculating tax, without the computer. Or compute the correct change on a transaction.
When my three were going through school, they all tried to pull the “I don’t need to memorize the times tables, or do math. I can always do it on a calculator” routine. This is precisely why you need to learn math — so that when the power goes out/the computer shuts down/etc, you can continue to work!
Oregon doesn’t have tax, Randie should move here.
Oregonian here too. Randie would love it.
This comic brings back painful memories of teaching math a few years ago. Okay, I actually loved it, but my students struggled with math in general and trying to teach them how to do math with fractions and percentages… egads!
I was one of those “math geeks” that wrecked the grading curve. On my ACTs, I place in the top 1% for math skills.
Not that that’s going to help Randie now. But this might:
Even on the most basic of calculators that have a % key, you just put in the amount of the purchase, then press “+(tax rate)%” and you get the total.
Unless you live in Pennsylvania, that is, where some things are taxed and some things are not. And other things are taxed in some situations, but the same things are NOT taxed in another situation. (Like food. If you’re buying fast food and you’re eating it there, then no tax. If it’s to go, then it’s taxed.)
Ah, receipts. They had to come along sooner or later. Doing some addition may be good for Randie. Her logical “left” brain can actually get some excercise for a while. The tax may be too much to ask for her to do in her head, however. Figuring something like a 7.75 percent tax on a $28.97 paper purchase on the fly, under pressure, with people in line groaning and babies crying could be the stuff of a Randie nightmare brought to life. Still a calculator is much like the register she uses.
She’d do a double take on my favorite calculator. It’s an HP 12C. It has an enter key, and no equal key. It is really intuitive in how it functions, and kicks butt when you learn how to use it, but is a lot different from the common (equal key using) variety
Pete…
California has some of those multi-option taxes as Pennsylvania, only different. Eat food in and it’s taxed (restaurant service…even in fast food). Take it out and no tax. If you go to a coffee shop and buy a slice of pie to eat there, tax. If you buy a whole pie (on sale variety?) in a box, no tax. Some folks order up whole pies on special with no tax, eat them in (shhh, don’t let the tax folks know) and then take whats left in the box home. Sandwiches are funny things too. Cold ones get no tax. Hot toasted ones get tax, baking is involved, or at least the heating of roast beef or pastrami.
Oregon loves retail. By the way, skwids, I will be “Rawking” a table at Stumptown next month with GULLS! Can’t wait!
I struggled with math in school. I am a stereotypical artist. I can’t help it. I was born with it. I shun computations and calculations. I was always spending recesses inside doing my math homework. Sigh… tales of a third grade math flunkee.
Like Randie, my brain’s left side is shriveled up and all that space is taken up with my right brain.
With all this talk of taxes, I am proud to report that mine are DONE! Yes! Randie, will no doubt, leave her’s ’til the last minute…. but as I will be nowhere near my office just before tax day, I had to get them done early. (My sister is getting married on April 14th in Sandy Eggo…. so I shall be there, instead!)
So…. whose done their taxes?
Not yet.
Well, that was one thing about Oklahoma (which I hated), they tax everything! We had a tax chart for when the power was out, etc., thank goodness. Come to think of it, I don’t know what they do now since most places use registers that do it all and tell you the breakdown on change to give someone. I nearly fell over the first time I saw one of those! That was the first thing I was taught in retail, how to count change back. Now you can tell someone who learned to do it the old fashioned way because they count the change back to you and then the bills because it’s habit for them. Have to admit, I could never do percents even with a calculator, and yes, I’ve gone as far as college algebra without being able to. I can always round up on amounts and come out about the same. Sooo lazy!
I have to teach each new wave of sixteen year olds how to count change because they panic if they hit the wrong button and the machine doesn’t show them the change. (and I’ve been doing it since *I* was sixteen)
Haven’t been able to calculate tax in my head since they changed the rate from 15% to 13%, 15 is such an easy number to multiply. (The fastest way to calculate the tax is to times by 100% + tax rate. So it’s 1.0775 x 28.97 = 31.22, you loose fewer numbers in the calculator and get the customer through quicker)
Ruth… When I worked for the mouse (Dizlandia), their registers only did the total. You had to count back… it ensured that you gave them the correct change from whatever bill they gave you. No lazy there.
Arospace (hello!) … wuh? Math in yer head? No Way!
You and me both, Pete. I was in 7th grade the year they decided to start an accelerated math program, starting with the 8th grade so I was one of the students tested to start the program … and I blew the curve for THAT test.
Too bad I never overachieved anything else in my life the way I did with math. 😀
And one of us math geeks could help poor Randie out by loaning her one of our TI-style calculators … some of them have a programmable function key (make it calc the tax on the shown amount). Others actually had a TAX key, you just had to program in the % rate you wanted it to use … hit the button, it added that % to the number in the display.
And yes, way, Brig, especially for certain numbers. Just have to know the cheats. If you need to figure 10% – knock off a decimal point. 5% is half that. For 1% take the original and knock off two decimal places. Remember those three rules and you can work your way (in your head) to pretty much any whole-number % you need to figure.
Example:
You want to leave an 18% tip. That’s 10% + 5% + 1% + 1% + 1%
The bill is 18.98 so that’s 1.90 + 0.95 + 0.19 + 0.19 + 0.19.
In my head, I am thinking ” 2 + 1 + twenty + twenty + twenty minus dime nickel penny penny penny … 3.60 minus 18, thats $3.42 tip … from 18.98 up 350 down 8 … $22.40″.
Can also take 10%, double it (20%) then subtract 1% twice. 😉
::/endgeekitude::
@stickfigurer — I still have my HP-21, the first calculator I ever bought. Love the RPN!!
@brig — finished my taxes this past weekend. Dawdled over it because I knew I’d be writing a big check to both the Feds and the State of Maryland. Effective tax rate on my income is in excess of 30%, now that I no longer have children for deductions. Ugh!