Walgreens Contributes to Lower SAT Scores?
I wonder how much lower math SAT scores are going to drop, as a result of a silly Walgreens policy being applied, at a minimum, in the Guilford, CT store.
I dropped by their store to pick up some photos which I uploaded to their site for printing. (By the way, good deal at 19 cents for a 4×6 and it’s quick and painless to upload them, place the order, and do an in-store pickup)
I gather up a few other things and then walk to the check-out. It comes to $10.29 and I hand the teenager behind the counter a $20 bill. He punches in 20.00 into the register. While the drawer opens, I reach into my pocket and manage to pull out 30 cents. I tell him I have the 30 cents and reach my hand out. He doesn’t make any effort to take it from me.
So I say, “Here, I’ve got the thirty cents, it will make it easier for you to give me the change.” For those of you who already have really low math SAT scores, that would mean that instead of giving me one $5 bill, four $1 bills, two quarters, two dimes and a penny, I was trying to simplify life by making my change one $10 bill and a penny.
Now that I was pushing him to take it, he says, “Ummm. I can’t take it, it’s too late.”
I must have had a puzzled look on my face as I said out loud, “Huh???” because he continued to try to explain:
“We’re not allowed to take extra money once we’ve entered the amount into the cash register. Ummm. It’s just the rules, ummm, for one reason or another… I don’t know… Sorry.”
So I shook my head in disbelief and put my 30 cents back into my pocket and proceeded to be handed one $5 bill, four $1 bills, two quarters, two dimes and a penny
Now I could have been a pain-in-the-ass and gathered up my $10 in loose bills and coins and said, “Hey, could you change this for a $10 bill?” but I didn’t want to break the kid’s stones. I think he was perfectly capable to do the math, but he’s a victim of some dumb policy by the manager of the store (or is it corporate policy?). He did seem a little frustrated that he couldn’t help me out.
Why am I telling you this? Because I believe it’s another case of implementing technology in a way that steals away an opportunity to sharpen the skills of the employees. Walgreens management is apparently telling the employees to let the machine do the math, and don’t let the customer complicate matters by changing the amount that they’re giving you, since the machines won’t let you reenter the amount tendered, and we don’t want to rely on your own math skills. That’s terribly sad that they actively avoid giving their employees a chance to stay sharp or do not want to take time to teach them how to count change back.
It’s also poor customer service; I wanted to eliminate the loose change in my pocket and and thin out my wallet a little bit, but since it’s “against the rules”, I guess I’m stuck.
This isn’t an isolated incident. I was in a McDonald’s a couple of months ago and, while there was no policy against recalculating change in your head, the teen-age girl was simply baffled as to why I was giving her extra change. She was caught in a situation where she saw what the machine was telling her to give me, and she didn’t want to or couldn’t do the math in her head.
My parents owned a retail gift store, and my dad disabled the feature in the cash register that allowed the employee to enter the amount tendered. He wanted them to be mindful of the transaction, what the customer was giving them, and wanted them to be in good practice of counting out change. If a new employee struggled, he’d work with them to transfer his skills to them. I think my Dad helped a lot of kid’s math SAT scores.
Posted: November 5th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 10
Comments
Comment from zero
Time: November 6, 2005, 7:33 pm
My brother works at a Circuit City here, the reason that they won’t change after a certain time is that it’s a scam people use. Ie: hand a hundred, ask for fifty, hand back fifty ask for the hundred, ask for fifty, 4 10’s 20 nickles, etc…Which in turn confuses the person at the counter into giving more than they were supposed to.
Comment from Mark Sicignano
Time: November 6, 2005, 11:32 pm
I’m not quite sure I follow your example, although no doubt there are “scam artists” out there that will pull stunts.
The guy who’s trying to give an extra 30 cents to the cashier on a $10.29 sale probably isn’t one of them however.
Regardless, I question whether or not it makes sense to enact policies that don’t encourage the cashiers to be alert with better math skills.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: November 29, 2005, 7:08 pm
I understand your frustration with that issue. As a manager of a Walgreens, it is tough enough to get some employees to say “Please” and/or “Thank You”. It should be the parents responsibility to make sure their child is getting/assisting in their education and development. We have no one to blame but ourselves and the standards we accept.
Comment from Mark Sicignano
Time: November 30, 2005, 1:09 pm
I agree with your points. It’s just a shame that Walgreens and other retails take the approach of treating their employees like mindless drones and instituting those policies.
We are talking basic math here. Not Trig or Calc. The kids can probably benefit, and as I pointed out, the customers also benefit because they can get better service.
In my case the kid wasn’t impolite at all. Guilford has a good school system. The kid didn’t appear to lack the intelligence.
I’ve worked in retail myself and I know that it’s difficult to find good help, but if you are able to get them, don’t treat them like mindless drones. Treat them well, and giving them responsibility and trusting them is one way to do that.
If you can’t get them to say Please and Thank You, then you should fire them. They’re probably loosing you more business than you know.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: January 2, 2006, 1:05 am
That’s the way it is with modern cash registers, the clerk is no longer required to count back change, so they don’t learn this skill. Perhaps it is one part of a master plan to make jobs so menial and simple that thought is taken out of the equation. In that way, they don’t have to attract more intelligent and expensive workers and will have fewer employees asking questions about the short cuts and policy violations.
Comment from Mark Sicignano
Time: February 10, 2006, 10:35 am
I just deleted a comment, not to stifle freedom of speech, or those who disagree with me, but rather to maintain a certain level of civility on my blog. This is a family oriented blog, right?
Anyway, here is what it said, with the offensive language replaced with the word schnibit (which I don’t even think is a word, but it’s certainly less offensive than was was there previously):
“people who complain about pointless useless schnibit like you should all be shot and killed. Live easier so others don’t have to live harder. I take that back, not only should you be killed but if you have any offspring immediatly end their lives also. Thus ending the cycle of schnibitful people who have nothing better to do but complain in local stores.”
Sigh…
Comment from Tom Maxwell
Time: March 9, 2006, 8:55 am
I have had a bad experience at a Walgreens in Muskogee OK. I purchased a “Trackphone” and with
the help of an employee who works in the photo dept. picked out two
phone cards. My mistake was to
pick up one card that would not
work on a Trackphone. The employee
who helped setup the phone did not
explain that this card was for land line phones. The store manager refused to refund my money.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: November 17, 2006, 7:47 pm
Hi,
I’m a Walgreens employee in Wisconsin and would just like to let you know that there is no “company policy” pertaining to accepting change after we punch in the original amount. The money in the drawer will be the same regardless. Sounds like you just had to deal with a stupid employee.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: December 21, 2006, 11:03 pm
This issue is very simple to explain. Once the cash value is entered into the system, the transaction information is recorded in the computer. If the cashier was to accept the extra $0.30 at that point, the receipt would be incorrect as well as the transaction information in the computer. If you were to bring the item back for a refund you would therefore be shorted 30 cents which, you may be surprised to hear, is an amount of money that causes a great deal of worry for some, particularly older customers.
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