Professor Elam

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Do The Math

I first noticed this stopping at HEB delis. Ask the clerk for 12 ounces of whatever, and you have one stumped person. The responses are always interesting. Some wonder pensively what that might mean, waiting for me to tell them. One lady almost angrily declared that was not possible with the scale, after all it was delineated in pounds, not ounces. Tonight a high school or college age young lady asked me how much 12 ounces was…let's see 12/16 would be three quarters of a pound. This simply means that the person behind the register, at a spot where fractions literally count, has no idea what they are doing. 

Simply put, they never learned fractions. Apparently the store never realizes what is going on.  Just a few days ago, the supervisor at a Bill Miller called me back over after I paid. He politely informed me that 12 ounces was not the $7.75 I had been charged, it was only $1.23!  As I said no he reassured me 12 ounces was  a very small portion, even shaping his hands to the size he imagined. Folks I cannot make stuff like this up.  I convinced him the charge was right but I wonder, how many undercharges could there have been in just one shift, the customer is likely to be just as ignorant as the clerk, even if  honest, eh?

I understand that the top 15% of college students in China or India total  more than our entire college population, Gee I wonder which will come out on top??????
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4 responses to “Do The Math”

  1. Anne Sewell Avatar
    Anne Sewell

    We have this problem because the schools spend more time teaching student how to pass a test than teaching them thing that will help them later in life, such as counting change or knowing that ounces add up to pounds.

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  2. Jamie Avatar
    Jamie

    This is not surprising. My mother is the “QUEEN” of price matching at Wal-Mart. A few months ago she had an ad from La Fiesta and wanted WM to price match their bananas @ 4 lbs for $1.00. The young lady working the check stand said “So that’s 10 cents a pound right?” – I just smiled and said YES. I’m sure Mr. Sam is turning over in his grave…

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  3. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    You are joking I mean this is ethics class, right?
    Indeed it is sad to see folks with so little idea about arithmetic, worse, to see a management that does not know this is going on

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  4. Yovela Rico Avatar
    Yovela Rico

    I’m not surprised about the Wal-mart comment. I switch to a special mentality when I walk into a Wal-Mart and that is “don’t ask the clerks anything… they will not help”. And their store management is just as lost. It’s a matter of having low skilled workers in low paying jobs that don’t require much skills. I have to defend HEB Deli’s though because, I use to work at one and they trained us continuously. We also had to take and pass simple math test to get the job. Although, thinking back at some of those that I worked with, I can see what you mean.

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