Counting change....please help?

Question

I'm 17 and i might get my first job at my local small grocery store and i would be working the cash register alot of the time. My problem is I'm pretty slow at counting change and I'm afraid i might be too slow or short change the customer/register, i don't work well under pressure but I'm working on that. I've been practicing counting change with my family but I'm not getting any better or faster. How many minutes is too long for the customer to wait while i count their change? I know i need to relax and just take it slow but it's kinda nerve wracking for me cause it would be my first job. How can i count their change faster, and be more accurate?

Answer 1

If you can't count change properly please don't work at a grocery store. I hate it when the cashier takes an eternity to count change and still gets it wrong.

Answer 2

Just practice a lot. Have friends or family go through scenarios where they have a certain random purchase price and they give you various denominations that you have to make change for. Eventually, you should start to learn a pattern of what combinations of certain bills and coins equals certain sums.

You can also play games that rely on your ability to count. Monopoly is a good one. You can play a game of Monopoly using real money, except scaled down by a factor of 100 (one penny equals one dollar, a quarter is $25, a dollar bill is $100, and $10 bill is $1000, etc.).

Answer 3

I have had three years of cashier experience, and I find that if you take your time you make way less mistakes.  You're going to be slow at first, but don't panic--after a while it becomes second nature and you'll be sending those customers out the door with smiles on their faces.  You'd be surprised to know that most customers really don't care about how long it takes you to count their change.  What they care about is if you rung things up correctly, gave them discounts where applicable, and gave them the CORRECT amount of change.  Failing to do one of these things often results in an irate customer.  

Oh, and you may experience an irate customer on your first day of work.  Whatever you do, DO NOT let it get to you!  These people are just a******s that have nothing better to do than to yell at people and try to get them to lose their jobs by fighting with them.  Don't let them make you sad or mad, just disregard them and move on!