The other day it was so cold that I decided to retire my winter gloves: one finger had the leather cover missing and the other had an open slice across the palm. I bought a pair of truly fine gloves, adding up to $50.50 with taxes. As I handed the clerk a $50 bill and a loonie, she asked, “Would I like to donate to a JumpStart Charity.” I said, “Sure, keep that change and here is more change from my pocket.” The clerk looked bewildered as she studied the mound of silver. Finally she reached deep into a concealed drawer, dug out a calculator, plugged in some numbers and after my tedious wait, handed me a receipt for the gloves.
We’ve all had occasions where something involving money happens or we have said, “It just doesn’t add up.” This leaves us with a weird sinking sensation and a puzzlement that seeps through our whole body as our brain tries to figure it out. Tries to make sense of something but failing, unable to shake the vague notion that some of the jigsaw pieces are missing. Somehow there is more to this than meets the eye. Help!
A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota’s School of Management looked at consumers’ attitudes to discounting goods in stores. They concluded that shoppers much prefer getting something extra free than to get something cheaper. The main reason is that most people are useless at fractions, i.e. less 30 percent, 20 percent, etc.
I’m a lucky one I guess, not too bad in math and always trying to compute in my mind before resorting to a calculator. A recent study shows that more than a third of adults struggle to add up past 100 without a calculator. One in 50 people were stumped by adding or subtracting in their head if the total was more than 10. However older people actually had a far better grasp of the subject, researchers found. Over 55’s also reported feeling the most confident with math skills, with just one in 10 saying they struggled. As opposed to the 3 in 4 under the age of 25 who struggled with math?
Victoria’s Secret is one company that business isn’t adding up to their forecasts lately. Facing declining sales in their mass-market of lingerie, shares have fallen mainly due to an increase of competitors making brassieres. Could it spell the end of Victoria’s Secret’s specialty of high-rise boobs? Surely not!
One refute to not adding up is a friend who, with a glance at a pine tree on his property, can estimate its value to him if it was sold for lumber. He tabulates this in his mind simply by sizing up the girth and the usable length of the tree and translating into current hard dollars within five percent of the actual price. He says he has a proclivity for estimating the worth of pine trees and other forest products but not much else that could be more meaningful like his wife’s moods for instance.
I had a peculiar situation in an electronics store. My purchase came to $14 and change. I asked if I paid with a $20 bill and a $5 bill could I get a 10 back. She said okay but then the wheels started falling off. Two tries with the cash register didn’t work so she ignored it and found a calculator, finally giving me a receipt plus the money. I was suspicious as I was walking away and checked what she had actually done. The receipt was correct but she had returned my $20 bill along with change. I could picture that recently hired employee being terminated before she could bankrupt the business!
My heart pounded against my chest as if it were hammering its way out when I realized one of new gloves had disappeared. I was now parked at Loblaw’s on Baseline Road in Ottawa. An exhaustive search revealed nothing. Two stops ago, I had topped up with windshield wash and could remember I had removed a glove and maybe laid in on part of the engine – possibly closing the hood over it! I checked under the hood first and no glove, then sped back to that place. About 20 metres from where I had poured in the windshield wash there was a glove, trampled a few times by vehicles, unrecognized initially. I hoped it was mine! It was.
This was one of those silver lining endings that are far too rare. However finding the glove in that manner was 10 times more satisfying than buying the gloves in the first place.
