Seriously?

Went to Wegman's last night to do the weekly shopping. Since we do most of our shopping at the Greenstar Co-Op, it was pretty light night. We also had dinner there, since Mondays the fridge looks more like a vast wasteland than the cornucopia it is during the rest of the week. Since we only had a few items, we decided to use the express lanes for quickness. We found one lane empty and began to place our less than ten items on the belt. The cashier looked...about 12, which means she is probably 16 or 22.

I'm fishing in my pocket for the Money. The total comes to $15.21. I handed the nice lady a Twenty. As she is about to close the register I pull out the required change and say "I actually have the 21 cents." I was expecting a reply along the lines of "Ok, not a problem" or "I hate having tons of change too...here's a five spot."

Did I get that? No. The next sentence that was uddered quite frankly scared me.

"umm...I don't know how to do that..."

What? You don't know how to do simple addition? Isn't that required? When I worked at Friendly's eons ago, I had to pass a simple math Test before I could work the register. Nothing outrageous. Just simple addition and subtraction.

The bill is $22.37. What is the change from $30? From $40?

Have things gotten that bad that people can't do simple math problems without consulting a calculator or pen and paper Cell phone?

Ok, I'm off to consult my PDA for my current schedule.