I would have thought of this one:

https://dilbert.com/strip/1998-03-17

My dad always disliked the strip you cite, because the change Dilbert expects is $5.25, but there's no way to provide $7.14 in a way that couldn't be trivially reduced to $2.14. If the goal is to make things easy for the cashier, he should obviously provide $2.14 and just keep the $5 he already has anyway.

I'm sure that's intended; Dilbert is smart but dumb. Or dumb but smart.

I'm pretty sure it's just a mistake because Adams wasn't careful.

Oh dear. Erroneous 'grossing up' percentages and mis-non-use of percentage points is a pet hate of mine. I didn't realise I was a cartoon!

You are right, that is a much much better cartoon as a reply! If it had been in my faulty memory banks...

(and I agreee - the first dilbert cartoon is super contrived)

Years ago I worked at a store with registers that didn't calculate change; myself and the other cashiers would need to calculate the change mentally. Once in a while I would get people like this who threw out convoluted amounts of change. Normally it was fine, but sometimes towards the end of a long day when my brain was tired I wanted to strangle them.

The store actually had really great employees overall and I suspect this little factor played a big part in that. Part of the application process was a basic math test and it was funny to see how quickly some applicants recoiled when they found that out. It seemed to be a great filter.

You don't calculate change. You just count it out, picking up coins and bills as you go. Start at the sum to pay and count towards the amount the customer gave you. Work your way up from the least significant digit using the smallest denominations. No hard mental calculations are involved, you just need to know how to count. Basic cashier knowledge they should be teaching you on day one.

"Basic cashier knowledge they should be teaching you on day one."

About 10ish years ago I had an idea for a product that would essentially provide online training on this for cashiers. Back then I thought 'but everything is moving to cashless payments, plus more and more registers calculate change, no need for this". I wonder sometimes if this was The One That Got Away for me...

"How about you tell me how much change you are expecting" and then add to check.

Is that like putting a total on a restaurant check and leaving the tip "as an exercise for the server?"

That's actually how paying in a restaurant usually works, in Germany.

The Python effect for cashiers?