Think College Kids Know What This Is? – IOTW Report

Think College Kids Know What This Is?

Thursday, 29 October 2020, 13:31 BFH Uncategorized 38

38 Comments on Think College Kids Know What This Is?

  1. I remember filling out those credit card slips when I was a cashier in the 1970s, handing the bottom copy to the customer and keeing the top original for the register. The carbon insert was tossed in the trash, which clearly showed the card number and signature.

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  2. My first job was as a clerk in a drug store. We used these to capture the credit card number and they had to be signed. It was a bookkeeping nightmare because most of the people I worked with were stupid, lazy, and careless.

    However, we went to eat a couple of weeks ago and their CC system was down. They were thankful they had these dinosaurs handy and could stay open to serve the public.

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  3. …THAT is a device from hell that was used to make your grandparents into debt slaves on easy credit terms that would emboss their names into a department stores’ Debtor’s Prison rolls…

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  11. …we had those at the K-Mart I had my first real (full-time) job in…they worked even when the power went out, along with a PRINTED fraud list of cards to not accept, so they kept selling in the dark then…I remember if there was a power failure a manager would go get then-giant “pocket” calculators out of stock for the cashiers and flashlights from Sporting Goods, and just keep on selling even in the dark, which didn’t thrill Loss Prevention any,but since they hired ACTUAL cops then and they were still respected, there was really no trouble…we switched to hand tools and floor jacks in the shop, about the only thing we couldn’t do was mount tires, since most equipment was handraulic or powered off the car anyway…only the cafeteria (they had them then, and they were surprisingly good) had to stop because no vent…

    ….flash forwards a bunch of years when I was working at a Sears (when they were still competitors), and a power failure would PARALYZE them because no one knew how to use a calculator or call in a credit card, or how to transfer the hand records on sales tax to the corporate system if they HAD sold anything, so they just…stopped.

    I’d take a break too. The giant computerized alignment machines didn’t have magnetic clamp-on bubbles like I started with, and we had no static balance machines, so lots of money lost because no one knew how to work without power.

    Now I work in a highly automated factory where 400 people just go to the break room and yell at each other in hundreds of different languages because robots are pretty useless without electricity.

    …gonna be interesting to see how this plays out when Democrat green lies turn OFF the power for GOOD…

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  12. Loved waiting on the phone to get an extension on credit limits for customers, or getting authorization numbers for company credit card large purchases.🙄
    Christmas shopping season was awful, I could never fully get that blasted copy ink off my fingers.
    I also hated the deferred payment scam around the holidays.
    I used to get in trouble for talking customers out of deferring.
    They never seemed to understand that even though their payment was skipped for the month, their interest was still running up.

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  13. I worked for Frederick & Nelson in Seattle while in H.S. If there was a power outage, they had back-up generators for the lighting (it would have been pitch black inside a store with no exterior windows). But the ancient cash registers could be worked with a hand crank (that was always available under the counter). I do believe that if that hadn’t worked, we would have just written sales on our individual order books (like the one used by Auntie Mame at Gimbe’s — in the film) and taken cash or a customer’s “charge-a-card” and put both in a box behind the counter until it could all be run through the cash register.

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  15. And even if you have one of these imprinters, you can’t use it in most cases. Check your chipped credit and debit cards and you’ll probably find your account number, name, and expiration date are no longer embossed but rather just printed on the card.

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  16. I live in a small community in northern Ontario.

    This very week, a road crew severed a communications cable.
    From Tuesday 1:00pm until Wednesday 8:00pm, I had no land line phone signal, no internet, no wi-fi, so no email, no texting and no google — completely off grid. It was a rather eerie experience. I thought of the possibility of fire, accident or illness with literally no way to communicate.
    I am not as tied to my devices as many I know, but still…made me think of possibilities.
    Luckily the tv still worked, as did my old radio (though there was no news of our situation – (we’re too small to be important?). Drove to the local general store, and there were people who had some news, but none of it verified as to the cause of the outage.

    I love living in the country, always have lots of candles and matches on hand for when the power fails, but this was truly a different experience.

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  19. College kids? Are they in school? I’ve seen what looks like their age group walking around outside wearing masks. Late Millenials and early Gen-X’ers.

    But, no, most of them won’t know what it is. They have Apple Pay (or whatever the hell it’s called) in their pockets. Most of them don’t even know what cash is. “Eeeeewww! It’s got COVID on it! Or kooties!”

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  20. Abigail – you worked at Frederick’s? Wow. They made the best cakes in the Universe, especially wedding cakes. Haven’t found a bakery anywhere since that knows how!

    /Off topic

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  23. @TRF-I was the office girl at a car repair shop. I had to look up those numbers and what do you know…Twice I hit the lottery.
    I found a number in the book. I had to call the card company. They told me to cut the card up and send it back to them. I got $50 for turning it in.
    The first time, I was nervous. The customer was standing there as I cut the card up.
    After the $50 reward, I was checking that book all the time!!!

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  27. @Jethro

    I was still filling those out as a cashier in the mid-’80’s while I was in college.

    Invariably, someone would come in once or twice a week, and wanna use a credit card in those days! 😉

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  29. You could just play the sound that thing makes and I could tell you what it was. That, and the pull knob on a cigarette machine. I never smoked much, but those machines used to be everywhere.

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  30. ANON
    For Christmas 1959 I Got a K+E LOG LOG DDUPLEX DESITRIG; had 24 scales including 6 trig functions, hence the name.. From an Uncle who was a EE and a CE. It cost 58 carton of cigarets. 8 yers later TI came put with a hand held calculator with almost infinite accuracy, my K+E was 3 didgits!

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  31. Dang, I wish I still had my kick-ass Marshall Fields and Carson’s credit cards.

    I also lament the great Edward C. Mines’ credit card – actually, not the credit cards, i miss those greaat stores of quality merchandize. I was fortunate enough to never pay interest on anythingI bought with the cards. If I couldn’t cover it by check, I didn’t but it. I didn’t have much, but what I had was nice, and lasted.

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  32. We used those at my dad’s gas station back in the day, I remember those well along with all of our customers names. We allowed all of our customers to use those except for the gypsies who only bought a couple of dollars worth of gas at a time, they always had to pay cash, no exceptions. And I never made a mistake giving the correct change back either, my dad would’ve killed me if I did.

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  36. Kevin R & Jimmy — Yes, F&N was top drawer all the way. That was back when we all went through an entire week of training at their downtown (main) store before starting, too. Loved working there! I spent a Christmas in ladies langerie and fine sleepwear. Such a pretty department. And, as it turned out, I was “about” the same size as every husband’s wife. Pretty funny! I remember the wonderful fashion shows in the Tea Room and F&N’s maple ice cream (I think the fat content was about 50%). Their rainbow cake was amazing. And they packaged all their restaurant foods and offered them frozen so you could take home a full meal. Made their own chocolates, breads; even had their own tobacconist shop. We always believed if you ever got locked in to the store, you could survive indefinitely. LOL!

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