Having worked retail checkout in the 1980's: Blue is the spindle that engages with gears on the cash register tape feed. The red circle is ink that signals the end of the roll, so you know to change the roll out to a new one soon, if you ever get a break from all those pesky customers.
And if they charge more than $50, you have to look up the card number in a little paper booklet, and call the credit company on the phone, to check that the card is okay and they can charge that HUGE amount of money.
$50! Oh My God! (The OMG acronym had not yet been invented.) Who would charge that much money?!!!?? They might be trying to rip us off!
It's now the 21st century, and it pretty much works the same way. Except these days you swipe and verify for $1.98. As a society we're definitely regressing.
Anonymous should win for being the most correct. I worked at a grocery store in the '80s. I'm also the proud owner of cigarette permission notes which was a topic on this blog. Please Let My Kid Buy Cigarettes
At my store we weren't set up for credit cards. People wrote checks (Kids, look it up on Wikipedia). If I didn't know the customer, I had to call the manager over, who would then go look in the 3x5 index card file behind the liquor counter to see if the customer had, "a card on file", i.e. their personal bank info. If not, the manager would then make the decision whether or not to accept the check.
5 comments:
it's calculator tape/paper.
Cash register tapes?
Could be either of the above.
Having worked retail checkout in the 1980's: Blue is the spindle that engages with gears on the cash register tape feed. The red circle is ink that signals the end of the roll, so you know to change the roll out to a new one soon, if you ever get a break from all those pesky customers.
And if they charge more than $50, you have to look up the card number in a little paper booklet, and call the credit company on the phone, to check that the card is okay and they can charge that HUGE amount of money.
$50! Oh My God! (The OMG acronym had not yet been invented.) Who would charge that much money?!!!?? They might be trying to rip us off!
It's now the 21st century, and it pretty much works the same way. Except these days you swipe and verify for $1.98. As a society we're definitely regressing.
those are ribbons/paper for a calculator! my aunt was an accountant and i was obsessed with them!
Anonymous should win for being the most correct. I worked at a grocery store in the '80s. I'm also the proud owner of cigarette permission notes which was a topic on this blog. Please Let My Kid Buy Cigarettes
At my store we weren't set up for credit cards. People wrote checks (Kids, look it up on Wikipedia). If I didn't know the customer, I had to call the manager over, who would then go look in the 3x5 index card file behind the liquor counter to see if the customer had, "a card on file", i.e. their personal bank info. If not, the manager would then make the decision whether or not to accept the check.
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