English Is Hard

So this morning I ran out to the store to buy a few things for the day, among them a slab of ribs NDM is going to prepare. These ribs turned out to be an item priced by weight but without a total price stamped on them, so the teen cashier had to ring up the total herself -- but she didn't know how. The young adult bagger came over to help, and they pounded away at the register for about 2 minutes and then phoned for help. A mid-20s lady came by and they let her take a stab at it for a few minutes. Finally they called for another teen pushing around empty carts who, they told me, knows everything about the register system.

Well, I've been standing around patiently for almost 10 minutes by this point so I lean over to look at what they are doing. I see a button in the corner labeled lboz which they aren't using, and ask if that is connected to the scale in some way.

Why would that possibly be connected to the scale, they want to know. Well...lb for pounds, oz for ounces, of course. Not the most brilliant user interface ever designed, but it seems fairly likely.

They ask me what I'm talking about, so I reiterate that lb is an abbreviation for pounds, and oz for ounces. But, I am told, lb is not an abbreviation for pounds, there aren't even any ls or bs in pound at all!

I didn't bother to explain about libra pondo, but they decide to try my suggestion anyway, and lo and behold I can actually go home with my ribs.

These cashiers ranged in age from maybe 16 to perhaps 25, and none of the four had been taught in school or, and this is the part I really can't believe, encountered in their employment, the standard abbreviation for pound. Let's hear it for No Child Left Behind!