4 ms·

> the start of an era of "mechanical honesty" I'd like to mention the under-appreciated development of the cash register in the 1880s. Prior to the cash regist

by kens 6y ago

> the start of an era of "mechanical honesty" I'd like to mention the under-appreciated development of the cash register in the 1880s. Prior to the cash register, the owner had to trust cashiers not to pocket money. Cash registers became enormously popular and revolutionized sales since they kept everyone honest, as well as letting business owners know what was going on. (The book "Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, & Remington Rand & the Industry They Created" goes into a lot of detail on this.)

frogpelt 6y ago
The cash register was originally called Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_register https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_register
m463 6y ago
And remember that receipts aren't for you. In fact, it might cost them money because it facilitates returns. Businesses don't care if they give you a receipt. They care if a receipt was generated by the machine, and are a check on the employee. those signs "if we didn't give you a receipt your meal is free" take on a different meaning in that light.
- rualca 6y ago
  > They care if a receipt was generated by the machine, and are a check on the employee. Aren't receipts used to track the store's revenue, as in the numbers reported to your local tax agency? As far as I know, it's common for cashiers to have a daily/weekly/monthly slack value that they are allowed to report as a difference between the number reported by cash registers and the amount of cash delivered, because SNAFUs do happen during a day's work.
  - hnick 6y ago
    This could be stored on a computer now, though. But numbers can be fudged. Taiwan had an interesting way around this with a receipt lottery. Ask for a receipt, it has a number on it that enters you in a lottery. Presumably the generation of this number means the sale was reported. https://guidetotaipei.com/article/taiwan-receipt-lottery-%E7%B5%B1%E4%B8%80%E7%99%BC%E7%A5%A8%E4%B8%AD%E7%8D%8E%E8%99%9F%E7%A2%BC https://guidetotaipei.com/article/taiwan-receipt-lottery-%E7...
    - carlmr 6y ago
      Portugal and a few other countries have that, too, it's very effective. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/02/28/governments-use-receipt-lotteries-to-boost-tax-compliance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/02/28/g...
  - jcampbell1 6y ago
    It is pretty important to do mid-shift counts randomly as well. A common scam is for the cashier to ring no sale if the total is an easy price, say $2 for a coffee. Then mid shift the register will have extra money which would have been pocketed at the end of the shift. If there is too much money in the register, the employee is skimming.
- markdown 6y ago
  Just as business owners don't trust their human cashiers, governments don't trust business owners. In my country, the cash register of every company that makes over x amount of annual revenue is connected via the internet to the taxman.
  - unishark 6y ago
    In the US, the govt outlawed the software contracting industry in the 80s because they suspected people weren't reporting their earnings when they filed their taxes. forcing everyone to become employees of companies that were better monitored. I suspect the same motivation is partly behind the attempts to eliminate other kinds of gig work now.

by kens 6y ago

frogpelt 6y ago

The cash register was originally called Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_register https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_register

m463 6y ago

And remember that receipts aren't for you. In fact, it might cost them money because it facilitates returns. Businesses don't care if they give you a receipt. They care if a receipt was generated by the machine, and are a check on the employee. those signs "if we didn't give you a receipt your meal is free" take on a different meaning in that light.

rualca 6y ago
> They care if a receipt was generated by the machine, and are a check on the employee. Aren't receipts used to track the store's revenue, as in the numbers reported to your local tax agency? As far as I know, it's common for cashiers to have a daily/weekly/monthly slack value that they are allowed to report as a difference between the number reported by cash registers and the amount of cash delivered, because SNAFUs do happen during a day's work.
- hnick 6y ago
  This could be stored on a computer now, though. But numbers can be fudged. Taiwan had an interesting way around this with a receipt lottery. Ask for a receipt, it has a number on it that enters you in a lottery. Presumably the generation of this number means the sale was reported. https://guidetotaipei.com/article/taiwan-receipt-lottery-%E7%B5%B1%E4%B8%80%E7%99%BC%E7%A5%A8%E4%B8%AD%E7%8D%8E%E8%99%9F%E7%A2%BC https://guidetotaipei.com/article/taiwan-receipt-lottery-%E7...
  - carlmr 6y ago
    Portugal and a few other countries have that, too, it's very effective. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/02/28/governments-use-receipt-lotteries-to-boost-tax-compliance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/02/28/g...
- jcampbell1 6y ago
  It is pretty important to do mid-shift counts randomly as well. A common scam is for the cashier to ring no sale if the total is an easy price, say $2 for a coffee. Then mid shift the register will have extra money which would have been pocketed at the end of the shift. If there is too much money in the register, the employee is skimming.
markdown 6y ago
Just as business owners don't trust their human cashiers, governments don't trust business owners. In my country, the cash register of every company that makes over x amount of annual revenue is connected via the internet to the taxman.
- unishark 6y ago
  In the US, the govt outlawed the software contracting industry in the 80s because they suspected people weren't reporting their earnings when they filed their taxes. forcing everyone to become employees of companies that were better monitored. I suspect the same motivation is partly behind the attempts to eliminate other kinds of gig work now.