Talk to me about charity shop tills, have you operated one?

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I'm thinking of volunteering but my only gripe is the till. The last time I did this, you had to work out the change, the till didn't do it for you. I know I sound like a baby but I don't want to make a mistake and get irrate customers who then flummox me further. This happened to me in the past and I felt mortified. I've had a peek at the local charity shops and they still use really really old tills. Any reassurance would be great.😬

National charities tend to have more modern tills and local ones the old-fashioned kind due to finances. If it's something that worries you then you could volunteer elsewhere in the shop or ask if you could use a calculator? I'm sure there would be a workaround.

If it is the old type of till and you're not confident with your maths, work it out in little bits. For example, say the amount is £1.58 and the customer gives you £5 its 2p to get to £1.60, 40p to get to £2 and £3 to get to £5 so £3.42 change.
The more you do it, the easier it will get.

I volunteered in a charity shop for months and was never on the till. There's plenty of other jobs to keep you busy. If you don't want to use it just let them know.

This is what I did. Work “up” to the amount the customer gave you.

The till will all depend on the individual shop OP. You’ll have to go into the store you want to work on and check. You could explain your hesitation to the staff and ask not to be on tills or ask for a calculator to work it out?

Most charities shops I’ve been in recently don’t seem to price to pennies anymore so the maths isn’t really that hard, usually rounding to 50ps or 25ps.

I volunteer at Oxfam and the till does it all for you. Thank goodness! Also I'd say over half the customers pay by card so there's not as much handling of money as you'd think.

Even the older style tills work out the change. Subtotal, enter cash or card amount, then total, is pretty standard.