Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Grocery Checkout History Challenge

A grocery store promotion to encourage scholarship
  (+12, -3)(+12, -3)
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For every purchase under $20, the store gives you half off of your bill if you can identify a significant event in world history that occurred in the year idenitfied by the total of your bill.

A wise customer might endeavor to ensure the bill comes to $14.92 or $10.66, but that could be difficult, especially in areas with sales tax - which would be a math exercize in itself.

The clerk could quickly google your event to verify - if you get it right, you might even try to find an event for the new price for an additional half off - and so on.

globaltourniquet, Aug 10 2007

[link]






       "Those bottles of whisky at $19.45 are selling well this week!"
hippo, Aug 10 2007
  

       [hippo] - they'll just set the price at $19.98. Nothing happened in 1998.
globaltourniquet, Aug 10 2007
  

       Yes - that's true. The supermarket should also give you special money-off vouchers if your checkout bill is a prime number, or a member of the Fibonacci series, or an integer power of the supermarket's "Number of the Day".
hippo, Aug 10 2007
  

       Love it ! I thought I was the only one that thought like this when I get change.
normzone, Aug 10 2007
  

       i don't like to be challenged when i'm checking out, but i bunned it because it reminds me of something my mother would do and love.
k_sra, Aug 10 2007
  

       Here's your checkout history question: - How many pints of ice cream were purchased here last week?
phundug, Aug 10 2007
  

       Kmart could have a whole ceiling of blue effect lights that randomly go off and those with a certain amount of points enter a blue light challenge
sukiyaki, Aug 10 2007
  

       Magna Carta!   

       I just won this morning!   

       I just came from the grocery store, and my bill came to $10.66. Needless to say, I was thrilled. I wasn't even trying. Here's the bill:   

       Hungry Man Frozen Lasagne Dinner: $2.50
Box of Ginger Snaps: $2.99
6-pack of Shasta Cherry Cola: $1.50
Vaseline Petroleum Jelly: $2.29
Box of Mentos: $1.09
  

       CA sales tax: .29   

       Total: $10.66!   

       The Mentos were a total impulse buy, and they did it for me. Yay! The checkout lady wouldn't give me the half off, though. But it's OK, the victory was its own reward.
globaltourniquet, Aug 17 2007
  

       globaltourniquet, maybe she just knew when the Magna Carta was signed. You should try again next week.   

       Your grocery bill sounds like you had a real party of an evening!
partdavid, Aug 17 2007
  

       //Magna Carta!//   

       //10.66//   

       At first I was going to bone this idea because I thought it would be too easy to win the discount - the store would lose money hand over fist.   

       Maybe I was wrong about that.
imaginality, Aug 17 2007
  

       $10.66, $12.15, what's the difference, after all?   

       When I say "Magna Carta", I always mean "Battle of Hastings". Most people forget that.
globaltourniquet, Aug 17 2007
  

       How significant is significant?
LoriZ, May 27 2010
  

       yea, it's not like cellphones have things like calculators and Google on them or nuthin'...   

       "Management reserves the right to add/subtract a random number... and what are those wires coming off those sunglasses for, young man ?"   

       [ ] It has to be balanced: a couple bucks off if you're right and a couple bucks on if you're wrong, and History shouldn't be the only category. Or just a roll of the (house) dice.
FlyingToaster, May 28 2010
  

       I thought you were going to quiz the person on their own purchasing history, or maybe on the exact price of something in their cart, a-la "Price is Right". :)
paix120, May 29 2010
  
      
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