Tuesday, April 29, 2025

2nd grade teachers: If I got a $4.95 item at our school's book fair when I was in 2nd grade, then slammed the $5 bill on their transaction table, said "keep the change" and sprinted back to class with the new item when it was actually $5.27 after tax, what would the fallout have been like?

 

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2nd grade teachers: If I got a $4.95 item at our school's book fair when I was in 2nd grade, then slammed the $5 bill on their transaction table, said "keep the change" and sprinted back to class with the new item when it was actually $5.27 after tax, what would the fallout have been like?

I didn't understand "sales taxes" yet when I tried to buy a $4.95 item with a $5 bill in 2nd grade. I was upset it was $5.27 after tax and I didn't have the other 27 cents.

But what if I had overheard the cashier talk about taxes with another buyer first, then I realized that I was going to be short on change due to a tax?

Then as a result, I, as hyperactive and mischevious as I was at 7-8 years old, slammed the $5 on the table and didn't give them a chance to scan the barcode because I didn't know that was mandatory back then as well, said quickly "keep the change" and sprinted back to our 2nd grade class, what would've happened as soon as the elementary book fair workers figured out that the transaction came up 27 cents short due to needing to pay a tax?

Would the news have reached you, the second grade teacher? Then as soon as you figured out that I, one of your students, shorted the Book Fair 27 cents in taxes, how would you have dealt with me?

The book fair employees wouldn't have a chance to chase after me as I was too fast at that age, and I had to run down a hallway, turn right, then race up 3 flights of stairs and run left on the 2nd floor to get back in my classroom, so they likely wouldn't know where I disappeared off to, but they would've still found out that you were my teacher and/or that particular classroom was mine, right?

And has this sort of incident happened before with any kid at your school's book fair? What was the fallout like for them?

 

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[–][deleted] 67 points  

And would have realized you didn’t understand and kicked in the 22¢. Nobody on earth would chase you down for less than a quarter.

[–]EvenEvie 30 points  

Yeah, I ran the book fair every year while my kid was in elementary school. I always just brought a ton of change with me, because most of those kids had absolutely no idea about sales tax. I’m not about to make a kid out a book back for $.25.

[–]Mindless-Challenge62 6 points  

This. I volunteered at the book fair every time when my kids were in elementary school, and I always threw in a few dollars at the end for the tax I didn’t charge.

[–]Extension_Swan1414 7 points  

I volunteered at a book fair for my kids daycare and brought a few rolls of coins and had the kids help count the change. There’s one that scream sings “A DIME IS 10 CENTS AND 10 DIMES IS A DOLLAR” everytime he sees me now so there is a future accountant out there that understands sales tax (or dimes at the very least)

[–]Tigger7894 1 point  

Yeah but this person said that they had told him no because of not having the money for tax…. But then they also think that someone can just run and not be known on a school campus. Possibly AI.

[–]4teach 10 points  

If it was a PTA fundraiser, the PTA paid the 27 cents out of their profits.

[–]solomons-mom 1 point  

Thank you for this correction :)

[–]redditisnosey 9 points  

This is the rational world answer. The margin on books often approaches 50%, the major sunk costs are just holding inventory, and the labor involved in creating the place value.

However some folks are really persnickety.

[–]Enzown 2 points  

It's a fundraiser book fair the original margin at retails is irrelevant.

[–]doughtykings 29 points  

You’re not allowed to leave until the class leaves so not sure how you’d be getting away 😂

[–]cosmicreaderrevolvin 3 points  

To be fair, when I was running the book fair at my kid’s school we were open for whole class visits like you mentioned above but were also open during recess, lunch, and after school for a bit. So he could have come at recess and those kids were allowed to leave after their transaction.

[–]doughtykings 2 points  

Oh no way they’d ever allow that here it would be a major liability when a kid strangles another kid and no teacher is there 😅 ours is during the day each class gets a tour to look and then the next day you come and buy your books. Cash only (a kid literally brought his moms credit card last year at my school). It’s run by parent council members. We also do this thing at my last two schools where they give out golden tickets for one free book to some of our low income kids, not every one because there’s not enough obviously but like for example this year I got three and I gave them to low income kids who I knew actually would appreciate getting a new book rather than kids that would want pencils and shit.

We also had ours during teacher conferences this year so parents could come with their kids to buy books during this time as well. The posters and junk like that we only put out during this time

[–][deleted] 2 points  

Cuz he was clearly very fast as a 2nd grader...

[–]false_tautology 6 points  

At our school the cashier volunteer would have either been responsible for the missing money or they would track the student down.

The volunteers generally come with their own moeny, though, which they use to cover small missing amounts for kids who are buying actual books (not toys).

Last year there was drama because one of the volunteers used the "help out" money for a toy, and then she was shamed into refilling the jar with her own money the next day because other kids ended up missing out on actual books because of it.

So, yeah, its a whole thing.

[–][deleted]  

[deleted]

[–][deleted] 2 points  

Ditto.

[–]cosmicreaderrevolvin 2 points  

All that for 27 cents seems terrible. And like a good way to embarrass the kid. We had actual stealing from the book fair and it was handled more discretely than that.

[–]Aard_Rinn 1 point  

This is assuming that I, as a teacher, don't know you did it on purpose. Which - 2nd graders are SO good at guilty concience. When, a few days later, you tearfully confessed that it wasn't an accident, I'd probably have a little talk with you about asking adults for help, but, I mean - *you're six.*

[–]Citizen44712A 2 points  

There could be a mark on your permanent record, and when the Social Security Administration sees that, you can forget about retirement.

[–]redditatwork023 1 point  

eww delaware is gross, just filled with uppity whites

[–]Helpful-Idea-4485 1 point  

Clearly you’ve never actually been to Delaware.

[–]redditatwork023 1 point  

only a child's brain would think of a thing like that

[–]cosmicreaderrevolvin 1 point  

Probably not though. They were in the second grade. If being an overzealous kid at a book fair would get you banned from sleepovers then almost every kid would be banned.

Volunteering on campus, being on the PTA, you witness so much wild kid behavior and you just have to remind yourself that they are kids. They are still trying to figure things out and most things aren’t malicious. I had some side eye opinions about some of the kids but again they’re in 2nd grade.

Unless the kid was acting up in other areas, I doubt this one interaction would have made anyone that upset.

[–]herpderpley 1 point  

Opinions vary. I, as a k-8 teacher with 20 years of service, have the opinion that students who act out egregiously make themselves known to the people empowered with supervising students. On top of that, the professionals who volunteer their time after a long day of putting up with similar behaviors have less grace to give. It's less about staff getting upset, and more about a kid acting unruly to seek attention as well as what that attention might look like.

[–]ash87ash 1 point  

If I were the person at the book fair selling the book, I would just pay the $.27 and I think it was an honest mistake. I wouldn’t even let it reach the teacher. However, if it did reach the teacher, I would use it as a learning opportunity to teach the entire class about taxes. I wouldn’t know of your slick intentions, and even if I did, I can use that as a one on one talk.

[–]curly-sue99 1 point  

I would have talked the student about making better choices, s/he could have come to me and I would have helped the student, etc. if the student asks for help, we can come up with a solution.

[–]Leet_Noob 1 point  

Believe it or not, jail

[–]winslowhomersimpson -2 points  

Dude you had to preorder the books, they weren’t cash transactions

EDIT: I understand now, I mixed them up. My bad

[–]Euffy 7 points  

Cash transactions in all the schools I've worked at. I am not in the US though if that makes a difference.

[–]doughtykings 8 points  

They always have been cash?

[–]winslowhomersimpson -2 points  

We got a paper catalog a few weeks ahead of time that we would take home and selected the books. That was always paid by check. They would arrive at our class like a week later. This was almost monthly so I think I’m misremembering that. Now that I think about it we had once a year book fairs, that transformed an entire classroom into book shopping.

[–]Aprils-Fool 8 points  

Those are book orders, different than the book fair. 

[–]hadesarrow3 2 points  

That’s just a (I think) scholastic order thing… book fairs are different. I get mixing them up though. My school did not have book fairs, but we had the scholastic order forms that we all got super excited about. My kids don’t get those order forms, but their school does a book fair. I suspect it’s an opt-in program that depends on how much the school wants to invest in it.

[–]winslowhomersimpson 2 points  

Undiagnosed adhd kid, I almost always forgot about both until I walked in unprepared.

[–]doughtykings 1 point  

That’s not a book fair

[–]Natti07[🍰] 6 points  

The book fair absolutely has cash transactions.

[–]CoherentBusyDucks 3 points  

There were two different types of them in my elementary school: book orders (they hand out the little paper catalog and you pre-order the books) and the book fair (you go and look around and pick out what you want and pay in cash. My son’s school only does the book fair kind now. But they definitely used to have both, depending on the school.

[–]sarahelizaf 1 point  

This is the book fair. It is not the same as book orders from flyers. Book Fair

[–]NightMgr 0 points  

The SRO would tase you.

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