Post #85027 by tikifish on Wed, Apr 7, 2004 7:57 AM

2-Year-Old Runs Cash Register at Eatery

NEW IBERIA, La. - Formosa Gardens restaurant has an unusual worker manning the cash register: 2-year-old Gordon Tan.

"He can do the credit card machine too," said his mother, Tiffany Lei, who owns the restaurant with Gordon's father, Jason Tan.

It was a busy day in January at the restaurant when Gordon first climbed up onto a chair, took customers' tickets, rang up totals on the register, took the cash, then counted out their change — correctly, Lei said. Earlier that month, he had celebrated his second birthday.

Gordon's father said the toddler can tell credit cards from debit cards. He swipes them and enters the four-digit code to complete the sale.

When Gordon's not at the register, he's walking around the restaurant helping with day-to-day operations, said Patricia Durand, a customer. He runs to the back of the store to tell his parents how many customers just walked in. He knows the number assigned to each table, so he knows where to seat them, too.

When they run out of shrimp — "shah shah" in Chinese — Gordon runs into the kitchen and yells, "No shah shah!"

Durand said she was amazed the first time she saw him at the register.

Waitress Nellie Derouen said the performance is doubly amazing: first when Gordon rings up customers' tickets, "then they count their money and find out he got it right."

Tan said one family visits the restaurant just to watch the boy. "They bring him presents," he said.

Gordon's parents encourage and correct him if he gets something wrong. At the register, he'll tell them to leave him alone — he can do it himself.

Lei is glad for the help. She is pregnant with a baby girl due in May. The couple, who came to New Iberia from Florida about 1 1/2 years ago, just bought a house.

But soon, Gordon won't have as much time to help out. He'll be starting day care.