Signs like this at a Fred Meyer check stand reminded shoppers Tuesday, Oct. 28, of the planned demise of the penny.
Remember the news last May that the U.S. Mint would quit making pennies? Now we’re seeing the first effects of this forthcoming change.
Production of pennies is not scheduled to stop until early next year. But signs at Fred Meyer check stands in Albany now say that production has already stopped. The signs ask customers paying with cash to provide the exact amount so cashiers don’t have to hand out pennies in change.
When pennies are actually hard to get, prices in cash transactions are expected to be rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 cents. It seems to me that merchants could do that now. Then they wouldn’t have to worry about running short of pennies.
On my Tuesday trip to Fred Meyer, I picked up 10 items. The prices of seven ended in 9. One ended in 8. So rounding up to the nearest 5-cent multiple would have cost me 9 cents more. Not the end of the world.
Across billions of daily transactions nationwide, rounding up will cost American consumers as a whole a fair amount, but individually it’s not worth worrying about.
The production of pennies will be discontinued because of costs. Making one penny costs nearly 4 cents. So what about the nickel? Each one costs about 14 cents to make, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Will the government phase out nickels next?
As for pennies, the Mint expects to still produce 1.3 billion Lincoln cents this year, about half that number in Denver and the other half in Philadelphia.
When that production stops in 2026, Lincoln’s noble profile will disappear from new coins, which is not good.
I have a suggestion: The Mint produces about 1.1 billion 10-cent coins a year. About 500 million could still be made as Roosevelt dimes, and Lincoln’s profile would go on the rest. (hh)
Per Google- “It costs the U.S. Mint $0.0369 (3.69 cents) to make and distribute a penny, which is significantly more than its face value of one cent.”
Why not turn our pennies in for $.02 and everybody makes out?
Seriously, if people turned in their gallon jars full of pennies, there wouldn’t be a problem.
What they really want is a cashless society to be replaced with digital currency. And once they do, they have you lock, stock, and barrel. One hundred percent.
Who is “they”
Often the real answer is “I don’t know but enough fools will believe me if I say it.”
“On my Tuesday trip to Fred Meyer, I picked up 10 items. The prices of seven ended in 9. One ended in 8. So rounding up to the nearest 5-cent multiple would have cost me 9 cents more. Not the end of the world.”
Why wouldn’t they round up OR DOWN (as appropriate) on the total purchase?
The only reason things are 3.99 instead of 4 dollars even is psychology. They want you to say this is only 3 bucks when its really 4. Same with gas prices always .99 of a cent (#.##.99)
It would make sense to round up on the total purchase not each item. Also, if pain by any means other than cash, it doesn’t need to be rounded at all. $1.97 works just fine on a credit or debit card as well on checks. What’s the big deal.
The reason why Freddy’s, Safeway, Costco, Home Depot and others use the .99, .98 and other .0x numbers is to see what inventory is on hand and when thungs are on sale or close to end of life.
Those items marked at .98 ,were being marked down and the price is usually 25% off regular price. A .97 might denote a 50% off price. There are several mechanisms that stores use and lots of videos showing you what to look for. I believe (have to go back and watch the video again) that prices ending in a .x6 at HD are like 90% off regular price. Target has a similar “code” if you will.
Next time you’re in a store and you see a price ending in something other than .99, compare the price to it’s normal retail price.
“…the first effects of this forthcoming change.”
I see what you did there ;)
There’s a $1 coin in circulation with Lincoln on it.
Must be rare. I’ve never seen one.
Google will get ya- “The Lincoln dollar coin is a Presidential $1 coin from 2010 that features Abraham Lincoln on the obverse and the Statue of Liberty on the reverse. The coin is part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program, which honors U.S. presidents, and its edge has inscriptions for the year (\(2010\)), mint mark, and mottoes. It has a golden color and a composition of manganese brass clad over a pure copper core”
My autocorrect again. It’s paying not pain.
It seems to me all stores should just round their prices to the whole dollar! That would solve all the change problems involving pennies!
Canada has not used pennies since 2013, I think. Businesses just round to the nearest 5 cents. It seems to work fine whenever we go north.
On February 9th Trump declared this would happen. For one day I was happy with him, and for that I’m grateful. Part of the story — source forgotten — is that resistance comes from Illinois, because of Lincoln. Hasso’s excellent suggestion should fix that. For better substantiation of unsavoriness enhanced by paranoia, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_States#Lobbying
According to NPR (I think), the deal in Canada is that cash-purchase totals ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 round down, and those ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 round up, to the nearest 5 cents. Not by law but by custom. That makes long-term results random and unbiased in a mathematical sense — unless often shopping for few items because of the “9” issue. I’d also be happy with the demise of the nickel.
I gotta rant about “9” and Fred Meyer. “9” is code for “Ha, ha, weak-brained sucker.” It’s less pervasive at Winco and Walmart. A much bigger reason I detest FM is the mind-boggling array of gimmicks and gotchas. I shop there to play the game against them; now I need to start using QR codes for the first time. For regular, low-stress shopping it’s the other two stores, as well as the Co-op (in Corvallis, good for a few produce items and little else) and Trader Joe’s, both worshippers of the almighty 99 cents, but with much less gimmickry.