Some weeks ago I found myself at a local store procuring a needed item. I was using cash as in this case, the timing of the purchase along with the event would make it highly suspect as to what I had done and when I had done it if I had used a credit card (a fancy way of saying perhaps I failed to plan). The item, when rung up, came up to X dollars and 99 cents. I put in my appropriate amount of cash.
Instead of getting a penny back, as I have for my entire life, I got a nickel back. The screen read "Total tendered: $X.05".
Welcome, I realized, to the world of the life without the penny.
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This was not the first time I had seen this, of course. "Exact change is appreciated" comes up more and more at stores that accept cash. I had at least one cashier dig out of the previously known as "penny jar" to make up the difference. I had another cashier do as I had seen here, effectively enter an overpayment as "received" so they could give me a nickel.
I wonder how long until "the penny jar" becomes an archaic phrase, to be trotted out in movies about previous eras where the young of that day will look and marvel.
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Japan, interestingly is still very much a cash society. Like us, they have small change: 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 Yen coins (also 500 Yen coins, but those are not nearly as common). Like us, Japan has tax on everything.
Japan takes their small change very unseriously in one sense: the 1 yen coin, for example, is made of aluminum and is considered virtually useless. For a traveler, they collect like pocket lint if you spend enough time in a combi-ni (convenience store).
For better or worse, they seem to have come up with a unique solution. 1 Yen and 5 Yen coins are apparently the most desirable to place in offering boxes at Shinto Shrines and Buddhist temples.
It certainly helps clean out the pockets at the end of a trip.
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This past week as I was crossing a parking lot, I stumbled across a beat up penny in the parking lot.
The penny was scarred and had some kind of gunk on parts of it - but still clearly a penny, so I picked it up and popped in the cup holder of my car to allow it to dry.
While pennies may be disappearing, a penny saved is still truly a penny earned.
I'm a little surprised that stores haven't adjusted their prices and updated their cash registers to round everything to a nickle. I suppose that's coming. I decided to save some pennies and put them in little jars to give to my grandkids someday. They'll be collectors items eventually, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any adjustments here either in pricing but I have noticed that those "add a penny, take a penny" trays have been disappearing.
DeleteLeigh, I think that may be because the ending of pennies was without a lot of fanfare or notice. When The Ravishing Mrs. TB got the roll of pennies for Nighean Dhonn for Christmas, it was only because she happened to be at the bank and found out the bank was not getting any more.
DeleteI am sure that the mechanics of repricing almost everything is a herculean task. Add to that the fact that everyone knows the penny is ending; any raising of prices (especially in these inflationary times) will be very bad press.
They will have some value as collectors items, I think. Or memorabilia of a time long gone, when things were not figured only in round numbers.
Ed, interesting observation. I will try and pay attention more.
DeleteLocal mom & pop meat/grocery has that change jar and just about every visit I'm dropping some coins in it, use cash and not paying for cost of using plastic there. Local big-box home improvement chain is rounding up like you stated today when I checked the receipt. Like you TB I still pick up coins that are lost, cash is not a lost concept here......:)
ReplyDeleteNylon12, the incredibly frustrating thing (to me) is that no-one seems to acknowledge the fact that prices are effectively 2-3% higher because of the use of credit cards. Someone eats that fee, and businesses will not do it for long
DeleteOn the other hand, outside of physical purchases, cash anymore has little use. Transfers, purchases, payments - so much of it is electronic.
I went to the local KROGER grocery store, for what will now be the last time ever.
ReplyDeleteMy receipt came to... $19.91
I paid cash (the horror!)
Got a nickel back. I had to look at the receipt to be sure. Yes, it's true. The global multi-billion dollar grocery chain INCREASED my bill by 4-cents, to accommodate the lack of copper coinage in circulation.
I HAD TO PAY extra. No, we didn't split it 2-cents for me, 3-cents for them, or something reasonable. Nope, they spiked my bill by 4-cents to cover their problem.
I thought of raging at the impotent customer service agent at the store at the time, but decided simply taking my money anywhere else was a better solution.
Anon - The experience as mine.
DeleteThe best of luck in finding an alternative. I suspect, without knowing, that most stores have chosen this expedient for the current time until they can create a strategy for managing all price increases.
I do wonder when we will start to see prices only ending in 5's and 0's. Anything else will require pennies or greater pricing.
I guess I am out of the loop on this one. Anywhere that I may expect to get change at, I just pay with credit card to get 2% of it back as a discount. In fact, 50% of the time my credit card never leaves my wallet and I pay using the wallet app on my phone which generates a random number every time to prevent fraud in case the store computers are hacked. I would do that all the time but not all terminals have been updated to tap instead of swipe.
ReplyDeleteI do carry cash with me but I never use it for things where change is expected. Usually it is given as charity or as sort of a barter where I give a girl scout some cash and they give me some boxes of cookies sort of thing. Everything is rounded to the nearest dollar kind of transactions. I have a wood turned bowl on our bedroom dresser that held any spare change back in the day. It went from full to just a couple handfuls of mostly lent covered coins that we use only for our Christmas bingo tradition.
To your post however, I understand why you had to pay cash. I am fortunate in that my spouse never looks at our credit card bill so I can get away with things like last minute gift purchases.
Ed, I do not often pay in cash anymore as so much of modern life is electronic, although the knowledge I am paying 2-3% more for the privilege of using my card is a detractor.
DeleteInterestingly cash is still very much alive and well in Japan. Cards are more prevalent then I recall them being before, but they are still very much using cash, especially coins. And they do it well. The fact we apparently have to be all or nothing points to the fact (once again) we do not have a lot of nuance in our thinking.
W. in CA
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering how this will shake out. Like Leigh I thought the prices would be worked out but soon realized state and local taxes aren't rounded up yet so it will stay messy. Of course taxes will be rounded up, never down.
I'm not seeing this much in California yet, but some stores have pennies waiting to help customers with the round up. Others have entered as if I had paid it. Most of the time I have the exact change.
W - Long term, I expect prices and taxes to go up as stores and legislators incorporate this into their planning. For now, I think they were caught a bit off guard that there would simply be no more issued.
DeleteI was under the impression that pennies were just not being minted anymore, but were still in circulation and legal tender. Anybody rounding up to five cent intervals is ripping people off.
ReplyDeleteIt is an evolving process.
DeleteAs I understand it, prices ending ...99 were a marketing ploy to fool people that the good was actually cheaper - the customer saw the dollar (pound etc) digits and didn't take on board that the true price was a dollar higher.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am still a cash user except for big ticket items, I don't like my every purchase to be visible to the powers that be.