A penny for your thoughts.....as we’re nickeled and dimed…..dollared, too? Reminds me…..
You may have guessed what has prompted this topic -- a fast food restaurant employee, then the manager on another occasion deliberately withheld a penny I was owed in change. The employee said they were deliberately doing so to eliminate dispensing loose pennies. When I called each of them on the error, at least the employee appeared chagrined, but another time when the manager shortchanged me, I didn’t even get an apology, just a silly grin, even after I said I lived on a fixed income and every penny counted. I figure if he gets away with cheating me on a penny he might just decide to escalate the amount to see how much more he can get away with doing.
This restaurant has since closed for remodeling, has remained so for months now since the Covid-19 virus emerged, so I’ll have to wait a while to see how they conduct their business when they reopen.
First they would take our pennies – rounding off to the higher number i.e. $6.00 if actual cost is $5.99 – then, could nickels be next, followed by dimes, etc., I wondered? This called for a Google search which led me to discover pennies were phased out in Canada beginning in 2013. And…an economist there has said the nickel could be next.
Coin elimination discussion has been occurring periodically, prompting pro and con responses you can access by clicking on either of these nation links: United Kingdom, U.S.A. (https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/02/two-senators-announce-plan-to-eliminate-penny-replace-dollar-bi/22022666/ )
Actually the United Kingdom has decided to keep pennies in circulation even as we move toward a cashless society.
As for eliminating our paper dollar the view on doing this has flipped since discovering over the last decade the dollar bill is actually lasting twice as long as it did so no reason to change now.
Whatever your point of view, this minor insignificant coin issue does serve as a slight momentary distraction from all the other world matters boggling our minds.
Now, it seems we have an actual coin shortage in the U.S. Actually, officials describe the issue as simply a supply and demand problem, that there is no real shortage.
“The coin shortage could renew the debate about the fate of the penny, which has faced calls for abolition because its purchasing power has fallen and its cost of production has eclipsed its value.”
Eliminating the penny in the U.S. has not yet occurred. Until it does, then I expect exact change when I make a purchase, and that includes receiving even one penny if that’s what I’m due. If a business wants to keep that penny, then they need to ask my permission to do so or raise the price of their product to eliminate needing to give me a penny in change.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to count my pennies, pick one up from the sidewalk as I did when a child, since finding one is considered to be a good luck sign, even though I claim to not be superstitious.
Pennies From Heaven
This youtube video is from the 1981 movie of the same title starring Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper, Christopher Walken. The original movie starred Bing Crosby in 1936. This 1981 movie version is an unappreciated musical showcasing Steve Martin’s talents beyond being just a crazy comedian as he was known at the time.
There are some additional videos of music, dance scenes you can view including Christopher Walken in his prime dancing “Let’s Misbehave” – a male striptease act bar none.
With our lockdowns and isolations, I've not paid cash for anything in nearly six months, so it's a moot point. However, around here (before COVID-19), cashiers were apt to round to the nearest five cents - with which I am fine. Of course, I live in a small town (24,000-25,000), so it's a bit different, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone used to give me pennies, I put them into the "penny cup" by the cash register. In fact, I would be fine if we did away with cent pieces, nickels, and dimes. They are just so much flotsam IMO. Oh! And, around here, some of the merchants ask if they may round my purchase up to the next dollar, the excess being contributed to their specified charity.
A nickel really meant something back in the 1950s - during which time I walked around with one in my pocket (well...purse, in those days) for at least a week, its being the only money I had.
Cashiers here do the same, asking if we want to give our change to the charity they have selected. My feeling about that is, if the store wants to make a donation to the charity they have chosen then they should do so in their own name with their own pennies. I have my own chosen charities. I’ve been a bit of a coin collector so my perspective on coins is colored a bit by that activity.
DeleteCoins are very much part of our economy as cash transactions still carry a lot of weight and our coins now go up to large denomimstions as well. Our businesses often give candy in place of coins when they are unable to give the exact change to customers.
ReplyDeleteThe situation of shortage of coins has now largely been sorted out but just a few years ago, it was like this article. https://www.deccanherald.com/content/573361/candies-change.html
Interesting, giving product in lieu of coin if they don’t have denomination needed.
DeleteI too have heard about abolishing the penny. Wonder if it will ever happen. Think you are right. Just make the price even requiring no pennies.
ReplyDeleteThose videos made me sad. When I was quite young, my date invited me to a nightclub where he was going to sing for the first time in public. His song choice was Pennies From Heaven. Sadly, he really suffered stage fright and was awful. Not one person clapped for him. Ashamed to say I didn't either. Always felt badly about that. I should have supported him. That was our first and last date.
Oh, that is a sad story. Wonder if he really had a good singing voice he was unable to expose to others?
DeletePeople in my country prefer cash to card payments or - godforbid - payments via smartphone apps, a very strange idea to most. There are endless sentiments and proverbs about honouring the penny etc. and nothing is ever rounded up or down. But it will change.
ReplyDeleteAcross the border in the Netherlands, everybody automatically rounds up or down to the nearest 50 if people insist on cash.
In New Zealand where part of my family lives, almost every transaction is made via card or phone app, very little cash is used and hardly anybody carries any.
I haven't met anybody in either of the three countries complaining about their situation.
Interesting to hear about cash vs non-coiin/currency use in other countries. I guess we all just adapt to whatever system evolves.
Deletethey round up and down here as in $5.02 charged to you is $5.00, % 5.03 is $5.05. Years now and it felt quite seamless and somehow fair. But only if one uses cash. I don't. I'm just about all electronic now. Pennies still exist electronically.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
If businesses choose to do rounding, assuming its not a policy adopted by all through government policy or otherwise, customers should be advised rather than sneakily doing so as the restaurant i encountered, IMHO.
DeleteAs you say, no UK plans to discard the penny as yet. The big change has been from paper banknotes to plastic ones, an odd move when there's already too much plastic in the world. There's regular talk of moving to a cashless society, but that seems unlikely when so many people still use cash - especially all those tradespeople who want to avoid formal transactions and dodge a bit of tax.
ReplyDeletePlastic banknotes? Hadn't heard that. Very interesting as you say, given the concern about plastic usage.
DeleteI read they want to force us onto a digital dollar that they will create. I don't see how it'd work for so many small purchases or like garage sales. I am fine with a digital dollar as we do a lot that way. I am not fine with forcing it.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to see how effective the digital dollar would be for the small sellers as you question.
DeleteI'm wondering who the "they" is who wants to force digital dollars since "they" didn't contact me with the rumor. Remember when some merchants actually issued their own wooden coins - when the war made metal so expensive that coins became somewhat scarce? Some lower levels of government put out pressed paper or plastic coins that could be used, mostly, to pay taxes on purchases. As I recall, the $0.001 coin was red plastic and the $0.005 coin was green - or vice versa.
DeleteI don't recall encountering any kind of coins you describe, Cop Car — wooden or plastic. Guess they weren't in use in the town of 15K in central Ohio east of the state capitol where i lived during WWII. I do remember the white pennies, i think they were.
Delete'they' would be those who might profit from that system. We get recommendations to invest, which we aren't doing. I also think the talk is because of the stores that have signs up refusing to take cash. The local one will take it but not give back change, since it's supposedly in short supply, but they give you the money on your next 'loyalty' card purchase. I don't know if the loyalty card is the one we have had for years to get cheaper prices on sale items
DeleteAs to the state-issued coinage (called "mills"), I know that Oklahoma and Missouri had them. I've probably a few among my mother's old coins - that are in my bank box, so can't easily check.
DeleteWikipedia includes a good write-up and photos (Blogger doesn't allow the HTML required to embed a link.) They list 12 states that issued "mills" as being Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington.
I might be part of the problem--all my loose change at the end of each day has for years gone into a huge barrel-shaped jar. Once it gets full--I'm thinking it will be at the end of this year, finally--I'll take it to a Coinstar machine and get the cash. It will be used for a splurge item.
ReplyDeleteWe had family members who saved all their loose change year after year with an eye to using it to pay for their child's college expenses. Of course that was before college tuition rates went sky high.
DeleteUpdate in this news report:
ReplyDelete“Kroger spokesperson Erin Rofles confirmed Friday the grocer will no longer return coin change to customers. Instead, the remainders from cash transactions will be applied to customers’ loyalty cards and automatically used on their next purchase.”
https://www.wdbj7.com/2020/07/13/kroger-cashiers-to-stop-giving-customers-coin-change/
The whole money thing (coins or otherwise) is frightening to me. I don't trust in our government doing what's right for the "little" people. Big business always wins out. Look where we are today ... there are millions of families that survive on those pennies, nickels and dimes and don't have the tech savvy or equipment to take advantage of all the new stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe small coins do matter to many people and i knew days when that was true for me, too.
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