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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
460 points andrewl | 17 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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Night_Thastus ◴[12 Nov 25 18:13 UTC] No.45903609[source]▶
I'd say screw it, get rid of nickles and dimes as well. Quarters can stay, for now.

It's a complete waste of money and time continuing to mint such low-value currency. It can't be used for just about anything.

Unfortunately, I do see the problem with part of this. For a handful of items where it does matter, it will force people to use cards more if they want to avoid rounding. And the card providers already have a choke-hold on retailers, and the whole thing is basically a scheme that funnels money from the poor to the wealthy via interest and fees on the consumer, interchange fees, and rewards programs.

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bbarnett ◴[12 Nov 25 18:51 UTC] No.45904256[source]▶
I know you're referencing more than pennies, but to speak to pennies, I find the current rounding noise in the US to be weird. Likely, it's just more of the media, talking heads, and youtube personalities trying to turn a nothing into something, story.

Back when we did it in Canada, I don't recall a single person I knew concerned about penny rounding. Everyone was sick of pennies. No one cared. Everyone was happy. And the math seems fair enough:

https://www.budget.canada.ca/2012/themes/theme2-info-eng.htm...

Basically, if something is $1.01 or $1.02, you round down. If it's $1.03 or $1.04, you round up. Rounding is to be applied after all taxes are paid, etc.

Of course, there was also central guidance and, well, everyone just followed it. It's called "having a society".

People blathering on about stores fixing the rounding are morons, there's no way to do so if you buy more than one item. No one gets ripped off with the above method. In the end, it just works out.

And really, who cares?! It's a penny.

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jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 19:01 UTC] No.45904481[source]▶
> Basically, if something is $1.01 or $1.02, you round down. If it's $1.03 or $1.04, you round up.

So everything's going to be $1.03 or $1.04. Not sure why you think retailers (or any sellers) would ever, ever, ever let this play into customers' advantage.

But apparently pointing out that obvious truth makes me a "moron," because you can think of some clever ways to get around it that retailers surely won't work around.

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1. bigfishrunning ◴[12 Nov 25 19:05 UTC] No.45904548[source]▶
but then you buy 2 things, and it's $2.06. round down! or you buy 4 and it's $4.12. round down!

it'll come out in the wash. there are much bigger things to worry about.

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2. jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 19:09 UTC] No.45904631[source]▶
You attempt that at my store. To help ensure my business is sustainable in these hard times (/s), I'm imposing a "multi-item order" fee at my store. Now what?
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3. chokolad ◴[12 Nov 25 19:14 UTC] No.45904729[source]▶
What's stopping you from doing it now ?
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4. niij ◴[12 Nov 25 19:17 UTC] No.45904799[source]▶
If you seriously think that's realistic I guess I don't know what to tell you.
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5. jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 19:21 UTC] No.45904868{3}[source]▶
There's not as much incentive to right now, because I don't have an excuse to round up prices, and customers don't have a case for rounding down prices. This discussion's about the possible effects of rounding, not about whether businesses are in control of their prices.
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6. jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 19:25 UTC] No.45904947{3}[source]▶
Pizza chains have delivery fees that aren't paid to delivery drivers. Restaurants have service fees for cooking food and convenience fees for placing orders (even if paying, in cash, when you pick up), on top of the sticker price of the food itself, which used to just be the price.

Some people in this thread have talked about stores having signs saying they'll round change up to the dollar if you pay in cash, and advising to pay by card if you want exact change. I've personally seen businesses have signs on their cash registers that say "our cash register is easily hacked, we strongly recommend paying by cash instead instead of card" (I'm assuming so they can cheat on their taxes).

Businesses will do anything they can get away with to make more money, and they can usually get away with tiny fees like this. It's only a few cents, right? Except for them, it adds up.

7. dpark ◴[12 Nov 25 19:26 UTC] No.45904965[source]▶
This is nonsense. No store is going to charge a multi item fee so that they can try to scrape an extra penny off their customers. As someone else’s already pointed out, they could just do this today if they believe their customers will accept it. Did you forget that stores can just raise prices?

Your premise that stores will find a way to force rounding up is nonsense. It’s nonsense because stores aren’t actually going to do it, but also because we’re talking about *pennies*. Oh, no. The store ripped me off for 2 cents. How will I survive?

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8. dpark ◴[12 Nov 25 19:28 UTC] No.45905001{4}[source]▶
> There's not as much incentive to right now

Yeah, because stores don’t have an incentive to raise prices usually…

9. jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 19:32 UTC] No.45905086{3}[source]▶
> As someone else’s already pointed out, they could just do this today if they believe their customers will accept it. Did you forget that stores can just raise prices?

As I already pointed out, customers would be more likely to accept it if there's an excuse for it (pennies are being phased out) than just randomly. The discussion's about what rounding may cause, not about what stores have the legal ability to do.

> It’s nonsense because stores aren’t actually going to do it, but also because we’re talking about pennies. Oh, no. The store ripped me off for 2 cents. How will I survive?

So this argument is just "you may be right, but I don't care." That's not an argument, imo.

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10. dpark ◴[12 Nov 25 19:39 UTC] No.45905215{4}[source]▶
No one is going to buy “multi transaction fee” because of pennies being phased out. This makes no sense.

You have constructed a whole chain of absurd claims that have no basis Did you forget that right now, today, stores willingly take a cent off virtually every price so they can do the x.99 thing?

> So this argument is just "you may be right, but I don't care." That's not an argument, imo.

No. I can simultaneously believe that you are wrong and also that the fundamental concern is absurd.

11. zahlman ◴[12 Nov 25 19:40 UTC] No.45905234[source]▶
The experience of other countries that have actually implemented this (see: Canada) demonstrates that this is not actually a problem.
12. tempestn ◴[12 Nov 25 19:42 UTC] No.45905270[source]▶
Now people stop shopping at your store.
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13. jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 19:48 UTC] No.45905377{3}[source]▶
If the store is e.g. Walmart, then their scale's already large enough that I don't think this is going to put them under. And if every store's doing it, then there'll be nowhere to turn to.
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14. dragonwriter ◴[12 Nov 25 19:55 UTC] No.45905478[source]▶
Now your customers go and shop at a store that isn't cartoonishly customer-hostile. Now what?
15. Jblx2 ◴[12 Nov 25 20:01 UTC] No.45905603{4}[source]▶
Won't someone think of the children?
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16. jacobgkau ◴[12 Nov 25 20:26 UTC] No.45906036{5}[source]▶
That's an entirely off-topic comment that has nothing to do with anything I said and adds nothing to the discussion.
17. inkcapmushroom ◴[12 Nov 25 20:31 UTC] No.45906139{4}[source]▶
What if the stores detain you and force you to work in their perfume department to pay off the million-dollar multi-item fee they just thought up? What if they also do a bunch of allergen testing on you to figure out what you're allergic to and then make you exclusively sell perfumes containing those allergens?

All because of that darn penny-rounding.