President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin.
It’s not even a win. Pennies are still necessary because retailers like to use prices like $x.98/99. If retailers made a concerted effort to round up or down to the nearest nickel, it would be a win. But they don’t.
So now we’re going to have a penny shortage here soon enough for those who like to use cash. Better start hoarding now. You may be able to get $0.05/pennie soon enough.
It’s called “psychological pricing”, although I’ve always seen the term “just-under pricing”.
First, it’s not even true that prices are rounded to the nearest cent. Gas is typically priced with an extra 9/10 of a cent. Fractional cents are used in accounting (like compound interest), even if they are discarded in the final results. Places that have done similar still use the small values when processing electronic transactions (credit cards), but don’t collect when paying cash.
Pricing rules can also easily adjust over time. When it was discontinued, the US half-cent was worth about the same as a modern dime. I could see us getting rid of the penny and nickel (and probably the quarter, since it won’t make sense without a nickel). Prices would then just have a single decimal place, like $9.9 instead of $9.99.
There is absolutely zero truth to that statement whatsoever. There are a grand total of zero federal laws which require retailers, or anyone for that matter to round to the nearest nickel… There may be a state or two who do this, and that’s great. But no one is required federally to do it. So saying that it’s “by law” is not only misleading, but it’s a boldface fucking lie.
Brother, he’s from Lemmy.ca and is speaking about it like it’s been the case for a while. It’s okay to misread a situation without blaming someone else.
So a Canadian makes a statement in a US thread, about a US policy by a US President mistaking the situation and applying logic from a completely different country and passing it off like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, and I’m the bad guy?
This place is just as shitty as Reddit sometimes, I guess.
For 99% of things I completely agree. But pennies can make for cheaper and better quality bases for some wargame models and also penny pushers at the arcade are pretty fun. Pushing the minimum spend up on those significantly would not be great.
Overall it is probably still worth it but there are some good things we will lose.
It’s not even a win. Pennies are still necessary because retailers like to use prices like $x.98/99. If retailers made a concerted effort to round up or down to the nearest nickel, it would be a win. But they don’t.
So now we’re going to have a penny shortage here soon enough for those who like to use cash. Better start hoarding now. You may be able to get $0.05/pennie soon enough.
Canada does this and it’s quite success. Jeez.
It’s called “psychological pricing”, although I’ve always seen the term “just-under pricing”.
First, it’s not even true that prices are rounded to the nearest cent. Gas is typically priced with an extra 9/10 of a cent. Fractional cents are used in accounting (like compound interest), even if they are discarded in the final results. Places that have done similar still use the small values when processing electronic transactions (credit cards), but don’t collect when paying cash.
Pricing rules can also easily adjust over time. When it was discontinued, the US half-cent was worth about the same as a modern dime. I could see us getting rid of the penny and nickel (and probably the quarter, since it won’t make sense without a nickel). Prices would then just have a single decimal place, like $9.9 instead of $9.99.
The price at checkout just rounds to the nearest nickel by law. Pennies needed to go 10 years ago, it’s been great here
There is absolutely zero truth to that statement whatsoever. There are a grand total of zero federal laws which require retailers, or anyone for that matter to round to the nearest nickel… There may be a state or two who do this, and that’s great. But no one is required federally to do it. So saying that it’s “by law” is not only misleading, but it’s a boldface fucking lie.
Sounds like OP was from Canada.
Considering the post he was replying to was about a US President telling the US Treasury to stop minting a specific US currency, OP is beyond stupid.
Brother, he’s from Lemmy.ca and is speaking about it like it’s been the case for a while. It’s okay to misread a situation without blaming someone else.
So a Canadian makes a statement in a US thread, about a US policy by a US President mistaking the situation and applying logic from a completely different country and passing it off like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, and I’m the bad guy?
This place is just as shitty as Reddit sometimes, I guess.
You’re only the “bad guy” for lashing out when it’s not called for and doubling down, but I ain’t your momma. Go off queen.
lmao lashing out? Whatever you need to tell yourself.
For 99% of things I completely agree. But pennies can make for cheaper and better quality bases for some wargame models and also penny pushers at the arcade are pretty fun. Pushing the minimum spend up on those significantly would not be great.
Overall it is probably still worth it but there are some good things we will lose.
There are plenty of pennies in circulation for those uses and still will be for decades or centuries.
1% is awfully generous here
Don’t worry, they’ll round up or down, but if you pay by card they get the exact amount.
Don’t know why you’re downvoted, this is exactly how it works in the Euro countries that abandoned the 1 and 2 cent coins.
Canada, too.
“or down”. You’re so silly.
Round up the charge or down the change
I was making a joke about businesses rounding down when they could make more money by rounding up. Go capitalism!
Yes indeed.
I then took it a step further to joke about a wonderful business opportunity to make $ on either side of the transaction.
Oops. I definitely misread your comment as “change” and “change”.
Yep, the market just lost .04 on every transaction across the board. And how u gonna calculate tax now?