The Poor, Poor Penny....

[RedHot25]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories

A new study says it doesn't make 'cents' to keep the penny.
In fact, only 37 per cent of Canadians still use the coin for purchases, found a survey conducted by Desjardins Group.

....

To keep the pennies in circulation, Canadians are losing about $130 million per year in production, storage, transportation and various costs, say the economists that conducted the research.


.....


Francois Dupuis, vice-president and chief economist at Desjardins' Economic Studies Department, said he doesn't think removing the penny will increase prices.
"Cash transaction amounts would be rounded symmetrically to the nearest five cents. For example, transactions where the final price would be $9.98, $9.99, $10.01 or $10.02 would go for $10. Those of $10.03, $10.04 or even $10.06, would go for $10.05," Dupuis said.

[Daradon]

old news, talked about this ten years ago

they still won't get away with it though

wanna know why?

they collect your DNA when you handle it. put into a database.

MOD EDIT: Trolling comment removed

[Burninator]

Businesses that handle a lot of cash transactions would love this. All this left over money would add up to a lot fast. What a rip off, this would be pure profit.

[worth]

kinda uncalled for, doncha think?

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Businesses that handle a lot of cash transactions would love this. All this left over money would add up to a lot fast. What a rip off, this would be pure profit.

Ha, yha, somehow I would foresee a lot of "round up" policies put into place.

[Looger]

MOD EDIT: I removed the comment, can we please just drop it.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Businesses that handle a lot of cash transactions would love this. All this left over money would add up to a lot fast. What a rip off, this would be pure profit.

A final cost of $X.X8 or $X.X9 would be rounded up to $X.Y0
A final cost of $X.X6 or $X.X7 would be rounded down to $X.X5
A final cost of $X.X3 or $X.X4 would be rounded up to $X.X5
A final cost of $X.X1 or $X.X2 would be rounded down to $X.X0

On some transactions, the price would round up by no more than 2 cents.
On other transactions, the price would round down by no more than 2 cents.

All things being equal, the increases and decreases would balance themselves out over the long run.

Any store that has a "Need a penny, take a penny" cup is already doing this, in effect because you contribute a penny to the cup when you have one in your change (rounding the price you paid up to the nearest nickle) and take one out when you need one (rounding the price you paid down to the nearest nickle).


I wonder how this would affect the various charities that have collection boxes at check-outs? Will they receive less because people have fewer pennies to throw in, or will they receive more because people will start throwing in nickles and dimes?

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by getbak

A final cost of $X.X8 or $X.X9 would be rounded up to $X.Y0
A final cost of $X.X6 or $X.X7 would be rounded down to $X.X5
A final cost of $X.X3 or $X.X4 would be rounded up to $X.X5
A final cost of $X.X1 or $X.X2 would be rounded down to $X.X0

On some transactions, the price would round up by no more than 2 cents.
On other transactions, the price would round down by no more than 2 cents.

All things being equal, the increases and decreases would balance themselves out over the long run.

Any store that has a "Need a penny, take a penny" cup is already doing this, in effect because you contribute a penny to the cup when you have one in your change (rounding the price you paid up to the nearest nickle) and take one out when you need one (rounding the price you paid down to the nearest nickle).


I wonder how this would affect the various charities that have collection boxes at check-outs? Will they receive less because people have fewer pennies to throw in, or will they receive more because people will start throwing in nickles and dimes?

In theory, you're right. In practise, I'm sure certain stores will end up adjusting their prices so you always round up.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by getbak

I wonder how this would affect the various charities that have collection boxes at check-outs? Will they receive less because people have fewer pennies to throw in, or will they receive more because people will start throwing in nickles and dimes?

I would guess it would go down because of less pennies. For me the pennies, nickels, dimes are all equally as worthless. So if I am throwing change in the chairty buckets it is those coins, but if pennies are gone those wouldn't end up in the bucket. Just my theory, other people could operate differently.

[Rathji]

Anything less than a quarter is useless and goes into whatever charity box/can they have on the counter anyway.

[Resolute 14]

This is completely off memory, but didnt Australia do away with the penny, and didnt they discover that the consumer was paying slightly less, on average?

[burn_baby_burn]

I lived in Australia for a while in the late 90's. They don't have pennies, and they just round up or down (which ever is closest). I didn't notice a differance at all. In fact I thought it made perfect sense. What do most people do with their pennies here? When I roll my change, I just sperate the pennies and throw them in the dump.

[worth]

can't you roll pennies also?

throwing money out is illegal I beleieve, is it not?

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Snakeeye

This is completely off memory, but didnt Australia do away with the penny, and didnt they discover that the consumer was paying slightly less, on average?

Correct you are. They found that in most instances the consumer would be paying less.

Australi had pretty cool money when I was there. The bills were plastic, different colours and different lengths. They also had no pennies, which was also pretty nice.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Businesses that handle a lot of cash transactions would love this. All this left over money would add up to a lot fast. What a rip off, this would be pure profit.

Not necessarily, its just the final total that gets rounded up not each item. So the most a business could hope to gain would be 4 cents per every cash transaction, even assuming they only round their prices up.

For a very busy store that did an average of 1 cash transaction every minute that ened up rounding every single transaction up 4 cents, that only translates to an extra $2.40/hour. That's not even enough to hire a minimum wage employee.

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by Snakeeye

This is completely off memory, but didnt Australia do away with the penny, and didnt they discover that the consumer was paying slightly less, on average?

From the article:

They are proposing that Canada withdraw the penny, following in the steps of Australia and New Zealand.

[Frank the Tank]

So what am I supposed to throw at the hookers as I drive by now? I mean, its funny and all, but it ain't "nickle funny" if you know what I mean.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

So what am I supposed to throw at the hookers as I drive by now? I mean, its funny and all, but it ain't "nickle funny" if you know what I mean.

I had started to picture Frank as a sensitive, caring thoughtful fellow. That's gone now.

P.S. "nickle funny" = love it.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

Not necessarily, its just the final total that gets rounded up not each item. So the most a business could hope to gain would be 4 cents per every cash transaction, even assuming they only round their prices up.

For a very busy store that did an average of 1 cash transaction every minute that ened up rounding every single transaction up 4 cents, that only translates to an extra $2.40/hour. That's not even enough to hire a minimum wage employee.

It all adds up. Lets say a company like IKEA who has like 20 tills and lets day that half of them get that 4 cents a minute. That would add up to $288 a day and roughly a $100,000 dollars a year. Obvisouly this a maximum type of senario and unlikely.

I basically don't like giving my money away to companies for nothing.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by worth

can't you roll pennies also?

throwing money out is illegal I beleieve, is it not?

Its a pain, and it isn't worth the time. Who cares if throwing money out is illegal. So is speeding.