I’m a store cashier. I always give people their change, unless they tell me to keep it. Then it stays in the cash drawer.
I’ll always remember the man who was waiting outside when we opened, ran in and grabbed a corkscrew, gave me a five dollar bill for his $4.27 purchase ($3.99 + tax) and ran out without his change or receipt.
I personally don’t care if it’s just a penny change, when I purchase something, it’s my change and I want it. I pick up money off the street too.
‘A one cent piece for your thoughts’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
It’s your life, and everything, but to me, having control over my life means I don’t have to stand around waiting to get 7.45 seconds’ worth of income back. But really having control over my life means using a credit card for all register transactions so I don’t have to worry about what to do with change.
But I did like that musical “One Cent Pieces From Heaven”.
ETA: My dad was a banker and he used to tell us how they were going to get rid of pennies “any day now, you just watch!”
That was 1958…
Here in Michigan Canadian coinage is accepted pretty much everywhere at face value. It was a real surprise to find that not a nation-wide thing.
I’m not sure why that would be surprising. Michigan is close to Canada, so you’d expect to have lots of Canadian customers. Florida (for example) is not, so there are relatively few Canadian shoppers. You can see the same phenomenon in most countries. In London, lots of places accept Euros. In Birmingham, hardly anyone does.
Not everywhere I shop takes credit cards.
Different priorities for different people, that’s the way of the world.
The penny thing doesn’t irk me so much. What does irk me is establishments (looking at you Panda Express) that ask if you would like to “round up” your total to give to “insert charity here”. If you say no thanks you look like an asshole. You pretty much feel obligated to say “oh, absolutely”. That doesn’t set well with me.
And then the company gets a charitable write-off bumped up w/ even more of its customer’s money. No thanks, I tell them; I like to make my own charitable contribution for tax purposes.
Read the comment and the link more carefully, where I said “…equivalent amd even larger-value coins have been discontinued for years” (added emphasis). At the time of decimalization the British pound was worth about 2.5 times the Canadian dollar, hence for a long time on average the half-penny was the closest equivalent to the Canadian or US penny, and it’s the half-penny that was discontinued, I believe at the end of 1984. Other countries have also discontinued coins of such low value, and in many cases, as I said, of greater value.
For values less than a dollar, though. Since the introduction of the Loonie and later the Toonie, not so much.
I remember one time I was buying some beer at a store in Port Huron (i.e., right on the border). The owner suggested that I not give her the Canadian quarter that I offered, so I paid her with a credit card instead. Stupid, shortsighted owner didn’t realize that credit card fees cost her more than the exchange on a single quarter.
I hate the “Do you want your change” question when it’s from a waiter/waitress. No, you can’t assume that the change is your tip. That’s for me to decide. I’m pretty sure I’m not giving you the change as a tip when I hand you a $20 for a $12 meal. Assuming it’s all your tip gets your tip reduced.
The correct way to do it is to say “I’ll be right back with your change.” If I tell you to keep it, you’re good to go; otherwise just make my change already.
Pennies are worthless and a hassle. If I get any in change they go right into the “leave a penny” dish.
Dumbest pitting I’ve read in a long time. I had to check the join date to make sure I wasn’t being trolled.
Pennies have one other use (beside Coinstar, hauling 'em to the bank, etc) that I know of, albeit one limited by geography: Fort Worth’s transit system is such a shit heap that the buses still take pennies. Just be sure to not jam up the fare box when you’re dumping 350 pennies in for a day pass. 
Pennies are worthless. Even if you collect up 100 of them that only amounts to $1 which is pretty worthless also. They go into the penny cup. Some cashiers at some stores have enough sense to pull pennies out of the cup themselves so they don’t have to give me pennies back in change. Of course that only works when other cashiers don’t do that so there are pennies in the cup.
I don’t think they get to claim a write-off based on customer donations. Do you have a cite for that?
I collect coins. You never know when you might get something interesting. I agree with the OP.
PS: The USA does not have pennies. We have cents. Had them ever since the US mint opened in 1793.
Pennies are a fraction of a pound sterling and have nothing whatsoever to do with US coinage.
Just remember this. Without the cent, the price of everything will go up, not down.
But will a kiss still be a kiss?
Seriously, that’s not how it’s worked in other countries, and if you think free market competition is meaningful in the slightest in this country, it isn’t how it will work here.
After all, the fundamental rules apply.
I can’t speak for you guys south of the border, but lots of people were whining up here when we were in the process of getting rid of the penny/cent/1 cent piece/whatever that merchants would round up. That turned out not to be the case. As it turns out (and as we were told would happen) proper rounding is done (1 cent and 2 cent prices round down, 3 and 4 round up). It’s possible that there may be exceptions with small non-automated stores but I haven’t run into any.
Note also that up here rounding is done on the final total (if you are paying cash), not on the individual items. So, even if totals were always rounded up it would only make a significant difference if you were buying single items one at a time.