Only if you buy one item at a time. In a multi-unit transaction, they add up all the figures ending in 8 or 9, to get a final figure that can end in just about any digit, then they add tax which may even be a fractional percentage, then they round to the nearest whatever.
I imagine that there are extremely specific cases that could get a bit of gaming, places with very few different prices where the same final price occurs over and over again. Even if that happens, they can only score a couple of pennies on each individual transaction.
I use cash for maybe one in ten commercial transactions. If I get pennies back, I’ll either leave them in the Leave a Penny tray or they’ll wind up in a jar with my other loose change at home, which I take to the bank from time to time to run through the counter.
The only purpose of the penny is to keep you from getting more. The time has come and gone to retire them, but I’m to understand that the conglomerate that owns zinc production in the US has thrown its weight around to stop Washington from discontinuing the penny.
Same with the dollar bill - I think every developed country in the world has a coin for its main currency denomination, instead of a paper note, but the cloth manufacturer that the Mint uses steadfastly opposes retiring the dollar bill.
The are both divisions within the US Department of the Treasury. But they’re otherwise totally separate things. I’ve visited the Fort Worth paper bill factory. A fun & infomative tour.
What real place charges tax on tax? The retailers collect tax & pay tax. In your above example, $100 of groceries is $102 with tax & $250 booze is $270 with tax, resulting in a bill to you of $372, you’re extra $1.78 is taxing the tax which i have never heard of happening in this country.
We have no penny, and products still get priced at $X.99 or $X.97. Prices are still calculated in cents, items are totaled up, sales taxes added, and only the final total gets rounded, if a cash transaction. If plastic, it’s paid to the cent as well.
Heck, gas prices are still advertised in tenths of a cent.
There’s no reason to round the individual prices before totalling. Only the total needs to be rounded. That’s when the cash changes hands.
Different countries do the rounding differently. In Australia as mentioned upthread, a total ending in zero or 5 is left as-is. A total from 1 to 4 is rounded down to the nearest 10 cents and from 6 to 9 is rounded up to the nearest 10 cents. With the result that no matter what the total is, over a large number of transactions the rounding will net to zero. And often nickels will not be required.
Maybe I’m conflating calculations from my job with retail calculations. I just found a Menards receipt, and the tax they charged was 8% of the shelf price. OK, so ignore all of my calculations.
Bottom line, though, is if rounding is done properly, it all comes out at the end of the day as zero sum - you make a couple of pennies here; you lose a couple pennies there. Unless someone is somehow gaming the system, there’s no profit or loss.
Yeah, if it’s less than a quarter, I’m not picking it up, and even then I likely will just walk by it. I did spy a 10-dollar bill while walking the dog last week, though. Now that I picked up!
One argument I’ve heard for not picking up pennies is that the amount you gain versus the time it takes to pick it up comes out to way less than minimum wage. I haven’t really don’t any research into how long it takes to stop, recognize a penny on the ground, pick it up, and put it in your wallet, but let’s assume it takes 10 seconds. That comes out to $3.60/hour. Are you willing to work for $3.60/hour?
I suspect in this case you were working for less than $1/hour. You earned sweatshop wages for your effort to dig that penny out of the tar.
Totally irrelevant. I’m not working. I’m not picking up money as a job. It’s found money. Why the hell would I not pick it up? I now have money I didn’t have a second ago, at the cost of…what exactly?
