# Use the penny to start a retail revolution **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371 "2012-02-20T00:11:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/41 "2012-02-21T00:05:17Z")
What burden would this place on small mom and pop shops that don’t use computers? They already need to figure the total for a purchase, including adding the sales tax to whichever items are subject to it. If they can do all of that without a computer, presumably they can remember that 1,2, 6 or 7 round down and 3, 4, 8 or 9 round up. (Or if the last digit ends in 3, 4, 6 or 7, round to the nearest nickel. If the last digit ends in 1, 2, 8 or 9, round to the nearest dime.) ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/42 "2012-02-21T00:17:30Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > This being unfortunately true for at least the near future actually means there’s hardly a point in even discussing this. No room for common cents here. I chortled. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/43 "2012-02-21T00:34:59Z")
I like it. I’d go for it. ---
**Author:** ![woodrowjween](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aca169/32.png) [@woodrowjween](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodrowjween)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/44 "2012-02-22T17:54:03Z")
Of course what you’d hear from cashiers is “Oh, we can’t neglect pennies, our cash register must balance perfectly at the end of my shift or I’ll get fired”. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/45 "2012-02-22T18:05:37Z")
I’m currently living overseas at a USAF base. The nickel is the smallest unit of US currency. Cash transactions are rounded either way to the nearest nickel. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/46 "2012-02-22T18:24:09Z")
You’re all forgetting one important thing. When pennies are outlawed, only outlaws will use pennies. Something to think about. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/47 "2012-02-22T19:10:25Z")
> [@woodrowjween](#): > > Of course what you’d hear from cashiers is “Oh, we can’t neglect pennies, our cash register must balance perfectly at the end of my shift or I’ll get fired”. No you wouldn’t. Because the (presumably computerized) cash registers would take the rounding into account when balancing. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/48 "2012-02-22T19:13:55Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > No you wouldn’t. Because the (presumably computerized) cash registers would take the rounding into account when balancing. And any store small/old fashioned enough to have manual registers would adjust their pricing to 5 & 10 rather than fire all their counter staff every day. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/49 "2012-02-22T19:59:03Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What burden would this place on small mom and pop shops that don’t use computers? They already need to figure the total for a purchase, including adding the sales tax to whichever items are subject to it. If they can do all of that without a computer, presumably they can remember that 1,2, 6 or 7 round down and 3, 4, 8 or 9 round up. (Or if the last digit ends in 3, 4, 6 or 7, round to the nearest nickel. If the last digit ends in 1, 2, 8 or 9, round to the nearest dime.) And, as pointed out above, there is no way to “fix” the prices so that the rounding always favours the shopkeeper. If you make all the prices end in $0.98 in the hope of screwing an extra couple of cents out of the customer, well they’ll just buy two or four items at a time and save a penny or two on each purchase, if they care at all, that is. Even if they don’t care, the random nature of purchases means that overall it should favour neither shopkeeper nor customer. Say everything cost 98c: Buy 1, total $0.98, pay $1.00, customer down $0.02 Buy 2, total $1.96, pay $1.95, customer up $0.01 Buy 3, total $2.94, pay $2.95, customer down $0.01 Buy 4, total $3.92, pay $3.90, customer up $0.02 Buy 5, total $4.90, pay $4.90, break even Buy 6, total $5.88, pay $5.90, customer down $0.02 Buy 7, total $6.86, pay $6.85, customer up $0.01 Buy 8, total $7.84, pay $7.85, customer down $0.01 Buy 9, total $8.82, pay $8.80, customer up $0.02 Buy 10, total $9.80, pay $9.80, break even It’s easy to see that the amounts up and down will balance out overall, unless for whatever reason people only ever buy one item at a time. (In which case they’re probably big-ticket items like white goods, so who cares if it’s $299.99 or $300?) ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/50 "2012-02-22T21:48:59Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I get fractional amounts on some of my investments. If the stock exchange thinks fractions of a penny are real money, that should tell you something. If Superman III taught me anything, it’s that fractions of pennies are not worthless. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/51 "2012-02-22T22:01:36Z")
> [@](#): > > from the article: > In fact, Coinstar estimates that the average household has $93.75 of pennies socked away. Yeah, well I’d like to check their work. They think the average household has 9,375 pennies lying around somewhere? My couch isn’t that big! ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/52 "2012-02-23T02:05:50Z")
If a business wants to always round up to the nearest nickel, I have absolutely no problem with that. Let them. It’s 4¢ at the most. I’ll survive. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/53 "2012-02-23T02:30:56Z")
> [@maggenpye](#): > > And any store small/old fashioned enough to have manual registers would adjust their pricing to 5 & 10 rather than fire all their counter staff every day. That’s fine too. There’s so much granularity even with that that it wouldn’t actually affect real people. (The fictitious people who come up whenever this is discussed who make 87 gajillion cash purchases every day that will all be rounded up, however, will be screwed.) ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/54 "2012-02-23T02:54:53Z")
I like this video “[Death to Pennies](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U&feature=fvwrel)” even more. Remember the half-penny? I’m glad we still have that around. It is so helpful with fractional sales tax. What? The US eliminated it in 1857 when it was worth more than a dime is worth today. Get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/55 "2012-02-23T03:06:05Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > That’s fine too. There’s so much granularity even with that that it wouldn’t actually affect real people. (The fictitious people who come up whenever this is discussed who make 87 gajillion cash purchases every day that will all be rounded up, however, will be screwed.) Well there you go. I’ve been using a debit card almost the whole time since rounding came in here, _that’s_ why I haven’t noticed it being a big deal! ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/56 "2012-02-23T03:15:09Z")
The small coin shop i’ve been going to has accounted for sales tax with calculators and paper receipts and it takes the lady who waits on me needs the same time amount as any other experienced cashier, although at the smaller stores I can get what I need a fuckton quicker than at Wallyworld. I bought three Barber Dimes and a couple Indian Head cents and she had my receipt and change ready in 30 seconds. There were people ahead of me buying stuff, but they were done in the same time that i was. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/57 "2012-02-23T03:38:25Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Bad idea. I take about $500 in pennies to the bank every year. Pennies are real money. If we eliminated the penny, you’d be taking that change to the bank in nickel format. I would think you’d prefer carrying 10,000 coins to 50,000. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371/58 "2012-02-23T03:44:49Z")
And I’m _still_ interested in finding out how **Dangerosa** acquires $500 in pennies in a year. That’s a thousand rolls or 280 pounds in pennies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-the-penny-to-start-a-retail-revolution/613371.md?page=2)