Florida Restaurant Implements No-Coin Policy

That's right. A restaurant in Estero, Florida (that's near Fort Myers) does not accept coins in payment nor do they give coins in change. They simply round the bill "up to the next dollar". The restaurant owner says they have had this policy since they opened four years ago and have never gotten a complaint. I find that hard to believe.

Restaurant's no-coin policy makes no cents

OK. How does "it all work out"? The restaurant "rounds up to the next dollar". How do any customers get any "extra money"? It seems to me ALL the extra money goes to the restaurant whether it is 99 cents (on a bill of $X.01) or 1 cent (on a bill of $X.99). This policy might be a bit more palatable if the restaurant rounded to the NEAREST dollar but they round UP TO THE NEXT dollar. More money in their pocket. I wonder if they have priced their dishes so the total after tax "just happens" to be a few cents over an even dollar.

And what about tips? Do the waitresses accept coins or are tips supposed to be "rounded up to the next dollar", too?

Also left unanswered is how the restaurant handles credit card charges. Do they charge the exact amount or do they "round up to the next dollar"? Enquiring minds want to know.

 

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Plus, if it was rounded to the nearest dollar the restaurant could still manipulate that with their menu prices.

 

It would be interesting to see how much extra profit they made based on always rounding up over the past 4 years. This would never fly in the major tourist areas of Miami/South Beach, Orlando, etc. TC

 

Sounds odd to me. But there is an easy "solution": Don't leave a tip at such places.

Christian

 

Or don't go at all!

 

That just sounds stupid, I wont be going there anytime soon!....LOL

 

In an economy where everyone watches there pennies I believe this resturant is doing a dis service to the customers going in the resturant. I will tell my cousin to watch out for this one, she lives in N.fort meyers, fla.
I hope the credit card customers are charged the correct amount. This guy has a nice scam going.

Dean 295

 

Am I the only one who doesn't mind this idea?

First, let's not jump to conclusions that these restaurant owners are evil people trying to gouge everybody. It's tough to run a restaurant and maybe they're actually telling the truth that they don't want the hassle of coins. Call them lazy if you want, but I'll bet they have plenty of regular customers who agree with them—and those who don't, don't have to patronize the place. Clearly the owners are not worried about losing customers.

I'm not saying I condone or agree with everything they seem to be doing: they should round up and down to be fair to each customer, the way a lot of other establishments treat pennies. And I'm assuming their policy only applies to cash purchases, because obviously they'd have to run the cc purchases for the exact amounts.

But I believe this is the wave of the future, at least with small change. Personally, I never pay with cash, let alone change, anymore; I charge everything and earn points on my purchases.

This might sound like sacrilege to some of you collectors, but I collect older coins for their history and beauty and don't really pay attention to modern change.

 

This also sounds to me like a way to increase your profits and not reporting taxable income to the dreaded IRS. If the IRS were to get wind of this, which I hope they do, then this individual should have to pay penalties. At times we all try to figure ways to reduce our tax burdens, but this individual is committing all out fraud and keeping our money so that he/she can live free in the U.S. without contributing the right amount that most honest citizens do.

 

Here's the website of the place: http://www.yourgrape.com/loc-fl_coconutpoint.shtml

as determined from the original press article: http://www.news-press.com/article/2...40/Restaurant-s-no-coin-policy-makes-no-cents

 

The owner says he's never heard complaints because the customers usually get extra money. Sounds to me like he's trying to be fair. The reporter doesn't seem to explain his policy clearly in her article and seems to be biased. For all we know she could be a junior reporter trying to make a splash with this "alarming story."

And whether a proprietor chooses to deal in exact amounts or round off says nothing about his honesty with respect to the IRS, so don't you think that accusing him of "all out fraud" is a little presumptuous? Many businesses who don't round cheat the IRS all the time.

 

I personally wouldn't have a problem if all the extra money went to a local charity, but we simply don't have all the information on this story.

 

Next it will be our Dollars that won't be accepted and only mexican or chinese paper currency will.

 

How the heck can customers get extra money...


IF they always round UP?

Then the customers will always lose.

 

+0.99 :thumb: TC

 

As I mentioned before, I don't think the story is well-reported because there are inconsistencies. The owner says "the customers usually get extra money." That implies that he's rounding both up and down.

Look at it this way: no waiter is going to want to work at an establishment where the patrons are mad about the change policy and take it out on the wait staff by withholding tips. And if the policy in general weren't fair, sooner or later customers would stop coming. Wouldn't you? But apparently the whole thing works relatively smoothly or the place wouldn't have been in business for four years.

 

Maybe the place is not expensive, or has great food or great service, or all of that, and the customers come back because of that. Well, I would still feel cheated, except if they stated in advance (e.g. near the entrance or on the menu) that they have this policy ...

Christian

 

Isn't this sort of illegal, like theft is? How can they advertise something at one price, then charge another? If I were them I'd just adjust the prices, considering tax, so that the end result amounts to an even number where change isn't needed. Places do this all the time.
Guy

 

The menu prices are all whole numbers... the only whole numbers from 1-100 that would yield an absolute fair price would be $50 and $100 (Sales tax is 6%, so 50.00 --> 53.00 and 100 --> 106.00, if your resulting bill after tax is a whole number you come out not paying them any extra). Here's the interesting thing, the restaurant maximizes profits (meaning they make ~50+ cents extra per transaction) through this medium in the total price intervals from:
$0.01 --> $8.00
$17.00 --> $25.00
$34.00 --> $42.00
$51.00 --> $59.00
$67.00 --> $75.00
$84.00 --> $92.00

(This only entertains total prices from 0-100)

Now here's the menu for those of you to check yourself:

http://www.yourgrape.com/menus/Coconut April menu LOW.pdf

So go ahead, try out some configurations in your head, add up the price of something <100 that you would have purchased, and if your total price ends up in one of the aforementioned intervals (particularly the lower numbers), then perhaps this is more thought out than the man makes it seems.

Here's a chart showing that the profits earned are a cycle from 1-50 (Notice that the pattern repeats in the right column, it's offset by 1 row because of how I started each i.e. top left starts at 4 and should start at 2)


Can't help but notice that wind tastings are in the 4-8 range, and a sandwhich + drink looks to be in the low 20's... Hmm...

 

Cube, your research is impressive! Very thorough. But I think some of you might be missing the point. You're approaching this whole thing as bean-counters. Not everyone is a bean-counter; in fact much of our population isn't (for better or worse). That doesn't mean they're not honest, hard-working, tax-paying people.

Have you ever known any restaurant people? They tend to care about good food, creating an inviting atmosphere and making their customers happy. It's hard work and the ones who aren't in it because they love it usually don't last long. This place doesn't strike me as a dive. And it's not a chain like Chili's (or whatever) which are essentially faceless profit-mills. What difference does it make if they round off?—as long as they're fair about it and the customers are happy.

The owner is quoted as saying, "it all works out; the customers usually get extra money." If the customers weren't happy the place would have been out of business long ago.