Penny Problems

My total was 17.99 and I put in $18 and figured OK, round up,
but it gave me a nickel. I'm not sure they understand the economic philosophy of rounding up or down to the nearest nickel.
Prob the machine had to be programmed in a way to give the lowest denomination coin if 1,2,3,4 cents in change was to be dispensed.

 

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Apparently some state laws can be interpreted in a way that prohibits rounding in favor of the party determining the rounding, even if it's part of a mathematically neutral strategy. Merchants figure it's better to eat a few cents on a transaction than to face possible legal action and certain bad publicity.

Edit to add: and losing four cents on a cash transaction is still cheaper than merchant fees on a credit card transaction.

 

I was haphazardly dumping cents into the Harris Teeter self checkout Sunday, and inadvertently went one cent over a five-cent boundary. Yes, they gave me back a nickel for my extra cent. No, I'm not going to use this guaranteed 400% return to Get Rich Quick.

 

I bought beer today and the owner manning the cash register cracked open a roll of Loomis cents to give me change. I noted two or three more rolls in the till. She hasn’t had any problems getting them.

 

The era of finding "pennies" in the parking lot are coming to an end. Will nickels take their place? Or leave a nickel tray at the stop and rob?

 

I went to the grocery store today and was surprised to see a sign at the self checkout that said “Not all self checkouts accept cash nor do they give change. Your bill is rounded up to the nearest dollar.”
I don’t use self checkouts as I want customer service. If I did use them and saw a sign like this I’d stop using them.

 

I wonder if that grocery is headed for legal problems. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, they can round up to the nearest twenty as long as they clearly post the policy and they're willing to deal with the lost business - but I'm guessing state laws do have something to say about it.

Was it one of the big chains, or a local store? I've seen what Giant was doing with the bounty for turning in cents, but I don't know what the more local shops are doing, or even which ones are prevalent where you are. (We used to hit Stauffers of Kissel Hill when we lived in Lancaster, but I don't know if you're near one...)

 

It was one of the giant chain grocery stores.

 

Yeah I don't think you can do that.
Just because there is a "sign" that's not the law.

 

Giant's a big chain. Are you 100% sure that the signs said they were rounding up the bill, and not rounding up the change they return to you? I know I saw at least one sign at a store here that was confusing on that point - I forget the exact wording, but I had to read it a couple of times to be sure it said they were rounding in the customer's favor.

 

It happened yesterday, partly due to unfortunate coincidence... our cash handling machine, that dispenses and holds all our cash, stopped working (it jammed due to a mechanical fault) so for a while we couldn't take cash on any register; once it was fixed we could take cash on the handful of manual registers, but because we basically had no pennies anymore, the self-checkout machines couldn't take any cash at all. This will be the case until they come up with a software update that will allow them to operate without pennies and the ability to round off the change.

 

Here is what burns me to know end. You check out with cashier at Sams Club, you pay get receipt and walk toward the exit and there is another long line with people waiting for them to check receipt to get out the door... So yeah............ I done it walked around the line and right out the dollar hoping that checker would say something to me and of course my wife and daughter are embarrassed and walk out far behind me. The Checker of receipts didn't say a word. was hoping they would have said something.

 

I know at our establishment we always round in the customer's favor (on the manual registers; eventually the self-checkout stations will be "taught" to do this too); I don't know if it has anything to due with state laws (I don't think it's a law in my state) so much as it is for the sake of customer goodwill and avoiding complaints. The most it would cost us is 4 cents per cash transaction, and on average (assuming all 10 digits are equally likely in the change amount) it would cost us 2 cents per cash transaction to do this. As has been noted by many, this would still be cheaper than it already costs us to take credit and debit cards.

(If it was anyone's policy to round to the nearest nickel, regardless of who that favors, the average cost, assuming all 10 digits are equally likely, would be 0.)

We operate in all 50 states so it's also possible they just want this to be the company-wide policy so we don't have to figure out which states we need to do this in and which ones we don't.

 

Troodon, Do you charge a percentage (3 o 4) when paying using a credit card?

 

No, we don't charge anyone anything for using credit cards or debit cards.

I'm sure the cost is rolled into the prices we charge so we still make a profit on what we sell, but we don't add anything to the bill directly when people pay for their items.

 

Yes, they stated that not all self checkouts accept or return cash.

 

Or, to put it another way, people who pay cash are subsidizing the ones who use credit cards. Everyone pays the same price, but the store makes less on CC transactions, so it raises prices across the board to compensate.

If stores could transparently pass through CC costs, so the CC fees were charged directly to the customer, people could make their own decisions on convenience vs. cost. Credit card companies colluded to prohibit this for a long time, and now that those restrictions have been overturned by law, it's too late to change the policy. Merchants would alienate the vast majority of customers that DO use credit.

 

Funny guy! After all, he's Italian.

 

I've run into a few places since that law (or lawsuit?) that either give a % discount for cash, or charge an extra % for cc. But they are pretty few. Earlier this year at a fancy restaurant for my kid's graduation, with a party of ~10-12, this was quite irritating because the policy wasn't made clear upfront, and then an extra 3% was tacked onto an already outrageous bill. "Cashless society" sure is a racket in my view, because these third parties get a cut from every transaction for basically doing nothing.