
One Dunkin’ Donuts store is taking a stand against the penny - cwan
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/a-dunkin-donuts-store-exhibits-penny-sanity/
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jusob
Why don't they modify the prices, so that the after-tax amount is always a
multiple of 0.10? That would make more sense since they are creating the
problem in the first place by choosing not rounded prices.

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BrandonM
This isn't possible due to rounding. If you live somewhere with 7.5% sales tax
(just to pick a number) and you want an item to be exactly $1.50, you have to
price it at $1.40. Want five of those? The total comes to $7.52.

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a-priori
So just always use the after-tax prices, and make that a multiple of $0.05.
Show _that_ price on the display boards, on the receipts, etc. I know they do
this in Switzerland, for example.

In Canada (and the US?) that's what happens with gasoline, but not with
anything else. I think that's strange.

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asmithmd1
That is against the law in Massachusetts. All prices must be pre-tax.

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micks56
Are you sure?

Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium show post-tax prices.

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jerf
Many places get exemptions. If you look, you may be able to spot public signs
that cite the exemption and under what law they have them. I don't know about
everywhere but I remember seeing such signs in Cedar Point (an amusement park
in Ohio) about a decade ago. (They've since lost their exemption for whatever
reason, so don't go looking now.)

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marcinw
If you're going to round my exact change down, then don't complain if I'm a
couple cents short.

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symkat
This would be nicer if they rounded benefiting the customer at all times.

Although I don't exactly see how a few pennies can slow down transactions in
any significant way. You can get up to one more penny than you would get in
quarters. Pennies come in roles >2 as large as quarters.

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gojomo
The usual coin-change-making algorithm for X cents in the US is...

(1) pull ⌊X/25⌋ quarters; set X = X%25

(2) pull ⌊X/10⌋ dimes; set X = X%10

(3) pull ⌊X/5⌋ nickles; set X = X%5

(4) pull X pennies

No pennies means there's never a step 4 -- also the only step that might
require pulling 4 coins. When dealing with a line of people during the morning
coffee rush, fractions of a second count.

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atsaloli
Australia doesn't even HAVE a one cent coin any more; smallest coin is 5
cents. This is inflation at work, my friends. This is not a good thing.

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brianobush
(from the wikipedia entry on inflation) most mainstream economists favor a low
steady rate of inflation.

Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers. "Death and Taxes, Including Inflation: the Public
versus Economists" (January 2007).[1] p.56

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atsaloli
Thank you for that reference, brianobush.

Unfortunately the consumer price index in the US demonstrates another kind of
inflation altogether:

[http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/inflation_truth_federal_res...](http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/inflation_truth_federal_reserve_government_fed_gold_080120083)

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yock
Why are there so many people so obsessed with this? It's a base unit of
measurement, and the problem is one of perception more than anything else. A
single penny is viewed as worthless, which is a problem of currency inflation,
not of the penny itself.

How long will we be rounding everything to the nearest nickel before that too
becomes so laborious that we move on to the dime? Quarter? Whole dollar? Where
does it stop?

Instead of applying arbitrary rounding rules to currency transactions, we
should enact policies that return value to that currency.

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mikecarlucci
Part of the solution will be the inevitable shift away from cash entirely.
Paying electronically it doesn't matter if the price is $0.42 or $13.37. Just
ceasing production of coins and bills would probably save a tidy sum. The
problem of course is universal infrastructure.

The half penny was eliminated too when physical money was the only option.
It's just a tough bandage to pull.

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yock
No move can be made away from hard currency without preserving a means for
private, anonymous transactions.

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tzs
The cynic in me suspects that before doing this they looked at their receipt
records and determined that in most cases this new rounding method would favor
the store, and if customers accept this, it will spread to the rest of their
stores, and will result overall in a good bit of money gained by corporation.

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z0r
I wish everybody would do this.

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michaelhart
and I as well. it's frustrating when waiting in line and someone's ahead of
you waiting on change. just swipe your debit card and keep the line moving!

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nuclear_eclipse
it's frustrating when waiting in line and someone ahead of you can't remember
their debit pin, or their card isn't swiping correctly, or they insist on
writing "see ID" on their card's signature strip but don't get their ID out
until asked. Just give correct change and keep the line moving...

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michaelhart
2/3 of the reasons you mentioned are a result of idiots. and I'd wager that
the other 1/3rd is probably somewhat related to idiocy too in some form.

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smackfu
I just pay for my $3 order with a credit card. They don't even need a
signature if it's under $10.

Electronic commerce is what will really kill the penny -- because no one will
care anymore.

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jpr
FYI, in EU (or at least in Finland), euros are rounded to the nearest five
cents and stores don't even accept the 1 and 2 cent coins, even though they
exist.

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stavrianos
Australia, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't even _have_ a denomination
smaller than the nickel.

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davidcuddeback
I just got back from a trip to Australia and New Zealand, and this is one of
the things that I noticed while I was over there. Neither of those countries
seemed to have pennies. If they did, I didn't encounter them while I was
there. The lowest denomination I saw in Australia was a 5-cent coin, and the
lowest I saw in New Zealand was a 10-cent coin.

I remarked while I was over there at how much sense this made to me and wished
that the same would happen in the United States, because I feel like pennies
are worthless. I'm glad to see someone experimenting with it in the US.

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toolate
We got rid of our one and two cent coins in Australia in 1992. Likewise,
you're correct about New Zealand not having 1, 2 or 5 cent coins.

