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Penny For Your Thoughts

post #1 of 22
6/29/08 at 6:15am
Thread Starter 
What still costs a penny? I can't think of anything. I think it is time to retire the penny. Obviously stores might object because they can't do their $4.99 sale instead of $5.00. But if they were allowed to round off at check out, they could still have items throughout the store at $0.53, $7.84, etc. and the most difference it would make is $0.03. After all, some gas stations still do that 9/10 thing. It has cost more than a cent to make a penny for some time now due to material and labor costs. Why do we still have them just filling up jars in every house across the country? When you leave to go shopping, do you make sure to grab your pennies? So is it still just a "penny for your thoughts?", or do your thoughts cost more now?
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post #2 of 22
6/29/08 at 7:13am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

I've always thought we should do away with all coinage and round everything off evenly to the dollar. A much better, more efficient system for everyone except Big Brother.
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post #3 of 22
6/29/08 at 9:35am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

You can still ride the purple dinosaur at Meijers for a penny. Man, does that sound dirty. And without Abe's pompadour how am I supposed to check the wear on my tire treads?
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post #4 of 22
6/29/08 at 11:58am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clinton McClure
I've always thought we should do away with all coinage and round everything off evenly to the dollar. A much better, more efficient system for everyone except Big Brother.
Except that every store would round everything up so if something used to cost $1.01 or $1.25 or $1.99, it would now be $2.00. I'll deal with the 'hassle' of coins rather than get ripped off every time I buy something.
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post #5 of 22
6/29/08 at 1:09pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Clinton McClure
I've always thought we should do away with all coinage and round everything off evenly to the dollar. A much better, more efficient system for everyone except Big Brother.
I could do with out nickels also, but the other coins are still needed in vending machines.
Quote:
You can still ride the purple dinosaur at Meijers for a penny. Man, does that sound dirty. And without Abe's pompadour how am I supposed to check the wear on my tire treads?
Being as it costs about $0.012 to make a penny, I don't think the government needs to be subsidizing purple dinosaur riding industry. Also, tires have their own built in tread wear indicators.
Quote:
Except that every store would round everything up so if something used to cost $1.01 or $1.25 or $1.99, it would now be $2.00. I'll deal with the 'hassle' of coins rather than get ripped off every time I buy something.
They would only round off at the cash register and they would be required to round down also. So the most you would be out is $0.49 per purchase, not per item if we got rid of all coins, or with only the pennies I was talking about, the most would be $0.03 per checkout.
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post #6 of 22
6/29/08 at 1:49pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

> Except that every store would round everything up so if something used to cost $1.01 or $1.25 or $1.99, it would now be $2.00. I'll deal with the 'hassle' of coins rather than get ripped off every time I buy something.

If that's so profitable for them, why don't they just raise all the prices now?
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post #7 of 22
6/29/08 at 1:58pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

how about, just do away with money entirely and have everything be card-based.

Makes more sense to me.
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post #8 of 22
6/29/08 at 3:26pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood
If that's so profitable for them, why don't they just raise all the prices now?
They don't do that now because prices don't all end in $x.00 as Clinton suggested they should. If they did have all the prices in $x.00, there's no way that companies wouldn't decide to go for the extra money and round everything up every time.
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post #9 of 22
6/29/08 at 4:02pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

I save my change from all cash purchases and cash it in every year or so, you'd be amazed how fast it adds up.

However, no pennies allowed, major nuisance. I rarely have more than ten in my possession, constantly dumping them. Whatever I buy, I always dump a few pennies in with the cash, making sure I only get back nickels or higher in my change.

Nickels are probably next on my list, they're fast becoming as annoying as pennies.
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post #10 of 22
6/29/08 at 4:11pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

I think you are missing the point. Say you bought 5 different items. They would all be priced just the same as they are now:
$4.58
$1.92
$0.74
$10.99
$3.21
The total is $21.44 at the checkout. In this case they would round up $0.01 to $21.45 and that is what you would pay. Just round either up or down on the total bill, not each item individually. Sometimes you would be out $0.02 and other times you would be up $0.02. To me that is worth not having to deal with all those pennies everywhere.
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post #11 of 22
6/29/08 at 4:57pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettV
how about, just do away with money entirely and have everything be card-based.

Makes more sense to me.

i very rarely buy anything with cash anymore, why should I?
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post #12 of 22
6/29/08 at 7:25pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

I agree with everything being card-based. I only have cash when I've paid for something for someone and they pay me back. I'd much rather pay for something with my debit card...actually, I'd like to pay for everything with my cell phone, but I know if that ever happens, I'll probably have to pay ATT a fee to use it.
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post #13 of 22
6/30/08 at 3:22pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
how about, just do away with money entirely and have everything be card-based.

Quote:
I only have cash when I've paid for something for someone and they pay me back.

So if we go to an all card-based system, do we stop paying for someone else? How would they pay us back? Do we all need to get a debit card machine so we can swipe their card for the $3.89 reimbursement ($3.90?) for that latte they wanted? Or do we tell them, "too bad. Sorry you don't get paid until Tuesday, but I can't cover you--the debit card machine costs me too much for such a small amount?"

I almost never have cash either but that's because I spend it too fast. $4 cash is easy to part with, but putting a $4 charge on my debit card is much harder. I don't know why, but for me it is.

As to the other question, personally, I like pennies. They DO add up, my nephew (he's 4) thinks it's cool to get them, and without them how would I ever know that "all day long (I'll) have good luck"?
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post #14 of 22
6/30/08 at 9:10pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisR
Except that every store would round everything up so if something used to cost $1.01 or $1.25 or $1.99, it would now be $2.00. I'll deal with the 'hassle' of coins rather than get ripped off every time I buy something.

This is simplistic and naive. Stores are going to sell their wares for whatever price they can get for them. If customers feel that paying $2.00 for a product that previously cost $1.20 is a "rip off," then they wouldn't purchase that product at all. That two-thirds increase in price is going to affect sales. Stores wouldn't do this because they couldn't sell very many items that way.
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post #15 of 22
6/30/08 at 10:00pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

i dont think anyone would want that type of system or even suggested it.
did you read post 10 just a few before yours?
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post #16 of 22
6/30/08 at 10:03pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

> They don't do that now because prices don't all end in $x.00 as Clinton suggested they should. If they did have all the prices in $x.00, there's no way that companies wouldn't decide to go for the extra money and round everything up every time.

I wish schools taught economics, since so many don't get this.

You seem to think if there were no pennies, we'd be willing to pay lots more for everything. Except for a few things like gas, people don't usually just pay whatever the price goes up to.

Why does WalMart keep lowering prices? Maybe they should hire you to tell them to raise them all, so they'll make more money. LOL
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post #17 of 22
7/1/08 at 12:29am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
i dont think anyone would want that type of system or even suggested it.
did you read post 10 just a few before yours?

Clinton suggested exactly that type of system, in the very first reply of this thread. Did you read it?
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post #18 of 22
7/1/08 at 12:58am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Being as it costs about $0.012 to make a penn
The idea of ditching low denomination coinage is an old one, and I was reminded of it a few days ago when searching my family tree. It turns out my great great great great [and possibly another great, I can't remember] grandfather was Henry Boase(Henry Boase - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). He was a well-respected banker and economist in his day and produced several publications, including Guineas, an unnecessary and expensive Incumbrance on Commerce, in which he argued that coinage cost more to make than it was worth and we'd all be better off with paper money. I imagine the old boy would have burnt his beard in delight had he seen the arrival of credit cards.

In the UK, the half pence (worth about 1 cent at the current exchange rate) disappeared from our coinage a good few years ago because nothing was worth that amount any more. Nowadays, it's increasingly common that if you hand over e.g. 3 pounds for something costing 2.99 pounds, you'll be asked if you want the penny change because most customers can't be bothered. There's practically nothing you can buy for a British penny, either.
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post #19 of 22
7/1/08 at 7:34am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Pennies are money! long live the penny.
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post #20 of 22
7/1/08 at 10:29am

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood
You seem to think if there were no pennies, we'd be willing to pay lots more for everything.
I didn't say anything about pennies. Since you keep missing my point, I'll say it again. Clinton said "we should do away with all coinage and round everything off evenly to the dollar" and I said that if that happened, every store would round their prices up and cost cosumers more money. Once again, I'm not saying that would happen if there were no pennies, I'm saying that if prices were all rounded to an even dollar, stores would round up in order to make more money.
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post #21 of 22
7/1/08 at 12:25pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

You're still missing the point. You are assuming that consumers would buy just as much of a product at $2.00 as they would at $1.01. In almost all cases, they certainly would not. Because stores would sell fewer items, they're about as likely to lose money on that item as they are to gain it. If they round all of their prices up indiscriminately, with no concern for the effect on sales, they are almost certain to lose money on the proposition.
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post #22 of 22
7/1/08 at 7:19pm

Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

As I understand it, the Aussies and Kiwis have already 'outlawed' their penny, i.e. in all cash transactions the final bill is rounded to the nearest 5 cents (up or down as applicable), and the 1-cent coin no longer exists.

Even in Singapore, 1-cent coins are no longer in production, although they still circulate; in due course they will no doubt be phased out entirely, probably along the same lines as Down Under. In any case, since it's around S$2.7 to the pound, our one cent is worth less than half a UK penny anyway...

Some supermarkets already voluntarily practice rounding down to the nearest 5 cents on the final bill for cash transactions, to do away with handling 1-cent coins entirely, and most places that deal entirely in cash transactions (small stores, food courts, hawkers etc) never charge in anything other than to the nearest 5 cents (indeed, more commonly to the nearest 10 cents).
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