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America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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The penny works but people no longer use it for rounding and just wind up with more and more pennies. Back in the day cashier would ask for something ending in an 8 so you hand over dollars and 3 extra pennies, change winds up on a 5, get a nickel instead of 2 more pennies. That is why the penny exists, not to buy things with pennies but to round to the next useful coin. Cashiers often look like a deer in headlights if they ask for 2.49 and you give them 5.04, bygone era
The other day I paid with a $20 bill and two ones for a $12 item so I can get a whole $10 back instead of more ones. The cashier mindlessly saw the $20 as a $10 because it’s so exceedingly rare for someone to intentionally overpay to control excess change. After that, I stopped doing it.
It's getting rare to pay with cash at all
I worked fast food many moons ago and even then it was like 80% card transactions
Adding extra for round change was not only common, but cashiers would ask for it. But that was 20 years ago, when I still used cash. The only cash I ever see now is the one I keep around to put under my kids' pillows for their teeth.
I've found the trick is you have to say "Here's $22 dollars" out loud to them.
I genuinely didnt follow that, first time ive been too yung to get something