Re: Zinc firm eager to keep pennies in circulation

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:09:38 -0400, "Richard L. Hall"
<richlhall0@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In my supermarket they do. I would estimate by looking at the prices that
about 90-95% of all the regular prices in the store are of the form $x.x9.
I found 2 boxes of organic cereal at $4.61 and another at $5.08. And a
handful of prices ending in either 0 or 5. But there were not very many
exceptions to the $x.x9. In the local 7-11 it goes up to about 99%.

And if true, there will only be a *one*-cent loss on "most" single-item
purchases.

I buy about 50 items a week. So if I lose 1c per item that's 50c per week.
Multiply that 52 weeks and that comes to $26 per year. Right on my
estimate. And I'm single. Take a family of 4 and it gets much worse.


I haven't been following this thread very closely, but the above seems
totally incorrect to me. It assumes that all 50 items will be
purchased and paid for separately. I can't imagine anyone making 50
trips a week to the grocery.

The most that can be lost with the elimination of the penny coin is
four cents per check-out. That assumes that the supermarket will add
together the amounts for the number of items and the total will be
rounded up to the nearest nickel. Four cents is the largest amount of
loss possible per supermarket visit, but many visits will result in a
three cent, two cent, or one cent loss.

If you average the loss at two cents per shopping trip, and assume two
shopping trips per week, the annual loss is 104 x 2 cents or $2.08.
Even assuming a loss of four cents per shopping trip is only $4.16
annually.

If the supermarket does what is usually done with rounding - rounding
up for a three cent or four cent ending number, or down with a one
cent or two cent ending number, the loss would be 0 over time.

There was a discussion some time ago in another newsgroup about the
effect of withdrawing pennies from circulation. I can't remember the
exact discussion, but I think it's Australia where the penny coin was
withdrawn from circulation. If I remember correctly, the one and two
cent coins were eliminated in the 90s. At the supermarket,
Australians paying by cash have the total sale rounded to the nearest
5 cent amount, but Australians paying by bank card are charged the
actual amount even if it ends in one, two, three, or four cents.

There was a hidden loss to the consumer in Australia when the penny
was discontinued. Items previously priced ending in one to four cents
were re-priced with either a 0 or a 5 cent ending number. The
merchants always chose the higher figure for the new price, so an item
priced at 96 cents was re-priced at 1.00 instead of 95 cents.

If we have an Australian poster, he may be able to confirm or correct
my comments.


--


Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
.

Relevant Pages

  • 99 Cents Only Stores Expects Narrower Loss In Q4 - Update
    ... 99 Cents Only Stores Expects Narrower Loss In Q4 - Update ... 99 Cents' net sales increased 9.4% for the ... The higher the rating, the greater the one week historical gain ...
    (misc.invest.stocks)
  • Buckwheats Failure - Do-Nothing DemocRATs Force Electronic Arts to cut about 1,500 jobs
    ... Electronic Arts posts loss, to cut jobs ... EA forecast full-year earnings per share at 70 cents to $1, ... on non-GAAP revenue of $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion. ... Video game publishers are facing serious concerns from analysts and ...
    (alt.politics)
  • New York Times Fish Wrapper Posts Loss, Near Bankruptcy
    ... The New York Times Co. posted a surprise loss on Thursday as the economic downturn added to pressure on newspaper advertising and left the publisher with worse-than-expected quarterly results. ... "Advertising revenues decreased in the quarter as weaker economic conditions compounded the effects of secular change in our business," Chief Executive Janet Robinson said in a statement. ... A year ago, it posted net income of $23.9 million, or 17 cents per share, and income from continuing operations of 14 cents per share. ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Re: {OT:} Crude oil prices down $0.65 a barrel
    ... I average $1.20 a litre at the moment and I've seen it go up 20c per litre in 2 hours. ... It's gone up 35 cents a gallon or 10 percent here in about a week. ... If you are after justification can you tell my why on Wednesday night it is the cheapest and then goes up 0.12 overnight for Thursday morning just as people get paid and then slowly drops back down to the Wednesday night low. ... The distributors just tell their dealers to raise the prices whenever now. ...
    (alt.autos.toyota)
  • STAMPS go up 2cents again in MAY...THANK GOD FOR EMAIL
    ... class stamp will rise to 44 cents on May 11. ... offer some of the lowest postage prices in the world." ... While the new 44-cent rate covers the first ounce of first-class mail, ... Buffeted by rising costs and declining mail volume, ...
    (soc.retirement)
Loading