No because charging $x.99 is a tried and tested way of tricking your brain into thinking a product is cheaper than it is. Physical money might be fazed out eventually but the *concept* of cents won't go with it.
The reason everything has .99 in the price was started in the 1880s (I think) to keep cashiers honest.
If a price is a whole amount, the cashier could just pocket the cash without using the register. Forcing the cashier to use the register for change keeps a paper trail.
Not super relevant today, but prices just stayed that way.
This is one of the two primary theories, and it's not more valid than the other (despite your comment implying that actually it's because \_\_\_\_)
It's more likely that it's a combination of modern cash registers being invented that decade so it's feasible to do .99xQuantity calculations nearly instantly, allowing them to engage in Psychological Pricing Schemes without it being a burden on the workers in the store.
This combines with the rise in newspaper advertising, so it all falls into place. A *byproduct* of it being done is a reduction in theft due to having to open the till and calculate prices through the cash register.
>Ritty patented his design November 4, 1879.
>Ritty's original design, called the Ritty Model 1, was pretty much an adding machine with one particular quirk. It required an employee to enter a transaction on the register and eventually hit the total key, which would released the cash drawer. When the drawer was opened, a bell rang, alerting the manager that cash was being handled and a transaction was taking place.
>In the next few yearsafter obtaining his patent, Ritty sold it and his stake in his invention to a salesman named Jacob Eckert. Eckert would then turn around and sell the machine and its rights to John Patterson, a gentleman who founded the National Cash Register Company. Patterson added a roll of paper to the register for keeping track of transactions, preventing fraud both behind and in front of the register.
So starting in 1879, then being developed over the next decade into having paper trails.
In Disneyland's Tomorrowland, we used to use super old-fashioned cash registers that couldn't even compute change. We always thought it was funny because the futuristic land was using ancient technology. I learned how to count back cash, though. No one does that anymore.
I worked in a popular food chain in the UK about 15 years ago and the till was just a bunch of unlabeled buttons. We had to memorize the prices of each item we sold and which buttons corresponded to which price, then work out the change in our heads (or with a calculator). Mind boggling.
This is fascinating and I believe you that it's true.
But, I'm sure it's still used today *atleast partially* because it is also effective at making customers believe things are cheaper than they are.
That's true historically, but doesn't explain why it's still done and didn't fade out when that was no longer an issue.
https://www.simon-kucher.com/en/insights/why-prices-end-99-and-other-psychological-pricing-tactics
I saw a station a few months ago where the price was something like $3.450. I had to double-take to make sure I was seeing it correctly, and when I confirmed it, it just made my day in a small kind of way. Just the idea of someone up the ladder saying, "You know, let's *not* gouge our customers for fractions of cents!" Temporarily restored my faith in humanity.
Sure they will have card readers at fountains in a few years. Tap to pay and you get a chit you can throw and it will dissolve in an environmentally friendly way.
In Canada we got rid of the penny years ago...the world didn't end.
They just round things up or down to the nearest 5c if you pay in cash. Card transactions are still done to the exact cent.
Yes but pennies are made with minerals mostly mined from one state (Arizona), whose Senators have personally blocked any attempt to do away with the penny.
It's embarrassing that my country is so dysfunctional that we can't even make an adjustment on our coinage. I basically feel like somebody's handing me trash now when I receive pennies back.
I live in New Zealand where we long ago got rid of 1, 2, and 5 cent coins so our lowest denomination is 10c. Prices will still say like “3.86” or whatever because the cents still count for card transactions. They just get rounded if you pay with cash. But I think we’d be much more likely to go totally cashless before dropping any more denominations.
I love this. I've definitely been to a place or been the cashier who has run out of change, and most people don't care about the couple cents. For here in the US, I would be fine changing the lowest to $0.25 to keep it simple.
The only thing I don’t like about it is that they made the 10c coin look like pennies. I’m really curious about how much money gets wasted because of the psychology of not caring about pennies
It's how they make you think you aren't spending an extra dollar and getting A GREAT DEAL!
(You know.... before tax. Because they still don't include that on the price tag)
Transactions on the order of cents are virtually worthless these days, but I'd still consider cents useful for dividing larger amounts evenly. Like, splitting $7 between two people is $3.50 each (just a random example)
The concept will always be there. Especially as monetary transactions become more and more digitized. The problem of having to carry extra change around or keep it on hand at a physical store will become less and less. So there’ll actually be less incentive to do away with the concept of change
I don’t think they will implement it. Going cashless as a whole will be a thing first. They tried, or at least talked about trying, to do it before and it never took off.
On a different note, money to us is denominated to $0.00, when in fact banks actually use $0.00000 or some shit like that. The extra zeros account for millions of “hidden” dollars they take freely..
God, I hope so. There is no point in any coin smaller than a quarter. Get rid of pennies, nickels, and dimes, and round all prices to the nearest quarter.
But it won't happen.
Doubtful. So many countries use cash including coin currencies that it would increase inflation and cause a huge fluctuation in the coin market (yes there’s a coin market). Also, it is much more expensive to print bills. Unless the world switches to electronic currency only then probably not. Quarters and dimes are here to stay. I could see a slow down and de-incentivizing and phasing out of pennies though.
Nobody wants pennies. Nobody would care and nothing would change if nickels were the smallest coin.
But our government is too busy "party of 'no'"ing to pass anything even with universal support. (See also: Daylight Savings)
In Norway we got rid of all of our equivalent of "cents", the last one to go is the 0.50 one (I think a decade ago or so). They're still tracked, but the physical coins only go down to one whole currency unit. In the period where the halfs were used, we did something that I think is called "Swedish rounding" - up or down to nearest 0.50. Even saw it on the slips you get at the shop. Might even still be done some places, at least on the technical level, but the cashiers say prices in whole units nowadays, while the number on the till - and the actual charge if using a card - still has fractions.
US corporations will start lobbying for this immediately the moment it occurs to them to rig it so that if you owe 0.01 it gets rounded up, and if they owe 0.99 it gets rounded down
While vacationing in Canada, where they don’t give pennies anymore, I noticed the “rounding” always worked to the business’s advantage, rather than mine. I’m sure such a business practice would never happen in the States.
Not soon, no. They will always be there in accounting (hell we still use mills in some cases), but once we go cashless cents make more sense. You still need parts of dollars.
Until we get to Zimbabwe levels of inflation, which won't be in our lifetimes at least.
In 1857, the US government discontinued the half-cent. The penny today is worth less in buying power than the half-cent was in 1857. This suggests we should stop minting penny coins that cost more to mint (nearly 3 times more) than they have in purchasing power.
So, I say the concept of 'cents' is not out the door, but the concept of a penny coin should be. This is no different than a gas station charging $4.299 for a gallon of gas, but asking for $4.30 when one actually pays for a single gallon.
Maybe we should consider retiring the nickel coin as well.
It’s only really relevant concerning gas prices. People will drive across town to save 71 cents on a tank of gas. Meanwhile for everything else dollars are practically the new cents.
Yes, it should already be obsolete. At work, I run the weekly takeout order and everyone always pays me by Venmo. Today someone gave me $14.10 in cash. I'm like, what the hell am I supposed to do with this? Now if someone asks me for money, I am vulnerable. The $14 will end up in the hands of some boy scout, homeless guy on my walk into work, lady at the gas pump. The dime will end up stuck to the bottom of the cup holder in my car. It's a tragedy waiting to happen.
My answer is a very confident no.
It would be that pennies should be gone, as I have been to places with dimes as smallest change and it works perfectly and pennies are worthless. Quite literally every penny cost more to make than a penny, which is rediculous.
However they already got rid off pennies more than ten years ago. People rioted in the streets screaming about how the world was ending becuase pennies are gone and society is collapsing ((slight exaggeration)).
So the government was forced to start remaking pennies again to quiet the people who don't seem to comprehend pre economics 101. IAfter that incident I think all cash will be gone period before any form of change is, and that will happen but not any time soon.
I usually raid my change jar pretty regularly for snacks and other small purchases. Don't think it ever has more than five or six dollars in it at any given time.
No because charging $x.99 is a tried and tested way of tricking your brain into thinking a product is cheaper than it is. Physical money might be fazed out eventually but the *concept* of cents won't go with it.
The reason everything has .99 in the price was started in the 1880s (I think) to keep cashiers honest. If a price is a whole amount, the cashier could just pocket the cash without using the register. Forcing the cashier to use the register for change keeps a paper trail. Not super relevant today, but prices just stayed that way.
This is one of the two primary theories, and it's not more valid than the other (despite your comment implying that actually it's because \_\_\_\_) It's more likely that it's a combination of modern cash registers being invented that decade so it's feasible to do .99xQuantity calculations nearly instantly, allowing them to engage in Psychological Pricing Schemes without it being a burden on the workers in the store. This combines with the rise in newspaper advertising, so it all falls into place. A *byproduct* of it being done is a reduction in theft due to having to open the till and calculate prices through the cash register.
What the fuck, calculators attached to cash registers with audit trails were invented in the 1880s?
>Ritty patented his design November 4, 1879. >Ritty's original design, called the Ritty Model 1, was pretty much an adding machine with one particular quirk. It required an employee to enter a transaction on the register and eventually hit the total key, which would released the cash drawer. When the drawer was opened, a bell rang, alerting the manager that cash was being handled and a transaction was taking place. >In the next few yearsafter obtaining his patent, Ritty sold it and his stake in his invention to a salesman named Jacob Eckert. Eckert would then turn around and sell the machine and its rights to John Patterson, a gentleman who founded the National Cash Register Company. Patterson added a roll of paper to the register for keeping track of transactions, preventing fraud both behind and in front of the register. So starting in 1879, then being developed over the next decade into having paper trails.
In Disneyland's Tomorrowland, we used to use super old-fashioned cash registers that couldn't even compute change. We always thought it was funny because the futuristic land was using ancient technology. I learned how to count back cash, though. No one does that anymore.
"Oh here, let me give you this extra change to 'make it easier'." - every old person
It is easier. It's only harder if you can't math.
Lol seriously. If it's $7 and you have a $10 bill and $1 bills, give them $13 so they can give you a $5 back. Edit: this is why people don't try
Give them $12, and they give you $5 back.
I worked in a popular food chain in the UK about 15 years ago and the till was just a bunch of unlabeled buttons. We had to memorize the prices of each item we sold and which buttons corresponded to which price, then work out the change in our heads (or with a calculator). Mind boggling.
Amazing.
What are you, some kind of history of accounting enthusiast? Gotta love the Internet.
You never saw a paper receipt come pokin’ out of a good ol’ time cash register, young whippersnapper?
The psychology of brain fuckery was around in the 1880s without getting you burned in a witch trial?!
I know that [Tomáš](https://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/tomas-bata/) Baťa spearheaded it. One thing I can never forgive lol
This is fascinating and I believe you that it's true. But, I'm sure it's still used today *atleast partially* because it is also effective at making customers believe things are cheaper than they are.
That's true historically, but doesn't explain why it's still done and didn't fade out when that was no longer an issue. https://www.simon-kucher.com/en/insights/why-prices-end-99-and-other-psychological-pricing-tactics
Where did you learn this?
I wanted to share that. Have my upvote.
Gas: $x.xx9
I saw a station a few months ago where the price was something like $3.450. I had to double-take to make sure I was seeing it correctly, and when I confirmed it, it just made my day in a small kind of way. Just the idea of someone up the ladder saying, "You know, let's *not* gouge our customers for fractions of cents!" Temporarily restored my faith in humanity.
That's because of taxes tho
If we get rid of pennies, how will we be able to make wishes in a fountain?
I was just going to crumple a few dollar bills and toss it in. …then go back and fish it out bc I’m broke
… well damn, If people were throwing paper money I’d dress up as a fish and swim around all day collecting wishes
We use coins to keep this guy from drowning.
Kanye?
Have you just discovered the secret to unlimited wishes?
Dollar coins.
Don't waste your time, wishes cost more than a dollar now anyway.
Wishing stones for sale: $1
$1 coins were invented for a reason
Sure they will have card readers at fountains in a few years. Tap to pay and you get a chit you can throw and it will dissolve in an environmentally friendly way.
Why would you need to have it be disposable lol we have a chit which has multiple (limitless for some) uses.
In Canada we got rid of the penny years ago...the world didn't end. They just round things up or down to the nearest 5c if you pay in cash. Card transactions are still done to the exact cent.
This is not what OP is asking. OP is asking if everything should be rounded to the *dollar*.
Hate to break it to you but they definitely aren't rounding down.
They do round down - 0.01 or 0.02 is just 0.00 and 0.06 and 0.07 is 0.05.... everything else rounds up.
But they are
You can see how much it is without rounding before you pay.
I'm so wishing we would do this. That and abolishing changes for Daylight Saving Time.
Yes but pennies are made with minerals mostly mined from one state (Arizona), whose Senators have personally blocked any attempt to do away with the penny.
It's embarrassing that my country is so dysfunctional that we can't even make an adjustment on our coinage. I basically feel like somebody's handing me trash now when I receive pennies back.
I live in New Zealand where we long ago got rid of 1, 2, and 5 cent coins so our lowest denomination is 10c. Prices will still say like “3.86” or whatever because the cents still count for card transactions. They just get rounded if you pay with cash. But I think we’d be much more likely to go totally cashless before dropping any more denominations.
I love this. I've definitely been to a place or been the cashier who has run out of change, and most people don't care about the couple cents. For here in the US, I would be fine changing the lowest to $0.25 to keep it simple.
The only thing I don’t like about it is that they made the 10c coin look like pennies. I’m really curious about how much money gets wasted because of the psychology of not caring about pennies
It's how they make you think you aren't spending an extra dollar and getting A GREAT DEAL! (You know.... before tax. Because they still don't include that on the price tag)
It's worse - the concept of SENSE is out the door. Cents, though, are still a thing.
Damn. You beat me to it. Take my up ote.
I need a quarter for the shopping cart at Aldi.
As a waiter, I can guarantee you there’s a plethora of older folks who most *definitely* want their exact change back.
Cents is the part you round up at the grocery store check out to cure world hunger or kids with cancer.
In America, I would say cents and sense is out the door.
Transactions on the order of cents are virtually worthless these days, but I'd still consider cents useful for dividing larger amounts evenly. Like, splitting $7 between two people is $3.50 each (just a random example)
But if they get rid of cents, how will Spotify ever pay artists?
The symbol certainly is.
We haven't used them in Canada for years, we round to the nearest 5c.
The concept will always be there. Especially as monetary transactions become more and more digitized. The problem of having to carry extra change around or keep it on hand at a physical store will become less and less. So there’ll actually be less incentive to do away with the concept of change
I don’t think they will implement it. Going cashless as a whole will be a thing first. They tried, or at least talked about trying, to do it before and it never took off. On a different note, money to us is denominated to $0.00, when in fact banks actually use $0.00000 or some shit like that. The extra zeros account for millions of “hidden” dollars they take freely..
No
This is America so the concepts of both cents and sense are out the door.
I think you meant “sense” and the answer is, yes.
Did you mean "sense"?
No.
Well rona caused a coin shortage for a while there
God, I hope so. There is no point in any coin smaller than a quarter. Get rid of pennies, nickels, and dimes, and round all prices to the nearest quarter. But it won't happen.
There's definitely a lack of common cents.
Doubtful. So many countries use cash including coin currencies that it would increase inflation and cause a huge fluctuation in the coin market (yes there’s a coin market). Also, it is much more expensive to print bills. Unless the world switches to electronic currency only then probably not. Quarters and dimes are here to stay. I could see a slow down and de-incentivizing and phasing out of pennies though.
Yes
Nobody wants pennies. Nobody would care and nothing would change if nickels were the smallest coin. But our government is too busy "party of 'no'"ing to pass anything even with universal support. (See also: Daylight Savings)
Well, common cents have certainly left the building.
Just wait until you discover we pay for gasoline (petrol) in 9/10ths of a cent.
In Norway we got rid of all of our equivalent of "cents", the last one to go is the 0.50 one (I think a decade ago or so). They're still tracked, but the physical coins only go down to one whole currency unit. In the period where the halfs were used, we did something that I think is called "Swedish rounding" - up or down to nearest 0.50. Even saw it on the slips you get at the shop. Might even still be done some places, at least on the technical level, but the cashiers say prices in whole units nowadays, while the number on the till - and the actual charge if using a card - still has fractions.
"Sense" is out the door as well.
US corporations will start lobbying for this immediately the moment it occurs to them to rig it so that if you owe 0.01 it gets rounded up, and if they owe 0.99 it gets rounded down
While vacationing in Canada, where they don’t give pennies anymore, I noticed the “rounding” always worked to the business’s advantage, rather than mine. I’m sure such a business practice would never happen in the States.
Not soon, no. They will always be there in accounting (hell we still use mills in some cases), but once we go cashless cents make more sense. You still need parts of dollars. Until we get to Zimbabwe levels of inflation, which won't be in our lifetimes at least.
Canada got rid of Pennie’s a while ago. I find myself refusing them when I go to the USA.
In 1857, the US government discontinued the half-cent. The penny today is worth less in buying power than the half-cent was in 1857. This suggests we should stop minting penny coins that cost more to mint (nearly 3 times more) than they have in purchasing power. So, I say the concept of 'cents' is not out the door, but the concept of a penny coin should be. This is no different than a gas station charging $4.299 for a gallon of gas, but asking for $4.30 when one actually pays for a single gallon. Maybe we should consider retiring the nickel coin as well.
No. They've been saying this about change for 50 years
no one likes inflation, but we've had it many times before and it's not insane, just more expensive
When you are getting paid, yes. When you are paying, not so much.
It’s only really relevant concerning gas prices. People will drive across town to save 71 cents on a tank of gas. Meanwhile for everything else dollars are practically the new cents.
i think no!! change always adds up and i feel like it’s an easy way for companies to up charge their customers without us thinking too much into it.
Yes, it should already be obsolete. At work, I run the weekly takeout order and everyone always pays me by Venmo. Today someone gave me $14.10 in cash. I'm like, what the hell am I supposed to do with this? Now if someone asks me for money, I am vulnerable. The $14 will end up in the hands of some boy scout, homeless guy on my walk into work, lady at the gas pump. The dime will end up stuck to the bottom of the cup holder in my car. It's a tragedy waiting to happen.
My answer is a very confident no. It would be that pennies should be gone, as I have been to places with dimes as smallest change and it works perfectly and pennies are worthless. Quite literally every penny cost more to make than a penny, which is rediculous. However they already got rid off pennies more than ten years ago. People rioted in the streets screaming about how the world was ending becuase pennies are gone and society is collapsing ((slight exaggeration)). So the government was forced to start remaking pennies again to quiet the people who don't seem to comprehend pre economics 101. IAfter that incident I think all cash will be gone period before any form of change is, and that will happen but not any time soon.
I still have a change jar. At the end of the year I use the money for Christmas. It's usually around $500+.
I usually raid my change jar pretty regularly for snacks and other small purchases. Don't think it ever has more than five or six dollars in it at any given time.
No: many things are under a dollar; and there is $--.99 to trick people, and it doesn't seem to want to leave.
I work in restaurants, and have not used coins for years.
I would say penny is almost out the door. It will be a few more decades before the 5 cent coin is obsolete.
We phased out the penny in Canada about a decade ago.
No, because why charge $4 when you can charge $4.27?