In case you don't live in Canada I've decided to provide some back story to the saga of the Canadian penny.
Earlier this year, the Canadian government effectively decided to discontinue the penny. The reasons given are the high cost of manufacturing and handling for a coin that is essentially worth nothing. The new plan is that if a consumer buys something and pays with cash, the store will adjust the price to the nearest nickel (5 cents). The idea was that items with a final cost that ends with $0.01, $0.02, $0.06 and $0.07 would be rounded down, and $0.03, $0.04, $0.08, and $0.09 would be rounded up.
 |
| Behold! the glorious penny! |
I'm not sure if it's my irrational hatred of anything new, (or maybe paranoia), but I was definitely not excited to hear about this.
I've already had my first annoying incident when I went to pay for some fast food:
 |
| I had to dig through my whole purse! |
I then complained to anyone that would listen how what the guy did must be illegal...
That was when I found out that they didn't make the 'rounding' rules a law. It's a "guideline". Like "don't eat snacks after 7pm". Because we all follow those. There is no legal consequence for not following the rounding rules.
And I know it's just 3 cents. But besides the principle of the thing, those 3 cents could really add up. I did the math. Which is saying something because I hate math.
Say, hypothetically, that an iced cream costs $2.77 with tax. And say on one warm summer day, at a large chain of ice cream shops, 100 000 people buy iced cream with their change, that would add up to $3000 extra that belongs to people being paid to the stores.
And that is just one hypothetical day and one hypothetical purchase! I don't think I've said hypothetical enough. Hypothetical!
There.
Anyway, so now I'm paying for everything with my credit card. Which makes for a completely ridiculous bill. $0.97 for a Score Bar, $2.54 for a small pack of Kleenex...but I digress.
In conclusion, I want the penny back. It would be nice if just once my paranoia turned out to be wrong. But let's face it, they really are out to get us. ***cue twilight zone music
Hi again!
ReplyDeleteHeard about Canada ditching the penny, and thought if I was still living there I wouldn't like it. How can this ever work when there's a tax on an item? The brilliant rooster who came up with this idea never thought it through, huh?
If a clerk tried to cheat me out of those pennies like he did you, I would have just left the food on the counter and told him to go back to school and learn how to round figures. And then email the company. How do you stand this?
Please keep those posts coming. They're really enlightening :)