Bad news for the thinkers among us: Retailers are increasingly unable to offer us pennies.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was winding down the production of the penny, which long ago began costing more to make than it’s worth. Several Federal Reserve Bank sites around the country, which distribute the coins to banks and credit unions, have already stopped fulfilling orders for pennies.
This is putting some retailers in a bind, especially when customers don’t have exact change for transactions that are not rounded to the nearest nickel.
This month, a consortium of retail groups, including the National Association of Convenience Stores and the National Grocers Association, wrote to members of Congress urging clear guidelines on how to proceed. The groups called for legislation to round transactions to make it easier to give exact change, and to facilitate check cashing at stores.
“Unless these services are covered by legislation,” the letter reads, “many low-income customers may lose access to the services they need and have come to expect.”
While the government has not offered guidance for what stores should do if they run out of pennies, some retailers appear to be taking it upon themselves to adapt. Earlier this month, Kwik Trip, the convenience store chain based in La Crosse, Wis., announced that its 850 stores across the Midwest would round cash transactions down to the nearest nickel, though the price of cashless transactions would remain the same.
There are signs that the shortage is beginning to affect other American businesses, such as Sheetz, the convenience store chain based in Altoona, Pa. WGAL-TV spotted a sign in one store in south-central Pennsylvania that said, “Attention Customers: The U.S. Mint will no longer produce pennies, so we are short on change!”
Instead, the store encouraged customers to use credit or debit cards, or a phone payment app. Additionally, the store encouraged customers to “round up” their cash purchases to support charity, or to “cash in one dollar’s worth of spare pennies to receive a self-serve drink.”
Love’s Travel Stops, an Oklahoma City-based convenience store chain, is also dealing with shortages, with a similar policy of rounding up change, a measure that a company representative said was “temporary” while the business works toward a long-term solution.
“Its impact is already evident across our retail operations,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “A number of Love’s locations across various states are impacted, and that number continues to fluctuate.”
In a Reddit forum devoted to the Home Depot, someone reported visiting a store that was requiring exact change for cash transactions, citing the penny shortage. Representatives for Home Depot and Sheetz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Fast food chains are likely to be affected as well.
Burger King is still accepting pennies, for now.
“However, due to the shortage, exact change may not be possible,” a Burger King representative said in an email on Wednesday. “Restaurants experiencing a penny shortage recommend that guests pay with credit, debit or exact change when possible.”
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
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