HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Paying with cash nowadays may cost you slightly more at the store, or a little less, because of the ongoing penny shortage.
After the U.S. Treasury stopped penny production late last year because creating the coin costs more than three times its worth, Hawaii businesses are coming up with new penny policies.
At Lion Coffee in Kalihi, orders are rounded to the nearest nickel if customers pay with cash and don’t have exact change. Workers are trying to ensure they don’t have to charge cash-carrying customers extra, even if only by a few cents. Baristas are not only pulling shots from espresso machines—they’re also pulling pennies from their own pockets to stock the shop.
“We have like bags of dollars worth of pennies,” store manager Mercy Abel said.
But some customers at the shop weren’t bothered, confident their cup of coffee was worth an extra two cents.
“We’re hooked, everyone’s hooked on the coffee,” patron Christina Young said. “Rounding up, I think is, it’s happening, you can’t really avoid it, and I’m okay with it.”
A new sign on the counter at Lion Coffee reminds customers about the change, suggesting they pay with exact change or use a card. A similar sign is also posted on cash registers at Target Ala Moana.
“It’s just easier to do tap and pay, so I use Apple Pay quite often. When I do pay with cash, I throw my change in to a jar when I get home,” shopper Willow Logan said.
Victor Lim of the Hawaii Restaurant Association said, “Businesses that use credit cards, I mean that’s not a problem. But think about mom and pops, corner of your block…they basically deal with 100% cash transaction.”
To ease the burden on cash-only merchants, Victor Lim has been pushing for House Bill 2346, which would standardize price rounding.
“Two and under, you round down, three and up you round up, so that’s basically what we learn in elementary school and we’re asking people to apply this common sense way of doing business,” Lim explained.
Lawmakers advanced the bill earlier this month and referred it to the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.
It is still legal to use pennies, but Lim predicts they will become obsolete within the next two to three years.
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