For decades I’ve heard talk of “eliminating the penny.” Honestly I can’t believe that hasn’t happened yet. At this point dimes and nickels are basically useless as well. I have a pile of coins sitting on my kitchen counter that I try to get rid of whenever possible, but mostly the only thing I do with them is toss them in the tip jar when I’m buying a coffee or burrito or something. I don’t even feel good about it though, because why would the Dunkin’ Donuts guy want to carry that extra weight around any more that I do?
A friend of mine’s wife has been throwing her change in the trash for years, and I’m starting to agree with her. There is absolutely no need for any denomination less than a quarter anymore. What costs less than 25 cents anyway? Penny candy? Suck it up and buy 2 pieces of Chinese fortune bubble gum (remember that?) instead of just one.
My bar (and most bars/restaurants everywhere) has already made this transition; we only use quarters. No one ever cares if you just round every price to the nearest quarter. In fact, more often than not we round to the nearest dollar. Sometimes you round up, sometimes you round down. At the end of the night we’re always within a buck or two of where we should be; why can’t everyone do that?
The only reason I save quarters is for laundry, and it won’t be long before those machines all run on bills or credit cards. The parking meters on my street just recently converted to accept plastic. Even the guy who’s always standing outside the corner store on my block doesn’t even ask for “spare change,” he asks if you “have an extra dollar” when you walk by. Not to mention that half the population has already given up on using cash to begin with. Change is just dumb.
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About Mark Vandeusen