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Canada Kills Penny!

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mrkgoo

Member
Now watch everything in every store start costing something that ends in a .*3,.*4, .*8, .*9 so that they can round up and make some extra few pennies on everything. Doesnt really matter to debit/credit as you are playing exact pricing.

Currently mostly everything already ends in .99, so they immediately make 1 C profit from doing nothing.
They don't make a 1c profit from doing nothing.

The whole point is that 1c is basically worthless so 99c is pretty much the same as a dollar.

We've had this system in New Zealand for ages. Seriously, no-one gives a crap. We have sales tax added into ticketed prices, and a few years back we even got rid of our 5c coin (RIP Tuatara!). We round to nearest 10c if using cash now.
 

Acheron

Banned
I don't understand this train of thoughts.

People will still buy multiple items at stores like they always did and the final amount with taxes will still be a 'random' number that will be rounded-up 50% of the time, and rounded-down 50% of the time.

The only way stores can take advantage of this is if their business model makes it so that people only purchase one item/thing at a time. Even then, it can't be something that's the same price nationally as the taxation amount is different in most provinces.

If I set it such that with the 13% HST (or whatever HST regime I'm operating in) every single item will end up at a $0.05 increment (and all higher than before), why would how many things I buy change it?

I think the incremental revenue for the store is worth the hassle of repricing. I also don't see why people think the store would have a seperate plastic/cash system. I'd just make sure everything ends in a 5 or 0 with HST applied meaning there would be no difference.

Unless the police is going to penalize this, which I don't know how they would, it will obviously increase prices. Though not by a lot for each person.

As in why would a company keep something $4.99 if after the 13% HST it's $5.64 for plastic and $5.60 for cash? Just raise the price to $5.00, apply the tax and everyone always pays $5.65. Store pockets the incremental $0.01
 

DrEvil

not a medical professional
Smoke's Poutinerie is cash-only :\

Not in London it isn't! :)


edit: also, New York Fries has the best poutine in the country. And yes, I'm including the Squeaky Cheese in Quebec City. NYF's Fry Seasoning and gravy is to die for.



I skimmed the entire thread for this hoping to be the cool first guy to do it and when I do it's not even an image. COME ON


Hate to burst your bubble, but there is nothing cool about quoting BBT (or their related comics) at all.
 

sammich

Member
I dont care about the few pennies difference. Im just saying that it wont be hard for businesses to make sure items will end in .5 or 0 after taxes. Its 13% here for everything anyway. Its not like they have to do some funky math to make it happen. My coffee i buy everyday costs 1.67. It should cost 1.65 when this goes live. Lets take bets on what its going to cost after, $1.65 or $1.70.

On another note.. i dont know why they just dont make the sticker price of everything to include tax already.
 
If I set it such that with the 13% HST (or whatever HST regime I'm operating in) every single item will end up at a $0.05 increment (and all higher than before), why would how many things I buy change it?

I think the incremental revenue for the store is worth the hassle of repricing. I also don't see why people think the store would have a seperate plastic/cash system. I'd just make sure everything ends in a 5 or 0 with HST applied meaning there would be no difference.

Unless the police is going to penalize this, which I don't know how they would, it will obviously increase prices. Though not by a lot for each person.

As in why would a company keep something $4.99 if after the 13% HST it's $5.64 for plastic and $5.60 for cash? Just raise the price to $5.00, apply the tax and everyone always pays $5.65. Store pockets the incremental $0.01


Consider some good that has a price with some terminal digit x. x is either 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9. When x is 3, buying 2 makes it 6, causing a rounddown. when x is 4, buying 3 makes it 2, causing a rounddown. you can complete the analysis for all other numbers, but this is why the amount bought matters, because the terminal digit is finite.
 

sammich

Member
Consider some good that has a price with some terminal digit x. x is either 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9. When x is 3, buying 2 makes it 6, causing a roudown. when x is 4, buying 3 makes it 2, causing a rounddown. you can complete the analysis for all other numbers, but this is why the amount bought matters, because the terminal digit is finite.


Makes sense.. i know i was missing something very obvious. I guess my main view was with singular items, like when buying a coffee, gum etc.
 

Fury Sense

Member
Nice. I hate pennies, I always toss 'em in the trash. Especially Canadian pennies, I live in Northwestern Michigan so they somehow find their way into my pocket. US needs to do the same.
Kind of a late reply, but I had to let everyone know that reading this made me really angry.
 

dejay

Banned
I missed this thread originally. Otherwise I would have told the story of my ex friend who used to jiggle the pump to get $*.*2 or $*.*7 worth of fuel every time. SCORE!

That was some time ago - we got rid of our 1s and 2s in the early '90s. Nobody thinks twice about it these days.

On another note.. i dont know why they just dont make the sticker price of everything to include tax already.

This is just absurd - my parents came back from a trip to North America and related this experience to me about some areas. Just display/quote the amount that has to be handed over.
 

Quick

Banned
This is just absurd - my parents came back from a trip to North America and related this experience to me about some areas. Just display/quote the amount that has to be handed over.

I really hope this is the next step. Not that I'm too lazy to do the math, but it would really just be convenient overall.

I had a small jar full of pennies that I've been collecting for a number of years. What do I get out of it? $10.
 

Zzoram

Member
Pennies are still everywhere. How long until they're all removed from the system? I assume every time a business/person deposits pennies at a bank, the bank sends it to the Feds to destroy/recycle.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.

Slightly late to this response, but it was sarcasm.

I dont care about the few pennies difference. Im just saying that it wont be hard for businesses to make sure items will end in .5 or 0 after taxes. Its 13% here for everything anyway. Its not like they have to do some funky math to make it happen. My coffee i buy everyday costs 1.67. It should cost 1.65 when this goes live. Lets take bets on what its going to cost after, $1.65 or $1.70.

On another note.. i dont know why they just dont make the sticker price of everything to include tax already.

I wish Canada did this. It would be lovely.
 
I've noticed that some stores around my city have already stopped accepting them, and have changed their prices accordingly. It really is a smart move I think.
 

Sober

Member
On another note.. i dont know why they just dont make the sticker price of everything to include tax already.
As someone working as a cashier for the moment, this annoys the fuck out of me when people ask how much shit is, then I read it to them with tax and they freak the fuck out like I murdered their dog and ran it over for an hour.
 

Tobe

Member
well my country has always used this. our lowest currency is 10 cents but the basis of it is still 1 cent, There has been a lot of problems in the past years cause of how some people would benefit from this. i dont know all the implications but i know that the supermarkets here made a fortune 1 cent at a time.
 

krae_man

Member
On another note.. i dont know why they just dont make the sticker price of everything to include tax already.

That wouldn't work at Tim Hortons when the amount of tax on your order depends on if it is over or under $4.

because you have provinces like Quebec that applies their TVQ (provincial sales tax) ontop of the GST.

So Quebec taxes taxes, lol


They don't any more. That stupid idea they had to try and claim their Provincial sales tax was 1/2 a percent less then Ontario when it was actually 25 hundreths of a percent higher bit them in the ass when Harper lowered the GST. They started losing 15 cents in taxation for every $100 spent. They don't calculate it that way anymore. Now the Provincial sales tax is 9.975% straight up.

http://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/entreprise/taxes/tvq_tps/calcul-taxes.aspx
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
As someone working as a cashier for the moment, this annoys the fuck out of me when people ask how much shit is, then I read it to them with tax and they freak the fuck out like I murdered their dog and ran it over for an hour.

I continue to see people freak out at grocery store cashiers when they charge them 5 cents for a plastic bag. As if the cashier had any decision in the matter.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
What do we do with old pennies? Deposit it to the bank?
You can still use pennies as legal tender. They'll just disappear when they are brought back to the bank, so of like when 1 and 2 dollar bills were phased out (and new currency is rolled out).

I guess since retailers will round up or down for all transactions, they'll be forced to roll up millions of pennies and return them.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
What do we do with old pennies? Deposit it to the bank?

Just use up the ones you have, or roll them up and exchange them at the bank. Nothing to really fret over, places are not going to stop accepting pennies. They're just going to stop handing them back as change.

I'm glad this is happening, with as many cash purchases as I make.
 

LCfiner

Member
I just bought some bottles of windshield washer fluid. change was 14.47. I got back 14.45. first penniless exchange and I already got stiffed!

(I would have thrown out those two pennies anyway. I'm happy for this new world)
 

cbox

Member
Finally, I hate change in general. Especially after buying stupid TTC tokens, I have a mountain of noise in my pocket afterwards.
 
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