Thread In Which We Discuss Trump Admin Policy & Give Trump Props
- Thread starter CFordUNC
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What's the goal you are using to call it a win? Reduce payroll? Or is the goal to have an efficiently run but competent organization?
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Not sure your time zone, but this feels a bit like counting your chickens. Careful, CR.
superrific
Legend of ZZL
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I'm all for getting rid of pennies, but how is this going to work? Are retailers going to be required to round all payments down to the nearest nickel?
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Eventually? There are a lot of pennies out there. I doubt they will be invalidated (?)
superrific
Legend of ZZL
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I remember there being a penny shortage during Covid, and that was with continued printing.
And what % of pennies "out there" are usable, versus being stuck to the bottom of a cupholder, shoved deep into kitchen cabinets, filling little kids wallets and all the other inglorious ends to which pennies meet?
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Maybe they’ll have a return your pennies drive? After that, I guess round up or down to a nickel on stuff.
superrific
Legend of ZZL
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It's of course economically insignificant, but this is the sort of change that can produce all sorts of unintended consequences because nobody bothers to think it all the way through. The retailers probably can't round up or they will be sued for false advertising (if I buy one thing for .98 and the total is rounded up to $1, then the .98 is arguably false). So they round down. I mean, fine, but that's a hidden tax on the retailer. Will it apply to credit card transactions too, at the retail level?
I mean, I don't know the ins and outs of retail regulations. It just seems like it could be a lot more trouble than it's worth, just like the penny.
We have computers.
Retailers who want to survive will round down to the nearest nickel.
They’ll appear to eat the 1-4 pennies of sales tax…..maybe appear to eat a dollar.
I was a regional director for a decent-sized northeastern retailer the first year that New York did a “no sales tax” event.
Initially, I thought it wasn’t going to be much of a deal. Our big sales were store-wide 20% off events - so, 7-8% off CLOTHING PRICED <$50/item didn’t seem like much.
I was SO WRONG.
Three-four days before the sales-tax-free event, I realized how big it was going to be. A customer drove in from the North Fork of Lawnguyland to Carle Place (middle of retail hell in Nassau County) and wanted to know if it was possible to return things, get a refund, rebuy them, and get everything without the sales tax. Well, the answer according to New York State was, “No.”. The practical answer was, “Yes.”
I tried to joke with the customer……”You drove 2 hours from the North Fork….one way…..….maybe 150 miles round-trip…..to save $17 in sales tax…….but, you’ll have to repeat the trip to not pay the sales tax.”
Customer: “At least the fucking government won’t get my money.”
That was a lesson.
That was a Lawnguyland Republican…..soon to become a Tea Party member and then a Trumplican.
“I’ll drive 6 hours to not pay $17 in sales tax.”
All our stores saw a dramatic increase in sales. The Lawnguyland stores saw YUGE returns and good sales.
The Manhattan stores saw almost NO returns and huge sales.
In fact, in Manhattan we did better with the state’s “no sales tax” (limited to clothing under $X amount) than we did with statewide 20% off.
Effing the government of 17-18% matters more than any savings to some.
Down? Don't be silly.
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“…
Some argue that the cost savings would be worth it, pointing to Canada, which stopped producing pennies in 2012, as an example.
Others say abolishing the coin would have consequences such as increasing consumer prices by rounding transactions up.
While the president ultimately has the authority to decide which coins the Treasury mints, one stumbling block could be how merchants manage change, according to TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg.
… In the event of the Treasury removing the penny from circulation, Congress would likely move quickly to legislate to enable merchants to round transactions to the nearest nickel. …”
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Trump Orders Treasury to Halt Minting New Pennies to Cut Waste
Can he do that? It’s not clear. But President Trump is right when he says that pennies “literally cost us more than 2 cents.”
It cost 3.69 cents to produce and distribute a penny last year, according to the U.S. Mint’s annual report. This means that, accounting for their face value, each penny made a loss of 2.69 cents.
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Last year, the Mint issued over three billion pennies, according to its annual report, at a loss of about $85.3 million. Pennies, which are often given as change but rarely spent, accounted for more than half of all the coins the Mint produced that year. There were about 250 billion pennies in circulation, or about 700 per person, in the United States, last year.
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In addition, the elimination of the penny will increase the demand for nickels, which are even more expensive to produce and distribute at 13.78 cents per coin, the organization said. (The dime is the smallest coin whose face value is greater than what it costs to produce.)
