Farmington • What’s Chloe Pace’s two cents?
The Farmington shopper said it’s “weird and annoying” that she wasn’t given exact change buying groceries Thursday morning.
Pace paid cash at a Harmons grocery store in Farmington, and a cashier rounded her change to the nearest 5 cents.
Signs displayed in the checkout aisles told her why.
“The U.S. Treasury has ceased penny production, and our bank can no longer supply them,” the message on the signs said. “Effective immediately, our registers will automatically round change to the nearest 5 cents. This only affects cash transactions where change is given.”
According to officials at the Utah grocery chain, the same policy is posted at each of the companies’ 19 locations statewide.
Pace said the Farmington ice cream shop where she works also is running low of pennies. She said she’s worried she soon won’t be able to give customers exact change.
Other people shopping at Harmons on Thursday said they weren’t worried at all.
Mary Maile, who said she paid for her groceries with a credit card, said she typically only uses cash when her young kids need money.
Troy Walker said that, although she regularly uses cash, she hasn’t had an issue with taking change rounded to the nickel. If she wanted to pay exact costs, she said she could use a large jar of pennies at home. Maybe, she joked, her stockpile of the coins is responsible for the shortage.
(Sean P. Means | The Salt Lake Tribune) Stores in Utah are posting notices that they will no longer give pennies for change on cash purchases, but will round to the nearest nickel. The move comes after the U.S. Treasury, on orders from President Donald Trump, stopped producing the one-cent coins.
On Nov. 10, the Utah Division of Consumer Protection issued an advisory to retailers and cash-paying customers about how to handle the penny shortage. The division advises businesses that rounding the amount of change returned only applies to cash transactions, after the purchase price and tax is calculated.
The division — which worked with the Utah State Tax Commission and the Department of Government Operations on the advisory — also urged businesses to “clearly and conspicuously” post signs that tell customers of the rounding policy.
Howard Headlee, president and CEO of the Utah Bankers Association, said the shortage is due to President Donald Trump’s order in February that the U.S. Treasury stop minting pennies. Trump nixed the 1-cent coins because they each cost about 4 cents to make, Headlee said.
But, Headlee added, the government didn’t prepare for the inevitable penny shortage businesses would face.
The Treasury placed its last order for blank pennies in May, NPR reported — and Headlee said the coin will become more scarce by the day, as banks can no longer order pennies to provide to businesses.
Headlee said he wishes Trump would have better planned ahead for a penniless America — and given guidance to stores on what to do when they can no longer make exact change.
Canada, for example, stopped making its pennies in 2012, according to CNN. Before that abolition went into effect, Headlee said, the Canadian government gave more guidance to businesses on how to make change without pennies.
In the United States, the Department of the Treasury left the market to sort the transition itself, he said.
“We’ve been waiting for this to start to impact the market,” he said. “It’s kind of rippling through the entire economy.”
Headlee said he spoke to Utah State Tax Commission officials, and believed official policies were forthcoming. The Nov. 10 advisory seems to confirm Headlee’s prediction.
Hopefully, he said, having a state government policy in place will decrease businesses’ liability for potential lawsuits from customers concerned with missing out on a few cents.
However, Headlee said federal policies would be better. A national policy, he said, would make legal protections stronger and applicable across the country, not just in Utah.