Stretch or shrink your pennies
Thanks to our frugal ancestors, the phrase “A penny saved is a penny earned” has made good sense for more than four centuries. Alas, inflation and government interference have made this into historical irrelevance. The penny is going, going, gone.
Last evening, as I paid for my groceries (electronically), a notice to customers taped to the cash register caught my eye. Nothing to do with that huge image of a Canadian cent coin, and everything to do with the new rules of math that the government has put into place. After the levy of required taxes (of course), amounts will be rounded to the nearest nickel. Yes, prices will still “show” in accordance with digital rules, but then the merchant will apply a new set of rounding, having little to do with what you learned in Grade 2.
Here’s the picture:
On a single transaction, you’ll feel little pain. Never more than a few cents at a time. But I wonder… when a business does transaction fudging at the level of most large retail outlets (groceries, gas, what have you), someone wins. I can’t believe that the companies are going to give back more than they get. That’s not realistic.
To be fair, we’ve allowed the petroleum industry to play penny games for much of their history. Ever noted that subscripted “9” or “4” after the per litre price? Ever tried to purchase a single litre of gas (perhaps for your really efficient motorized longboard)? It doesn’t happen. The new penny math is just a continuation of the game. And in return, you can round your lack of earning power to the nearest nickel. It will feel just the same.
