Rouses Markets has announced it will soon begin adopting a penny rounding policy in response to changes in U.S. Mint production.
According to the company, the federal government is working to phase out the penny, and the U.S. Mint has placed its final order of penny blanks, meaning production of the coin will cease once the current supply runs out.
Rouses will continue to accept pennies for payment as long as stores have them available. However, once a store’s supply is depleted, cash transactions will be rounded up to the nearest nickel in the customer’s favor.
For example, if a customer is owed $0.91, Rouses will round up and return $0.95. Likewise, if a customer is owed $0.47, the total will round up to $0.50.
Rouses officials clarified that only cash transactions will be affected by this change. More than 7,000 Rouses employees have already been trained to adopt and implement the new policy chain-wide.
The company says the policy aims to make cash transactions faster and simpler while supporting the transition away from pennies nationwide.
