Rouses Markets announced Thursday that it will implement a rounding policy for cash transactions as the United States phases out production of the penny. The policy will go into effect at each store once its supply of pennies is depleted.
The new policy comes as the federal government winds down penny production. A Treasury Department spokesperson recently noted that “the U.S. Mint made its final order of penny blanks and will stop producing the coin when those blanks run out.”
Rouses Markets will continue to accept pennies as payment. Once a store exhausts its remaining pennies, cash transactions will be rounded up to the nearest nickel in the customer’s favor.
Examples:
• If a customer is owed $0.91, Rouses will round up and return $0.95.
• If a customer is owed $0.47, Rouses will round up and return $0.50.
“Our customers are always our top priority,” said Donny Rouse, third-generation CEO of Rouses Markets. “Rounding up is the simplest, fairest way to handle this change so customers never come up short.” Credit, debit, EBT, and mobile payments will not be affected. Only cash transactions involving coin change will be rounded.
Rouses Markets has trained its 7,000 team members, who serve more than a million customers weekly across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, to ensure the process goes smoothly, according to a news release from Rouses.
