Kwik Trip Eliminates the Penny
Stores will start rounding cash transactions down to the nearest five cents.
Customers shop at Kwik Trip on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Janesville, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Kwik Trip announced it will no longer accept pennies months after the U.S. Department of Treasury announced it would end penny production.
The department said in May it would stop minting pennies in order to phase out the copper coin.
In response, Kwik Trip will use a new “cash transaction policy.” The retail chain said the decision comes as store locations run out of pennies.
The company is adopting a new “cash rounding” policy. Registers at all Kwik Trip and Kwik Star locations will start rounding all cash purchases down to the nearest 5 cents.
While the penny remains legal tender, the stores’ register systems will automatically round down in the customer’s favor for those paying in cash, according to the company announcement. Digital and card-based transactions will continue to be processed at the exact purchase amount.
John McHugh, Kwik Trip vice president of external relations, said the lack of penny production has led the company to make a decision regarding their own penny supply.
“What we’re finding from some of our banks in our markets here in Wisconsin is that penny supply is already depleted,” McHugh said. “So given that, we have to make a pivot here at Kwik Trip because we still have 17 percent of our customers who pay with cash.”
The convenience store chain headquartered in La Crosse has over 900 locations across the Midwest.
President Donald Trump in February called for the penny to be phased out, blaming the high cost of its production. The Treasury Department began the process in May.
Kwik Trip believes other retailers might begin adopting similar policies due to the plummeting penny supply.
“We’re anticipating that a lot of other companies will probably have to make similar decisions, because again, this impacts every retailer that’s having cash transactions. It’s not limited to just Kwik Trip,” McHugh said. “I think we’ll see a lot of this coming in the next couple weeks.”
No more pennies at Kwik Trip as company adopts new ‘cash rounding’ policy was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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