Shops and customers in Whitby are still getting used to Canada’s latest currency update as businesses in the region stop accepting the penny.
As of February 4th, the Royal Canadian Mint has asked vendors to phase out the use of the coin, and many store owners are either rounding up or rounding down their prices to the nearest nickel. It is expected that the discontinuation of the one cent coin will save the country over eleven million dollars a year.
A recent survey in the Whitby area and the rest of the Durham region found that nearly all retail establishments were correctly rounding up or rounding down their prices. The biggest problem comes from the retail tax rate being 13 per cent, as this often results in the final price being an odd number that must be adjusted when making change for a customer.
There is also some confusion as the price adjustment applies only when payments are made in cash. If a customer pays using credit or debit cards, the end price isn’t rounded off. This means that a person paying with cash may pay slightly more than someone using other payment methods. Printing companies have produced signage which informs customers of the individual store policies.
It is expected that the problems will resolve themselves as retailers and members of the public become more used to the change. In the meantime, it is expected that more businesses will use printing companies to source Signs informing their customers about how they will make change for payments made using cash.
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