Marks and Spencers asking for your small coins?

gerrykiddy · 08-11-2015 06:26PM #1

Seems like and amazing offer from M and S. At checkout they are offering to round down your change, keeping your 1c and 2c coins. I asked if they round up by giving you 5c if your bill ends with 3 or 4c but no. They also defended their position by saying that other stores were not even asking. Surely the first thing to do would be to drop the "99c" price system. I know some charities are hoping to take advantage but M and S were not connected with any. Opinions?

Rackstar · 08-11-2015 06:29PM

You're thinking way too much about this.

kneemos · 08-11-2015 06:34PM

Are they asking or taking?

gerrykiddy · 08-11-2015 06:35PM

Rackstar wrote: »

You're thinking way too much about this.

If they are right (M and S) about other stores are doing this and they use a pricing system that means you are unlikely to have a receipt ending in 0 or 5. The amount of transactions is massive but will it be in their accounts as overcharged? Remember the coins have not yet been withdrawn

Menas · 08-11-2015 06:39PM

If you can afford to be shopping in Marks and Spencers you can afford not to worry about the pennies!

gerrykiddy · 08-11-2015 06:39PM

kneemos wrote: »

Are they asking or taking?

They are asking (and yes I know I can refuse) but why are they asking customers for extra money without saying what they are doing with it. They told me that it was because of the government, oddly the same answer Dunne's give when they say they don't have a 22c carrier bags.

whatismyname · 08-11-2015 06:43PM

This makes no cents.

Sir Osis of Liver. · 08-11-2015 07:17PM

Their food tastes sh1te anyway.

eternal · 08-11-2015 07:18PM

What's the charity to donate your coins to anyone?

kneemos · 08-11-2015 07:22PM

eternal wrote: »

What's the charity to donate your coins to anyone?

Marks and Pencers.

PARlance · 08-11-2015 07:24PM

eternal wrote: »

What's the charity to donate your coins to anyone?

Peoplewithroundingdowndifficulties.org

eternal · 08-11-2015 07:25PM

Scoff all you will.

kneemos · 08-11-2015 07:27PM

They're rounding down like other shops but instead of keeping it they're asking if you want to give it to charity.
Is that it?

La Fenetre · 08-11-2015 07:27PM

The whole thing is just another ruse to eventually round up retail prices permanently by 2-3% when the 2 and 1 cents are gone, and eventually move to a "cashless" and more controlled society. Its certainly not in the ordinary persons interest, that's for sure.

danjo-xx · 08-11-2015 07:29PM

eternal wrote:

What's the charity to donate your coins to anyone?

Boi and aib r collecting them for charities but would u trust them!

sonny.knowles · 08-11-2015 07:32PM

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

Their food tastes sh1te anyway.

Bollocks.

Valetta · 08-11-2015 07:38PM

La Fenetre wrote: »

The whole thing is just another ruse to eventually round up retail prices permanently by 2-3% when the 2 and 1 cents are gone, and eventually move to a "cashless" and more controlled society. Its certainly not in the ordinary persons interest, that's for sure.

2-3%?

Can you show you're calculations and relate this to the rounding of the total bill?

Also, what does an ordinary person look like?

Thanks.

gerrykiddy · 08-11-2015 07:39PM

kneemos wrote: »

They're rounding down like other shops but instead of keeping it they're asking if you want to give it to charity.
Is that it?

If they were I would be promoting it. The staff don't know if its for charity, they are just asking if they can keep it.

08-11-2015 07:43PM

They do round down. I've been in there a few times in the past week or so and they round to the nearest 5cent, so sometimes you win sometimes you lose but they ask you first. So yeh, not really anything to be getting in a tizzy about.

lazeedaisy · 08-11-2015 07:51PM

Working in retail,

This is what the central bank told us

Rounding of Cash Transactions

The rollout of Rounding has been confirmed for Wednesday 28 October 2015. The Central Bank has assumed responsibility for the project, at the request of the Department of Finance.

The key features of Rounding are:

Rounding will be conducted on a voluntary basis
1c and 2c coins will remain legal tender
Rounding will apply only to cash payments
The total amount of any bill will be rounded down or up to the nearest 5c.
The bill can be rounded up or down, as follows:

a transaction costing €10.21 or €10.22 would be rounded to €10.20
a transaction costing €10.23 or €10.24 would be rounded to €10.25
a transaction costing €10.26 or €10.27 would be rounded to €10.25
a transaction costing €10.28 or €10.29 would be rounded to €10.30
Two individual items priced at €10.99 and €3.49 respectively would remain at these prices, although the change on the total bill (€14.48), if €15.00 was tendered would be rounded down from 52c to 50c.

Three individual items priced at €2.99, €4.49 and €8.13 respectively would remain at these prices, although though the change on the total bill (€15.61), if €20.00 was tendered, would be rounded up from €4.39 to €4.40.

As at 12 June 2015 1,096,853,216 2c coins have been issued into circulation in Ireland amounting to €21,937,064.32. 1,384,491,236 1c coins have been issued into circulation in Ireland amounting to €13,844,912.36.

A 1 cent coin costs 1.65c to produce while 2 cent coin costs 1.94c.

Six EU Member States have already adopted a symmetrical rounding policy; The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Hungary and Belgium.

An infographic on the number of 1 cent and 2 cent coins produced in Ireland is available here.

The report on the Wexford Rounding Trial is available here.

If you have any questions about Rounding, please contact us at rounding@centralbank.ie

Rounding for Retailers

On Wednesday 28 October 2015 'rounding' of cash transactions will be rolled out nationally. This initiative arose because 1c and 2c coins are not used actively by consumers and are expensive to mint. This text and the attached documents give you, the retailer, a brief overview of what Rounding is, and how the Central Bank will support retailers in applying it from October onwards.

So what is Rounding? Where a total bill is being paid in cash and the number of cent to be paid does not end in zero or five - so requiring either the customer to use 1 and 2 cent coins in payment or the retailer to use such coins in giving change - the amount of change paid will be rounded to the nearest five or ten cent:

1 and 2 would be rounded down to zero
3 and 4 would be rounded up to 5
6 and 7 would be rounded down to 5
8 and 9 would be rounded up to 10
For Rounding to happen, both the retailer and the customer must accept it; both will have the right to use exact change. Rounding only takes place on the total bill, not on individual prices, so existing price points (for example items priced at 0.99c) will remain unchanged. Rounding will not apply when bills are paid electronically, such as by debit card, credit card or by store card. Where a retailer is applying Rounding they can apply it automatically without asking the consumer – it will be up to the consumer to say if they don’t want Rounding applied.

The Central Bank will co-ordinate a national consumer education campaign in advance of the launch date. Retailers should indicate that they are applying rounding through appropriate in-store signage. This could include, for example, a notice on entrance-doors or at the till. The Central Bank will be making suitable signage available to retailers, free of charge, in advance of the rollout on 28 October.

c_man · 08-11-2015 08:02PM

Never trust the Brits OP. First the small change, next they'll have us interned.

08-11-2015 08:06PM

kneemos wrote: »

They're rounding down like other shops but instead of keeping it they're asking if you want to give it to charity.
Is that it?

But it's really easy to beat the system. All it takes is a little bit of neck and a lot of patience.

The system is voluntary. So every time a shop rounds your bill down, accept it. But every time a shop rounds your bill up, refuse.

Each time you say yes to rounding down, you're saving either 1 or 2 cents.

Each time you say no to rounding up, you're also saving either 1 or 2 cents.

So the only times you don't save are when your bill ends in 5 or 0.

Now, trust me on this bit, because I don't want to waste your time laying out the maths, but this means that after 66 or at most 67 trips to the shops, you'll have saved 79 cents.

If you put the money aside each time, you'll have 79 cents to spare that you don't need for anything else.

With that money, you can go to Tesco and buy one of these:

http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=263780018

To save you clicking the link, it's a Tesco own brand 300mm x 10m tinfoil.

Just think how many hats you could make with that. Then they'll never get you. AMIRITE? :P

La Fenetre · 08-11-2015 08:08PM

Valetta wrote: »

2-3%?

Can you show you're calculations and relate this to the rounding of the total bill?

Also, what does an ordinary person look like?

Thanks.

Sure, one little example, in the real world, once these coins have been successfully wiped out, anything that ended in 97-99 cent will end in a €1 amount, and if you've never met an ordinary person, and everyone to you is extra-ordinary, maybe you should get out more ?

08-11-2015 08:38PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Just think how many hats you could make with that. Then they'll never get you. AMIRITE? :P

Thanks for the thanks, y'all, but the person who could make best use of the suggestion just isn't getting the hint.

the groutch · 08-11-2015 08:53PM

gerrykiddy wrote: »

If they were I would be promoting it. The staff don't know if its for charity, they are just asking if they can keep it.

I'd assume that the ones they keep they'll use to give the extra 1 or 2 cent to other people, or yourself next time you're in and yours is due to be rounded in your favour.

In relation to the asking, they're hardly going to need to ask you is it ok if they give you extra money.

sonny.knowles · 08-11-2015 09:04PM

danjo-xx wrote: »

Boi and aib r collecting them for charities but would u trust them!

It's no coincidence that AIB are talking about starting repaying bailout costs.

Annasopra · 08-11-2015 09:37PM

La Fenetre wrote: »

The whole thing is just another ruse to eventually round up retail prices permanently by 2-3% when the 2 and 1 cents are gone, and eventually move to a "cashless" and more controlled society. Its certainly not in the ordinary persons interest, that's for sure.

Was there a prices rise when rounding happened in otherplaces?

TheChizler · 08-11-2015 09:45PM

La Fenetre wrote: »

Sure, one little example, in the real world, once these coins have been successfully wiped out, anything that ended in 97-99 cent will end in a €1 amount, and if you've never met an ordinary person, and everyone to you is extra-ordinary, maybe you should get out more ?

Why would they necessarily do this? You're proposing that they're going to to design their pricing structure based on people going into shops and buying individual items?

La Fenetre · 08-11-2015 09:49PM

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

Was there a prices rise when rounding happened in otherplaces?

Well when decimalisation came in the prices were all rounded up despite the promises they wouldn't be, and then I witnessed it all again when the euro came in and we were assured prices would not be rounded up, and yet they were.

the groutch · 08-11-2015 10:06PM

La Fenetre wrote: »

and then I witnessed it all again when the euro came in and we were assured prices would not be rounded up, and yet they were.

where did you witness this (and not "pound shops")

ohnonotgmail · 08-11-2015 10:18PM

La Fenetre wrote: »

Sure, one little example, in the real world, once these coins have been successfully wiped out, anything that ended in 97-99 cent will end in a €1 amount, and if you've never met an ordinary person, and everyone to you is extra-ordinary, maybe you should get out more ?

you really dont understand how this rounding thing works do you? You do realise that they are rounding, both up and down, on the total amount not on individual items?

Marks and Spencers asking for your small coins?

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