A coffee shop and the penny

[Steve-O]

For such a simple formula its amazing how many people can't seem to grasp the concept.

Here ya go in black & white from the 2012 budget paper http://www.budget.gc.ca/2012/themes/theme2-eng.html


"Amounts ending in 1 cent and 2 cents are rounded down to the nearest 10 cents.

Amounts ending in 3 cents and 4 cents are rounded up to the nearest 5 cents.

Amounts ending in 6 cents and 7 cents are rounded down to the nearest 5 cents.

Amounts ending in 8 cents and 9 cents are rounded up to the nearest 10 cents.

Amounts ending in 0 cent and 5 cents remain unchanged.

Example

A 1 dollar and 83 cent coffee and a 2 dollar and 86 cent sandwich would be 4 dollars and 92 cents after the 5 percent Goods and Services Tax.

A tax rate of 5 per cent has been provided for the purposes of illustration. Any taxes (e.g., the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax), as well as any fees or duties, should be tabulated prior to rounding.Â

If the customer chooses to pay by cheque, credit card or debit card, no rounding is applied and the final payment is 4 dollars and 92 cents. However, if the customer pays with cash, the final total is rounded down 2 cents to a final payment of 4 dollars and 90 cents."

Those of you conspiracy theorist that feel businesses actually have the time to calculate what to charge to maximize the rounding up to their advantage, give your head a shake. Vast amjority of transactions are some form of plastic (I can't be bothered to search for this information but several decades working retail gives me some insight). The negative publicity a business would face if they were even suspected of this kind of practice would far outweigh the miniscule amount of profit to be made. If a business gets it wrong, talk to the manager if the few pennies are worth your time, the kid behind the counter may of misunderstood the directions giving.

[Crazy Horse]

Mant this to be a trivia post - If Timmies sells 3,000,000 cups of coffee a day, that's $60,000... a day. Big number for the little penny. Still say good riddance and the nickel could go too, just thought that was an interesting piece of trivia.

Edited for bad math