“Forget about the nickel.”
Seth Godin shares one of my pet peeves - piddly amounts of change. Particularly when I’m rushed and trying to juggle hot coffee, laptop and whatever else I’m hauling between plane connections and client meetings…And, the barista just stands there, looking bored, watching me dig for coins. Of course, I frequently do what we all do in such cases - hand over a twenty for a $3.05 tab and then have to juggle the change (oops, dropped that quarter; I’ll just let it go, I gotta run.) Seth’s idea is to just round up prices so we don’t have to worry about the pennies and the baristas can say, “forget about the nickel.” Sure, that would take a little detailed planning back at Corporate HQ (various state taxes and all)….but what a great “little” thing to make customers happy (and it’s the little things - not cool logos and marketing speak - that keeps us coming back.)
Also worth noting: In small-town and back-road America (or any restaurant where the waitress calls you “Hon”), the merchants more often than not have a little bowl of pennies next to the cash register that they use just for this. Another example of how small biz can beat big biz.
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