Burger Kings hoarding pennies as US phases out one-cent coins

Burger Kings are among the many cash-heavy businesses around the US grappling with the phaseout of the penny — with one group of the fast-food joints reportedly hoarding the coins by the box since President Trump ordered the Treasury Department to stop minting them earlier this year.

Businessman Gary Andrzejewski told The Wall Street Journal that the Burger Kings he operates in Baltimore have stockpiled 30 boxes of pennies so far.

“I don’t think anyone has any idea of what they are doing right now,” he was quoted as saying.

He said since his armored car service stopped dropping off pennies to his Baltimore stores, he has saved up enough coppers to cover two months of transactions.

Other stores that rely on small cash transactions have started rounding every sale up or down, The Journal reported.

Customers are not amused.

“I was actually shocked by this,” a customer at a Decatur, Ill., Burger King told The Journal.

The location had posted a sign stating bills would be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel — leaving her to pay $2.25 for a coffee that actually cost $2.23.

“I heard the government saying they were going to get rid of them, I just didn’t think it would be so soon,” said the customer, 56-year-old retiree Holly Elizabeth Tinervin.

Burger King is far from the only chain trying to figure out how to do business without pennies.

At Texas Roadhouse, executives recently fielded questions from managers worried about bank runs on pennies and smaller tips if customers can’t make exact change.

“When you dive in and start to think about it, you realize it could have other impacts,” Travis Doster, the company’s chief communications officer, told The Journal.

Before the penny phaseout, each outpost of Texas Roadhouse went through about 72,000 rolls of pennies per year.

Meanwhile, Kroger stores are posting signs asking for exact change. Sheetz is encouraging customers to give to charities as a way to round up their bills.

Kwik Trip, the Wisconsin-based chain of mini-marts, has decided to round down to the nearest nickel to avoid complaints.

At a Panda Express in Tennessee, diners were told to pay with cards as coins ran out.

“Where does that leave citizens? It may be a penny, but that adds up,” Britany Moss, 29, told The Journal after paying for an $8.23 order of orange chicken and cream cheese rangoons with a debit card.

Banks are scrambling to adapt to the extinction of the penny, too.

The American Bankers Association said roughly half of the country’s 165 coin distribution terminals stopped circulating pennies in the past two months.

It has formed a “Penny Work Group” and urged the Federal Reserve to go back to accepting penny deposits after suspending the practice.

Some large banks are now shifting coins between branches to keep small businesses supplied — a costly fix, since $1,000 in pennies weighs about 500 pounds.