Friday, June 10, 2011

Where have all the pennies gone?

If you live here I’m sure you have noticed that there are no pennies.

In fact, centavos do exist and they remain legal tender.  But nobody pays with them.
When you buy a bunch of broccoli at the produce store it may cost R$3.67. But when you get to the checkout counter you will pay just R$3.65.
Or if your new shoes cost R$120.98, you will certainly pay R$121.00
No pennies.
To their credit, stores always round in your favor.  But what’s up with the charade of centavos?  Why not price to the nearest R$.05?
It’s all a game, I suppose. "It sounds cheaper..."

2 comments:

Adam said...

Not a penny person myself. Wish everything was rounded up or down. In fact, I say do away with coins all together.

My two cents...

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

I hate pennies too, Gil picks each one of them up, we find them all over the place here, people either empty their pockets or their ashtrays of pennies in parking lots.
A young scientist invented a peanut vending machine that taught crows to find pennies and other coins in parking lots and exchange them for peanuts. :)

Ray