The Kroger Company has stopped giving coins back to cash-paying customers because of a nationwide coin shortage. The remainders can be donated to charity or are being transferred to loyalty cards, the company says.
“At Kroger, we are implementing several creative solutions to minimize the impact to our customers…We know this is an inconvenience for our customers, and we appreciate their patience. The Treasury Department expects the shortage to diminish as more regions of the country reopen,” Kroger officials say.
The country is facing a coin shortage because of the coronavirus outbreak said Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, last month.
“With the partial closure of the economy, the flow of funds through the economy has stopped,” Powell said during a virtual Congressional hearing in June. “We are working with the Mint and the Reserve Banks and as the economy re-opens we are starting to see money move around again.”
The U.S. Mint subsequently said that it will be increasing production of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies.
“The COVID‐19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the supply chain and normal circulation patterns for U.S. coin,” a statement by Reserve Banks and The Federal Reserve read last month.
“In the past few months, coin deposits from depository institutions to the Federal Reserve have declined significantly and the U.S. Mint’s production of coin also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees.”
It’s unclear what those protections were and why they were necessary to put in place to keep employees protected. Or why they solely apply to coins and not cash as well, for example.
Also, coin production has actually decreased during the last couple of years, even before the Covid19 pandemic.
Last month supermarket chain Meijer Inc, also told customers at 250 stores that “self-checkout registers” will only accept “electronic payment only” due to a “national coin shortage.”
Shortages have also been reported at chains such as Dollar Tree and Wawa.
Here is how some individuals are reacting to the news on social media:
US – we’re experiencing a coin shortage ( think about how most people don’t even be paying with change no more, shit been slacking in rotation anyway since technology like debit cars, Apple pay…. etc)
Yall – THEY GETTING RID OF ALL CASH THEY TRYNA CONTROL OUR SPENDING
— scrap (@theleighc_) July 14, 2020
The “coin shortage” and “sorry we only take cards right now due to the national crisis” are sisters, friends. It’s intentional. It’s an effort to drive us forcibly to a cashless society which removes any anyonimity in buying, tracks and aggregates purchase data, assigns it to 1/
— Radical Mothering 🇻🇦 🇺🇸 (@TashaRoseRadMam) July 11, 2020
I think the whole coin shortage is part of the new world order plan where we go cashless.
— linda Timbes (@LindaTimbes) July 14, 2020
Coin shortage my ass! Lol, could it get any more fucking obvious?
— Katie Appleseed 🌱 (@kareful70) July 14, 2020
A coin shortage?
Ummm.. that makes ZERO sense.
If people weren’t actually buying in person and if they were using cards/phones to pay, then there should be an EXCESS of coins, not a shortage.
And broke folks would pay for Stuff in change…
WTH, here?https://t.co/QBO5JyMtkl
— WheeledPatriot2 (@WPatriot2) July 12, 2020
Attention Everyone: July’s panic has been announced. It is a national coin shortage. Again, July’s panic is a national coin shortage. Thank you.
— Cora Harrington (@lingerie_addict) July 9, 2020