THE EDITOR:
The phasing out of the one cent and two cents coins is likely to result in increased or decreased income for business owners, if their employees are not properly sensitized to the proper application of the process of ‘rounding off’.
As I understand it. Items with prices ending with 1 or 2 cents($5.21, $5.22) or 3 or 4 cents ( ($5.23, $5.24) will assume prices of $520 and $5.25 respectively. On the other hand, those with prices ending with 6 or 7 cents ($5.25, $5.27) or 8 or 9 cents ( $5.28, $5.29) will assume prices of $5.25 and $5.30 respectively.
Now let us look at a scenario, based on what I observed on July 1. A customer bought 4 items costing 49 cents each. She was charged $2.00. This suggests that the cost of each item was rounded off to 50 cents and multiplied by 4. Actually, the cost of the item should have been multiplied by 4( 4x$0.49) and the result ($1.96) rounded off to $1.95.
In that p[articular instance, the business enterprises realized increased income of 4 cents. Now that amount by the appropriate number, the result may be revealing.
– Observer.