Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Why don't Japanese stores have a 1-yen tray for small coins like how there are penny trays in the US for anyone who is just a few cents short on a transaction?

 

Why don't Japanese stores have a 1-yen tray for small coins like how there are penny trays in the US for anyone who is just a few cents short on a transaction?

When I studied at a Foreign Studies college as an exchange student in 2008, I was trying to convert loose change and small bills into bigger bills, then I found I was 2 yen short.

I remembered when the cashiers in America would get 2 pennies from a penny tray when I was 2 pennies short, or they'd be like "Close enough, it'll be no problem for us to take care of the rest."

Why wasn't being short 2 yen "close enough" at the Chitosepia Department Store? Was that just a Chitosepia policy not to kick in the short 2 yen or is that policy all Japan-wide?

I had to buy a small item and pay at a different register in order to get coins as change, then come back to provide the 2 yen to have enough to exchange for higher yen bills.



JP:

アメリカでは、取引で数セント足りない人のためにペニートレイが用意されているのに、日本の店にはなぜ小額硬貨用の1円トレイがないのでしょうか?


2008年に交換留学生として外国語大学に留学していた時、小銭と小額紙幣を高額紙幣に両替しようとしていたら、2円足りないことに気づきました。

母国アメリカのレジ係は、私が0.02ドル足りないとペニートレーから0.02ドルを取ってくれたり、「もう十分です。あとは私たちが処理します」と言ってくれたりしていたのを思い出しました。

なぜチトセピア百貨店の店員は、2円足りないことを「もう十分です」とみなさなかったのでしょうか?なぜ、数円足りない時のために円硬貨トレーを用意していなかったのでしょうか?これは、チトセピアの方針で、私に2円足りない分を出さないだけだったのでしょうか?それとも、日本全国で同じ方針なのでしょうか?

小銭をお釣りとしてもらうために、小さな商品を一つ買って別のレジで支払いをし、その後、高額紙幣に両替するために2円を用意しに来なければなりませんでした。

 

all 33 comments

[–]HangInThereBaby 2 points  

We had them in Canada too until we eliminated the penny from production.

[–]maceilean 4 points  

Fuckin Canadians and their real solutions to real problems. Shit economy? Elect an economist. Fumbling for pennies? Kill pennies.

[–]yankiigurl American -1 points  

Dude I'm American and I don't think I've even seem this. It's new to me! And I'm 35 wtf

[–]workthrowawhey 20 points  

In my experience, Japanese cashiers would absolutely not get away with waving off a few yen for being “close enough”. Like, in general the concept of being “close enough” just doesn’t exist the same way it does in America (not saying it doesn’t exist at all, mind you)

[–]CupcakesAreMiniCakes 7 points  

In my time in the US I don't believe most places would let you under pay either. Maybe a small family owned business but certainly not a corporate one. Management counts the register money to make sure it matches what your sales were and will accuse you of stealing if it's short. I believe take a penny leave a penny is possible, but there is no "close enough, you don't need to pay the full amount." I don't know where they would have experienced this unless that money was coming from the cashier's own pocket because they felt sorry for a poor young student.

[–]rnoyfb 3 points  

It’s very common but it’s the discretion of the cashier. Most states make it illegal to take a discrepancy out of the cashier’s wages but they’ll get written up if it’s off by a large enough amount consistently. In my experience, the larger the company, the less they care about this. When I worked at a small independent grocery store 16, they had a separate tray for spare change and it could come out of that but they wanted the cash drawer to balance within 25¢. When I worked at McDonald’s, it had to be within $5. At Walmart, they didn’t even count the drawer between different cashiers using it unless you got flagged for an audit (which might be because you used a register that was off by $50+ but 5+ other people did too)

It being discretionary, they probably figured you looked wealthy enough. When I’ve worked as a cashier, my approach was to be lenient with people that seemed just short and asked me to remove something and to be a hardass with people asking/expecting me to give them a break or buying cigarettes or alcohol

There are enough people in America who will just say “keep the change” because they don’t want coins that cash drawers are usually over, not under, in a fairly large store. (This may have changed now that more people pay with cards; I haven’t touched a cash register since 2016. But I doubt it’s changed much; people paying with cards tend to prefer self checkout where it’s obviously not a thing to accept being a little off.)

[–]gdore15 2 points  

I have seen it in Canada before, but it was not that common (worked in retail and we did not have that yet I would balance perfectly at the end of the day), but we retired the 1 cent coin in 2013 do not all cash transactions are rounded to the closest 5, but by card it’s exact amount.

[–]CupcakesAreMiniCakes 1 point  

It's not normal there either, people aren't allowed to just not pay full price for items whenever. No idea where they experienced that repeatedly.

[–]shasbot 2 points  

Rounding like that is not too uncommon around me in the US. More common is if you pay in cash and your change is say 96 cents, they'll just give you a dollar bill back.

[–]vaffangool Japanese 4 points  

Too right—full marks, no notes. Makes me suspect your password actually is ABC999.

[–]GaijinFoot 2 points  

Except I have seen them in some super markets

[–]MyPasswordIsABC999 Japanese expat in the U.S. 1 point  

I haven’t seen it in person but now that I’m searching around, I’m made aware of the concept of ジャストボックス (“just box”). 

So yeah, I stand corrected, ignore everything I wrote. 

[–]vaffangool Japanese 1 point  

Was this 10-15 years ago? Places like Donki, Daiso, and ジャパン had just started experimenting with 円満快計 when electronic payments finally broke through and made it less of a convenience for valued customers and more of an opportunity for abuse by self-styled street kids and lowlife tourists from uh...let's just say visitors from this neighbouring country have a widespread reputation for aggressively uncivilised behaviour.

[–]yankiigurl American 1 point  

Then why do I often end up with totals that end with needing some 1 yen coin? That's ridiculous I don't often end up at multiples of 5 for my totals. I call BS

[–]MyPasswordIsABC999 Japanese expat in the U.S. 1 point  

It's not a rule, but most chain stores use round numbers for tax-included prices - though certain essential items may have price caps and 8% tax so that might be causing the non-round totals? Still, the one yen coin is so unused (and also costs 3 yen per coin) that the Japanese mint stopped producing them in 2016.

[–]MyPasswordIsABC999 Japanese expat in the U.S. 1 point  

The 10% sales tax on non-essential items basically makes the one cent coin useless at most chain stores, I think.

[–]AdAdditional1820 Japanese 1 point  

It is already round-offed to 1 yen unit. In old days, prices are well-rouned, but government introduced consumption tax, and we suddenly required to use many 1 yen coins.

[–]Nyan-gorou Japanese 1 point  

Would you like me to also share a few quick tips that Japanese people use when they are short on small coins

If you don't have enough money, you give up on the purchase and leave. That's it.

By the way, I think such a custom in the U.S. may have something to do with the tipping culture.

[–]Nyan-gorou Japanese 1 point  

Chat GDP's answer is generally correct. I think it was the last part that the downvoters did not like.

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