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The national coin shortage has been an unusual side effect of the pandemic. Among his victims? Retailers, laundromats and even the tooth fairy.
The Federal Reserve announced in June that the parts supply system had been severely disrupted by the pandemic. Although there are still enough coins, they are not circulating as freely as many businesses have been closed and consumers are not spending as usual.
U.S. Currency and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has urged Americans to use coins or hand them over to banks to help them for now. As the economy recovers and businesses reopen, the supply of coins is expected to normalize.
In the meantime, people have been forced to find workarounds.
Retailers large and small have urged shoppers to use cards or vouchers whenever possible. Some will not provide a change. Grocery giant Kroger Co. still accepts cash, but offers customers the option to load their change into loyalty cards to use on their next visit or donate the balance to charity.
The WaWa convenience store chain offered its customers a free drink in some of its stores if people brought in $ 5 in coins or a sandwich for $ 50 or more. Community State Bank, a chain of regional Wisconsin banks, even offered a $ 5 bonus for every $ 100 of coins people brought in. They had to suspend her after a week due to an overwhelming response.
As the shortage persists, it has become clear that there are still puzzles that only coins can solve.
“It’s at least a downside … at worst it’s a business challenge,” said Brian Wallace, CEO of the Coin Laundry Association, a laundromat trade group. “We provide basic health care. People have to do their laundry. “
About 56% of laundromats that serve the public use neighborhoods as their only method of payment. And 89% take quarters as a form of payment, with cards, loyalty programs or mobile payments as an alternative, depending on the occupational group.
Laundromats depend on coins, in part, because many of their customers are unbanked or underbanked, meaning they are among the millions of Americans who depend solely on cash to pay for bills. things.
Daryl Johnson, who owns Giant Wash Laundry – a chain of 11 laundromats in the Minneapolis area – said his company normally buys between $ 4,000 and $ 8,000 per quarter for its changing machines. But after the Fed began rationing coin distributions, its bank said it may not be able to provide any.
“Obviously we were panicking a bit,” he says.
Johnson got creative: he asked friends and family on Facebook if they had any change to buy. He put up signs in stores asking customers to bring their own parts and adjusted his changing machines to only accept smaller bills to limit outflow. During this time he contacted other laundry operators who might be willing to sell excess parts, even driving over 4 hours in Omaha to buy $ 8,000 per quarter.
“This is where my businesses close,” he says.
Things have stabilized some, both for himself and for his bank, in terms of supply. “I’m not complaining because our business has stayed open and everyone has had a fight, it’s just ours,” Johnson said.
People who use coin-operated washing machines in laundromats and apartment buildings also find it difficult. Stephanie Sabin from Portland, Oregon has a washing machine in her apartment complex that only takes shifts. She bought four quarter rolls in March. In mid-June, she bought two more. But in July, his neighborhood bank was closed for in-person business. The next five places she tried were either closed or unable to accommodate her. She was able to do her laundry with the accommodation that her family had on hand or that she bought from her boss.
“Desperate times,” she said. “You can no longer ask for neighborhood rolls in grocery stores or even collect change if you pay cash at a drive-thru.”
Toll booths, parking meters, vending machines and other places that were once heavy with coins have largely modernized to accept other payment methods. But pockets of trouble still exist, like at a gas station’s air pump or a do-it-yourself car wash.
Some people need a change for other situations.
Leigh Ann Tognetti of Rio Grande City, Texas, had just started her 5-year-old daughter on a stipend in July: two quarters for each day she comes to pick up her room.
“That’s a lot of quarters to go in a week,” she says. “I had no idea or even crossed my mind that there might be a shortage of parts.”
To keep her promise, she used cash from the vending machine at work and coins sent to her by a friend. She also used a stack of dimes or double the two-day payments with a dollar bill instead.
“If she came looking every day, we would have a problem,” she said. “So far, I haven’t had to be too creative.”
In late July, the U.S. Mint called on Americans to do their part, urging the public to start spending their coins, depositing them or exchanging them at banks or coin redemption kiosks. Mnuchin taken to twitter last week to ask for the same.
For the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, a March shutdown turned into an unexpected opportunity to help make up for lost revenue and ended up helping alleviate the parts shortage.
The aquarium close your waterfall in order to be able to dispose of approximately 100 gallons of coins that visitors had thrown away over the past 14 years. The parts, which are still being washed and counted, will be used for operating costs.
“We’re definitely feeling the pinch,” said Danielle Bolton, an aquarium spokesperson. “Literally every penny counts.”
The shortage is even felt by young people.
Take Jen Vicker, from Bollingbrook, Illinois. Her 10-year-old daughter woke up with a loose tooth recently and fears the Tooth Fairy could not pay because of the shortage, unaware that her parents had a stash of coins.
So she wrote a note, “Dear Tooth Fairy, you may already know this, but there is a national coin shortage in America. You usually leave me dollar coins, but until this situation is resolved, I would like money for my teeth. I apologize for the inconvenience. “
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