Usually NACS is trending in the news for gas prices or great food found in convenience stores. Recently, however, that tide shifted a bit. Headlines blared that the Trump administration’s government efficiency program was considering a new target: the penny. To our surprise, the experts cited on CNN were Tesla's Elon Musk and Jeff Lenard of NACS.
While Musk focused on the cost to produce the penny (more than three cents for each coin), a CNN reporter dug up an old quote from Lenard that focused on the possible speed of service benefits to removing the penny: “If we save every one of our [52 million cash-paying] customers two seconds … that’s 1,203 days. And that doesn’t factor in time compounding—saving two seconds for the other people waiting in line before they get to pay. That’s some serious productivity.”
Knowing the penny was trending in the news, we decided to use one of our annual surveys to examine the idea closer. Do customers care about eliminating the penny? And what arguments about this idea are actually compelling? The results were also timely—two days after polling was concluded, President Trump announced that he wanted to get rid of the penny, and we immediately shared topline data with reporters and in NACS Daily.
When asked about eliminating the penny, roughly one in three consumers (36%) said they favor the idea, with only 15% strongly in favor.
In terms of reasons to eliminate the penny, nearly three quarters (72%) of consumers (no pun intended) said “pennies often wind up unused or stored at home,” while 66% agreed that “people rarely use pennies” was also a compelling enough argument to support saying bye to the penny.
Without the penny, how would consumers feel if cash transactions were rounded up or down to the nearest nickel? Would distrust creep in and reduce favorability? Quite the opposite. Support to kill the penny increased further: 54% in favor and 25% strongly in favor.
What do you think? Should the penny stay, or should the penny go? Be honest, like Abe.
This excerpt is from the feature “Consumers Redefine Convenience as ‘Easy’” in the April 2025 issue of NACS Magazine.