Do stores in the UK actually hand back a single penny for a £0.99 purchase? If I buy something for €0.99 in the Netherlands, I won't get my cent back if I hand over a €1 coin. The 1 and 2 cent coins still exist, but shops all but banned them and round to the nearest multiple of 5 cents.
Rather - you should be asking the question, why don’t the shops in the Netherlands, just mark up the price, to €1 instead?! Seems incredibly stupid, to me.
Shops worldwide do this; whether it is $1.99, €1,99, £1.99 or ¥499. It's a psychological trick. The exceptions (like the Dutch HEMA for which whole unit prices are part of its heritage) use it as a distinguishing feature, but most shops don't dare to.
Do people in the UK use cash? I was in London for a week before I finally needed to get some cash to pay for a contractor for illegal services (a forbidden historical tour), later I needed coins to do laundry and the convenience store didn't have enough for a load of wash and a dry, he changed enough for a wash and the pub across the street had enough for a dry.
In my experience a lot of people still like to withdraw their salary when it arrives and spend it as cash. It depends on demographic. In cities like London and Bristol card-only pubs are common.
Sorry what? Are you saying that every shop will short change you in the Netherlands? There would be uproar here in the UK. That one penny will be handed to you 100% of the time in the UK. Surely if such a policy was in force they should be forced to round down and so return you 5 cents.
Short or long change you, depending on the amount, so in the long run it evens out assuming you buy multiple items at a time with a certain variance in cost.
€2.97 will net you 2 whole cents if you pay €3 in cash and get a five cent coin back.
There's a lot of rounding in stores. I don't think anyone cares for 1 cent coins (most stores don't accept them anyway).
With digital payments taking care of transferring the exact amount with no additional surcharges for at least 20 years, I don't think it's a pressing issue. If I cared for my 1 cent, I'd pay through NFC or by card.
Stores are allowed to round to round to 0 or 5 cent if they indicate they do. This can also work in your favour; €1,07 will be rounded down to €1,05 if the store rounds to fives, and you should be given your 5 cent coin if you pay with €1,10. I've never checked if stores actually do that, though; I think it's been a decade since I last paid with cash at the grocery store, so all I can tell you is the law and explanation the government provides: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/geldzaken/vraag-en-...
