ShopRite stops taking pennies — and New Jersey barely notices

The sign appeared quietly at the ShopRite checkout, tucked between reminders about reusable bags and lottery tickets: Cash purchases rounded to the nearest five cents. No pennies needed. In true New Jersey fashion, nobody made a big speech about it. The cashier shrugged. The line kept moving. Life went on.

ShopRite drops the penny as cash rounding comes to New Jersey

ShopRite, the latest retailer to drop the penny, is responding to a nationwide shortage after the U.S. Mint stopped producing them. Pennies are still legal tender, but practically speaking, they’re becoming more nostalgic than useful. For me, the change is almost theoretical. I never pay cash at the supermarket. I swipe my card, maybe grab some cash back, and I’m out the door before my ice cream melts on the 295 ride home.

The strange afterlife of loose change in a cashless world

Coins, though, are another story. Like you, I don’t use them—I collect them accidentally. Every night they get dumped into a bag at home: quarters, nickels, dimes, and a suspicious number of pennies. Who wants all that weight in their pocket? Eventually the bag fills up, becomes dangerously heavy, and I take a field trip to Coinstar, where my loose change is magically converted into paper money I’ll actually spend.

But with pennies quietly disappearing from checkout lanes, I’ve started wondering: what happens to them? Do they get melted down into something more useful, like wires or roofing nails? Do they end up in a giant warehouse somewhere in South Jersey, stacked next to old payphones and abandoned EZ-Pass transponders? Is there a penny retirement community where Lincoln finally gets some rest?

Why penny rounding feels very on-brand for New Jersey

ShopRite’s rounding policy—up or down by five cents on cash purchases—feels like an honest acknowledgment of how we already live. Nobody is losing sleep over two cents. If anything, the process is faster, cleaner, and slightly less annoying.

So no, this won’t really affect me. I’ll keep using my card, my coin bag will keep filling up, and one day those pennies will leave my life for good. I just hope they find a nice place to land—preferably somewhere in Jersey.

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