Left shortchanged?
Lehigh Valley shopper says she was refused change amid coin shortage
A national coin shortage has some retailers asking customers to pay with credit or debit cards, or use exact change if possible.
But a Lehigh Valley woman said the Whitehall Township Walmart store took it a step further and refused to give her change — with no advance warning. It left Sharon Richards miffed at the mega-retailer. “Webought a heating pad, plates, steam bags, mayo, and our bill was $41.16,” the Whitehall resident said last week. “We gave them $42; I was supposed to get 84 cents back.
“We’re lucky; we have an income,” she said, noting how many people are struggling amid the pandemic. “But it’s just not right.”
Richards, who paid at the MacArthur Road Walmart’s self-checkout line, said she got no satisfaction when she questioned the lack of change at the register. She then went to customer service and, after waiting several minutes, she said, the store handed her the change.
“It was only 84 cents, and I don’t care about the money, but it’s a nice little racket,” Richards said. “If you are going to do that, at least warn us.”
Avani Dudhia, a Walmart spokesperson, said store personnel believe Richards’ event was an isolated incident, and that signs are posted at each register asking
customers to provide exact change or other means of payment. She also said the company’s policy has been giving customers the choice of receiving change or donating the difference.
Walmart joined other retailers this year in announcing they would ask customers to use correct change or pay by other means, because of the effects of a nationwide coin shortage brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Dudhia said the company converted some of its self-checkout registers to card-payment registers. Richards paid $42 using cash.
Why has there been a coin shortage? Retailers were shut down, cutting the circulation of coins. Add to that the U.S. Mint had to cut production of coins because of staffing changes due to COVID-19. The Federal Reserve also put limitsonhowmuchchangebankswould be given.
In August, the U.S. Mint asked the public’s help to get coins moving, because coins weren’t circulating as quickly as they were before COVID-19.
“This is NOT a coin supply problem,” Mint Director David J. Ryder said in a newsrelease. “It’s a circulation problem.” The Mint did not respond to an email.
The problem has hurt small businesses that depend on quarters or other currency, such as laundromats.
Richards wasn’t buying the retailer’s explanation.
She said she complained to the Better Business Bureau, saying many others were likely shortchanged but did not complain.
“I called, and the BBB told me all Walmart nonsense has to go through their office in Arkansas,” she said, referring to Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The coin shortage isn’t expected to last forever. As the economy recovers and more businesses reopen, the supply of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies is expected to normalize.
But for now, retailers such as Walmart are asking customers either for exact change, or personnel should be saying “charge it” to pay for purchases.