Burger Kings across the US are among the many cash-heavy businesses grappling with the phaseout of the penny, with some locations reportedly hoarding the coins by the box since President Trump ordered the Treasury Department to stop minting them earlier this year.

Businessman Gary Andrzejewski told The Wall Street Journal that the Burger Kings he operates in Baltimore have stockpiled 30 boxes of pennies so far. “I don’t think anyone has any idea of what they are doing right now,” he said. Since his armored car service stopped dropping off pennies to his Baltimore stores, Andrzejewski has saved up enough coppers to cover two months of cash transactions.

As a result of the shortage, other stores that rely on frequent cash transactions have started rounding every sale up or down, The Journal reported. Customers, however, are not amused. “I was actually shocked by this,” a customer at a Decatur, Ill., Burger King told The Journal. The location had posted a sign stating bills would be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel, causing her to pay $2.25 for a coffee that actually cost $2.23. “I heard the government saying they were going to get rid of them; I just didn’t think it would be so soon,” said the customer, 56-year-old retiree Holly Elizabeth Tinervin.

Burger King is far from the only chain trying to figure out how to do business without pennies. At Texas Roadhouse, executives recently fielded questions from managers worried about bank runs on pennies and smaller tips if customers can’t make exact change. “When you dive in and start to think about it, you realize it could have other impacts,” Travis Doster, the company’s chief communications officer, told The Journal. Before the penny phaseout, each Texas Roadhouse location went through about 72,000 rolls of pennies per year.

Meanwhile, other businesses are adapting in their own ways:

– **Kroger** stores are posting signs asking for exact change.
– **Sheetz** is encouraging customers to give to charity as a way to round up their bills.
– **Kwik Trip**, the Wisconsin-based mini-mart chain, has decided to round down to the nearest nickel to avoid complaints.
– At a **Panda Express** in Tennessee, diners were told to pay with cards as coins ran out.

“Where does that leave citizens? It may be a penny, but that adds up,” said Britany Moss, 29, after paying for an $8.23 order of orange chicken and cream cheese rangoons with a debit card.

Banks are scrambling to adapt to the extinction of the penny as well. The American Bankers Association reported that roughly half of the country’s 165 coin distribution terminals stopped circulating pennies in the past two months. It has formed a “Penny Work Group” and urged the Federal Reserve to go back to accepting penny deposits after suspending the practice. Some large banks are now shifting coins between branches to keep small businesses supplied—a costly fix, since $1,000 in pennies weighs about 500 pounds.

As the penny disappears from circulation, businesses and customers alike are adjusting to a new, coin-light reality.
https://nypost.com/2025/11/05/business/burger-kings-hoarding-pennies-as-us-phases-out-one-cent-coins/