November 14, 2025 • 33 mins
Lou continues the conversation on the end of the penny and the broader evolution of American currency. He plays a statement from the U.S. Mint explaining why pennies will still circulate for now and explores the lingering psychology behind prices ending in .99. KFI’s Mark Rahner weighs in with his take on ditching the coin altogether.
Lou then looks at the real-world ripple effects for retailers as they adjust to price rounding and eventually exhaust their penny inventory. He reflects on his own kids’ relationship with money and how younger generations increasingly don’t interact with physical cash at all. The hour expands into a deeper discussion about the rise of digital payments, capped off with a fun whip-around on how much cash—if any—the team actually carries anymore.
Lou closes the hour by looking ahead to what a fully cashless future could mean for all of us.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Penny is over. It's officially done. US Mint officially stopped
minting pennies. Yesterday was the last penny because it's stupid.
It costs you and me the taxpayer, like three and
a half cent almost four cents now in copper and zinc.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
And it was amazing that it took this long. It
really is. I know that there are people wistful for
the penny.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's copper, so it looks different than all the other coins,
and yeah, it brings back good memories, but in reality
it's stupid.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I mean, we were losing millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
In twenty twenty four alone, the US Mint lost eighty
five million dollars, like ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. And President Trump
said no more, and it's over.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
The US Mint pressing it's fine penny, which cost nearly
four cents a piece to make, more than the price
of producing a dollar bill. This after an order from
President Trump, who called it wasteful to continue turning out
these zinc and copper coins.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It is wasteful, I mean it's like stupid, wasteful. That's
amazing that the penny costs more than the dollar bill.
The dollar bill is cheap because it's not been updated. Notice,
the dollar bill is the only one that doesn't have
the special stuff. You look at a five or a
ten or one hundred, they have that's strip in there
and the special ink, and everybody got updated the dollar bill.
(01:34):
I think they're looking at phasing that out too at some.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Point, because it.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Does cost money to make, but the penny was the
most I think the penny and the nickel are the
most cost inefficient.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The retirement has some retailers, banks and convenience stores scrambling
to adapt, with some stores rounding cash transactions up or down.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, I don't know that anyone's scrambling to adapt.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's kind of a dramatic characterization there, I think will
be Okay, what was the last time you used a penny?
How many pennies are sitting in boxes and drawers? I'm
interested with Mark Ronner, was the last time you used
(02:20):
a penny?
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I don't use cash at all. I think we're moving
toward a cash list entirely as society entirely. I never
carried cash with me, haven't used a penny, and I
can't even remember when right.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I agree with you. I mean, like, I don't even
know the.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Last time I saw a penny. There's probably some pennies
in my car. I don't know what to do with them.
You know, you can't take pennies back to the bank,
like I know.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
There are people. I know my brother has this like a.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Like an empty water bottle that he just sticks his
coins in and it's head So you must have a
bunch of money in there. But you can't just take
that to the bank anymore. And coinstar forget it, man,
talk about usury.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
They take a goodly amount of money.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Do that. I've used coinstar a couple of times, but
it's been a while. What do they take?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
They take like seven percent unless you put it directly
into your Amazon account.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Well that's right, that's right. You can get a gift certificate, right, Okay, but.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's even money.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I don't know what kind of deal like got going
with Amazon, but I guess Amazon pays for the conversion.
But otherwise they take like seven percent, which you think
about it, seven cents on a dollar.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So what are you gonna do with the coins anyway?
You got to get rid of them.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Yeah, but Amazon's gonna wind up with all our money
sooner or later anyway, So you might.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
As well just give up.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's right, You might as well just convert it to
Amazon cash and give up.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But yeah, I did.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This idea that McDonald's and Walmart are worried about being
able to make change is curious to me, because I
was just out of Walmart a couple of days ago,
and nobody has change purses anymore. Nobody uses any currency
at all, whether it's a coin or a bill.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Did your parents have those little squeeze coin purses? My
grandpa did, remember.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That little rubber thing, little oval rubber thing with the
slit in the middle.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I was always fascinated by that and found it hilarious.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Right, Like, well, your pants pocket isn't enough. It has
to be like it's in the pants. But that's not enough.
It needs to be in a separate section of the
inside of the pockett.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
The well appointed mail of what I don't know, the
sixties and seventies had had to have one of those
on him.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I had to keep that change from hitting into the
jackknife or whatever else was in that pants pocket.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Huh No, I think I think the end of the
penny long overdue.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I mean, when you consider how much money we'd been
losing year after year after year, and that it eluded
previous administrations is.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Shocking to me. And and we're only at the penny.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The nickel loses money too, but that might be too
much for people to handle. I guess that if we
had to go slow, going to go with the penny
and then work our way up to the nickel, the
nickel coin, because the nickel is bigger than the dime,
so there's more metal in.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I guess nobody thought of that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It was, you know, it was going smallest, the biggest,
and then they got to the nickel, and I don't know,
somebody decided the nickel had to be the odd man out.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
One of these things looks not like the other, like
the quarter.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But uh yeah, they're they're very concerned that number one
McDonald's and Walmart won't be.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Able to make change.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
The US Treasurer came out at a press conference he
wanted to assure everybody that the penny was still worth
a penny.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Let me be crystal clear, the penny remains legal tender.
We have over three hundred billion pennies that remain in circulation.
And we encourage you to use them.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I mean it's such an like like ominous warning. Let
me be crystal clear, you can still use the penny.
It is absolutely legal tender. And I'm thinking as I'm
watching this, who is using a penny for anything? I
mean they there is a leave a penny, take a
penny cup at the seven eleven where I.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Next to.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
My pennies are so inconsequential that they're handing them out
for free at the counter of seven to eleven, and
the US treasures out there reminding everybody who I suspect
there are people out there that are worried that their
penny won't be taken anymore. So, now this is an
interesting question. What happens to the ninety nine at McDonald's
(06:24):
right now? A double cheeseburger is four ninety nine, a
medium sized soda is one eighty nine. Everything ends in
a nine. So will they do away with the ninety
nine trick and just go flat or will they will
they round down in their pricing and make go from
(06:45):
four ninety nine to four ninety five, which is a
four cent cut, and every single item on the menu
ends in nine, so they either have to go up
or down, or I guess they could keep it the
way it is and just after taxes applied. Round up
on that last number. But there is going to be
(07:06):
in every transaction either they're gonna make money that was
not intended for them.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Or from you, or they're gonna lose money.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And the hope is that it evens out, but that
might not happen, so it remains to be seen how.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
This is gonna go. But yeah, so, Mark, you think
we're gonna go to the.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Complete cashless society, Well, I think we're on the way
to some kind of Star Trek version of that. But
the other thing is, I mean we're We're not that stupid,
but maybe we are because there has to have been
decades of marketing research telling people if you say five
to ninety nine instead of six, people are going to
be more likely to cough up the dough. And I'm
anxious for that to go away. Just put the six
on the menu. I don't want the five ninety nine.
(07:49):
Maybe I'm that stupid, but I don't want to be
treated like I'm that stupid.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It does work like something about four ninety nine That
feels far away from five dollars.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Yeah, nine ninety nine is less of an ask than
ten bucks. But I think I'm ready to make the move. Yeah,
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I think it's been a lot of fun, but we
need to just grow up. And when you consider the
amount of millions of dollars a taxpayer is losing to
make this a little penny trick. So the US Treasurer said,
there's like billions of pennies out there. I don't know
where they're all going to go.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
This is the situation where you could literally say we're
being penny wise and pound foolish literally for the one
time in your life.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And when I think about my children have three boys, sixteen, fifteen,
and twelve. They have never like, they have no concept
of currency the way we grew up with currency. I
mean they don't have dollar bills or coins at all.
So they won't even notice that the penny is no
longer in circulation because they probably I don't think they've
(08:52):
ever handled pennies.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
They're going to miss the whole right of passage, that
is tucking a dollar bill into a g string.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You have more than one dollar these days, Mark, I
never get out. We'll continue with this, And what is
Walmart going to do now and also the threat of
the class action lawsuit by being sure changed.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Mark Roder nowt in the KFI twenty four newsroom with
the latest.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Yesterday the last penny
was printed, and now retailers are trying to figure out
what they're gonna do to make change.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
President and Trump's decision to stop producing the penny earlier
this year is starting to have real implications on the
nation's commerce. Merchants in many parts of the nation have
run out of pennies and are unable to dish out
exact change.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Anybody that's run out of pennies, and so what there's
always a leave a penny.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I mean, it's a penny. But they're acting like this
is a national retail crisis.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
If people are using credit and debit cards, what does
it matter.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
It's not like you got to have pennies.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Not many people are paying cash.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, I don't know anybody that's paying a cash like,
not at all. That's why I'm encouraging a review of
the nickel.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
A penny saved is a penny earned. I guess that
term is gonna go away.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's not a good saying. A penny earned is a
penny earned, then you can save it or spend it
and get one cent of value. A penny saved is
not a penny earned. It's a dumb thing.
Speaker 7 (10:29):
I kind of laughed when you said your kids don't
use currency, coin or paper and just rely on a
card on their phone. Whats when they lose their phone?
Speaker 8 (10:40):
What thems?
Speaker 7 (10:40):
If things go down, you should always carry cash, and
we have always taught our daughter to do that. Should
never ever be without cash because you have no idea
if things go down and you need to buy something.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'll bet on the average over time in the history
of the wallet, your wallet was misplaced more frequently than
your phone.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Mark Ronner, you want to weigh in on that.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I once accidentally left my wallet on the bumper of
my car and it was kind of wet out, so
it stayed there for the whole drive home. And I
don't know what that proves, but it was just a
freak event. But you never left your phone on the bumper?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Hell no, right?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I think that we are in better possession of our
phone than even.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Like our wallet.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
No, don't you have nightmares about leaving your phone and
not being able to find it. I think that's like
a latter day nightmare thing, right.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
But like if you know, sometimes my wallet will be
you know, by my keys, on the counter, or sometimes
it'll be in the arm rest inside the car, if
the cars in the garage, and so you know, if
you don't find your wallet right away, it's somewhere or
it's upstairs, you know, on the nightstand.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
But you know, you don't freak out.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You can't find your phone and all of a sudden
you're asking people to call it.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You're running around the house.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So when you say, well, you know, if everything's on
the phone, what happens if you lose the phone. No,
one's losing their phone. It's just just a it's too important. Well, look,
that's just the reality. I agree with you that it's
it's it's hard to teach children about value when there
is no currency. But I am watching it in real time,
(12:30):
Like my boys never have money, Like they don't have
they just don't. They don't even know what to do
with it. Many many times they don't take actual cash,
Like why would they ever need money.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Well, one clear advantage of that is that you don't
have to give money to anybody who approaches you asking
for money. You're not lying if you say I'm sorry,
I don't have anything. Really just don't have any.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
But when I look at it through the I look
at the world through the eyes of my son's growing up.
You know, if something's going on. They didn't take a lunch,
they're going to buy a lunch at school. Okay, they
don't actually buy lunch at school. I have to go
transfer money for my Wells Fargo account into their lunch
account and it just goes. I mean, they don't see
(13:18):
any coins or cash. There's no cash register, there's none
of that. And during the week they just don't really
use money or need money to buy anything. And if
they do need to get something. We were just at
a football championship tournament. My youngest son plays football, and
this past Saturday was the playoffs and then the last
(13:41):
game of the season. He won by the way, completely
undefeated season. And of course there's concessions there, but they
don't take cash. There's like a Vemo thing, there's a
QR code. I don't know how to do any of
that stuff, but you can't buy anything. I couldn't buy
a cup of coffee because they don't take any cash.
The lady gave me a cup of coffee, but like
they are just the running their phones through things, so
(14:03):
they really don't have any need for any cash at all.
And there was certainly no coins involved. So that and then'
that's that generation. So I actually saw this happen, and
I do bemoan it because in that it is certainly
convenient to teach young people how to understand value is
(14:24):
challenging when there is no actual tangible currency involved.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
I watched this.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I lived through the Chucky Cheese years, and those of
you that have children, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
The Chucky Cheese years.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Either you're having a birthday party at Chuck e Cheese
or you're being invited to a birthday party at Chuck
e Cheese. Five years old, six years old, seven year old,
eight year old, and I watched the transition. Back in
the early days of my Chuck E Cheese years, each
kid would get a little bucket filled with tokens coins
and it had hef to it right, and it it
(15:00):
was interesting because as you were playing and the bucket
was getting lighter and lighter. You start to think and choose,
right do is do I really want to play this
game one more time?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I'm running out of coins. I want to make it last.
Where are the games that only require two coins instead
of four coins? Right, little my?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I watched them start making these decisions and making these choices,
and then Chuck E Cheese switched to the stored value
card and it was ridiculous. All you did was just
swipe and swipe and swipe and swipe and swipe until
the game didn't work anymore, and then you cried. So
not having the tokens, uh, you know, robbed us of
(15:42):
an opportunity to teach a little bit of a lesson.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
I like large denominations. I like large bills. You know
why it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Hurts to break a fifty? Like a twenty, no problem?
And you know five five is a tip, So really,
the only bill left that you really like looking at
is the fifty and the one hundred. You don't really
carry hundreds around, but a fifty dollars bill in your
wallet kind of fun to look at.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And you think, hmmm, really rather not break the fifty
because it hurts the break a fifty it hurts.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
To break a hundred, and now there is like there
is no connection between denominations and bills and coins with
young people.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
And I think that's just something that we're gonna have
to come to deal with.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Eventually, it'll all become credits according to the Star Wars movies. Anyway,
Lou Penrose ONKFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Penny's done.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
The last penny was minted yesterday, and we are deciding
if we like it or not. We're also deciding if
we want to keep the ninety nine thing going. Every
single thing on the menu ends in ninety nine, so
if they change the ninety nine think about this mark.
Everything on the menu is in ninety nine, So if
(17:01):
they drop it to ninety five, they're eating four cents
on every item sold.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
That could be the profit margin in a day for
a franchise. I don't mind them rounding up, that's fine.
I like those menus you go to where it just
says like seven, you know like that.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I do like that.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
You're right, But if they round up, now they're making
a penny on every item for free, they've effectively raised
the prices so as to comply with the penny shortage.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
So now you're kind of getting robbed. Well, well, little
were and robed one or the other.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
How many times have you noticed on on your bill
lately some sort of weird surcharge for something or other.
I mean they're gonna get you one way or the other,
coming or going the plan.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I meant the thought is, and I listen to an
economist today say that it'll work out like it evens
out because the randomness of commerce, that Walmart will be fine.
They will round down and round up, and it just
always seems to work out. But I don't know, I
can I can hear that class action lawsuit coming.
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Everyone I know uses cash just because you guys don't.
Don't start talking about people who don't use cash.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
All right, Mark, how much money is in your pocket
right now? None? I do not carry cash, like, not
a single dollar bill. And we just got scolded. That
was good, Mario. How much money is in your pocket?
I have about twenty five dollars, You have a twenty
and a five, or you have five singles in my wallet?
Twenty five? Yeah, Tony, how much money is in your wallet? Zero?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
No cash and no cash and any coins.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
No, no, of course not.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It's like no, while right, the odds of there even
being a rolling around penny in the cup holder in
your car is low because where would you.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Have gotten it? No, exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I saw a bucket of change that's been sitting for
years now, right.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, My brother used to work at a grocery store
and there was a Heineke in display, so they would
like these great, big green plastic honeken bottles. They're like
three feet tall, and he cut a hole in the
top of it and puts the coins in there, and
now it's full, and now it's worthless.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
So I'm not sure where exactly he's going to go
to dump out his honeken.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
Change, because cash most people I know, and businesses. I
know a lot of people have businesses and waitresses, you know, servers.
Everybody likes cash.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
All right, flow And she just asked my credit union
the other day when this news story about the penny broke,
and most credit unions do take any type of coin,
including pennies, and a lot of them wave any kind
of a fee. Well, the credit unions do that a lot.
They're big on waving those fees. But yeah, you're right,
there is a fee. My bank does doesn't have a fee.
(20:01):
They just hand me a bunch of paper wrappers and
they want me to wrap my coins and I'm not
doing that. So it's cheaper just to go to Coinstar.
But I have to imagine now would be the time
to go through your house and empty out all the water,
the five gallon water, but you know, bottles and all
the plastic Heineken display bottles.
Speaker 8 (20:22):
The only people I know that use cash or people
buy weed because they throw an extra stuff at a
dispensary or the dealer. You can't, you know, use a
credit card with like a drug deal But I don't
do drugs, nothing like that.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
But that's the people using cash. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
The only people that use cash in business in California
are the dispensaries. You know why that is because it's
illegal to south marijuana in the United States. We forget
in California. We think because it's so ever present that
it must be legal, but it is still a federal crime.
(20:59):
So you can't use a credit card and you have
to pay your taxes in cash.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I see these.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Guys, you know, going up to the franchise tax board
with the bundles of cash. That's the only way you
can do it, and I think that's stupid, Like that
really needs to be changed. It's been attempted in Congress
a number of times. I think in this administration it
probably will change because it's frankly unsafe and it's just
kind of dumb. But at this point in time, you're
(21:29):
engaging in a federal crime selling a controlled substance.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Talk to the TSA over at LAX.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
That's like one of the biggest jokes going, Like the
TSA take weed vape pens off of travelers departing out
of LAX more than any other single item, because in
California we just forget people like vape weed so much
that they think they can just go to.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Cabo with a weed pen.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
They think they can just go to Punamina and they
have the pen on them and the TSA is constantly
pulling them up, like doesn't happen in any other airport,
even San Francisco, not as much compared to LAX.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
According to TSA, I talked to some of those people.
This is Lisa, and the only time I use cash
is if I think the cashier is stupid and they
might have trouble counting the change back. I just do
it for fun.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, I appreciate the call. Don't be picking on the cashiers.
They have a hard enough time. I think, Mark, I
think you're right. I mean, I think this will be
the end. And it's not because there's a big government
conspiracy to digitize currency, to control us.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I don't think it's any of those things.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
I just think that you're I mean, you're raising I
am raising a generation of young people that just don't
think about cash at all.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Well, things change, We're resist resistant to change. I mean
Nixon took it's off the gold standard. We survived that.
And you may need a few pennies here and there
to make a wish and throw into a fountain.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, what are they going to throw in the fountain? Well,
I mean you say things change. The penny has been
the one cent coin has been with us since seventeen
ninety two, like Benjamin Franklin designed it. So things change,
but the currency has not changed.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Well, this is the first change in a long time.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Ben Franklin didn't have to pay five bucks for a
cup of coffee. You know, thinks there's inflation. We'll see
where this goes.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I I wonder how long it's going to take, because
the penny's going to be around for a while, when
like when the European Union got rid of the currency.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
My dad is Italian.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
My dad's past now, but he was Italian and had
a ton of Italian.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Lira, which was the currency in Italy.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And then Italy became a member of the European Union
and switched to the Euro and I was like, Dad,
you got to cash this in, man, you got to,
you know, get rid of all this lyric. It's going
to become worthless. And I did some research. I'm like,
I honestly thought, I need to fly to Rome.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I guess yeah. I don't know why he had all
this lera.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I don't know what he was doing, but he just
had it here in California. And it turns out you
could go to there was a couple of banks that
you could cash in your era and and exchange it,
but it.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Was time sensitive.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
You only had I think like ten years to cash
in your era and exchange it for euros, and it
was even less time for coins.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
The treasurer says that the one cent piece will always
be worth one cent but I think eventually you're gonna
have a hard time turning it into one cent worth
of value or handing somebody one hundred pennies is not
going to be something that anyone's gonna want to do
business with. So give rid all those coins. Let's let's
be done with it and move on. Loup Penrose on
(24:52):
KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
The penny's over talking about your money.
Speaker 10 (25:06):
I had to experience with a young cashier at Walmart
and I was using an old twenty dollars bill with
the little face. I don't know where I got it from,
but anyways, he thought it was a fake dollar bill.
He was looking at the twenty and he had to
college manager over the confirm that it was real.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah, that old school twenty yo Penrose.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Look up the Cosby Show episode of Cosby teaching Theo.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
The meaning of a dollar. It is classic and timeless.
I appreciate the call yo hey.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Coming up following the news at nine, speaking of Walmart,
Walmart released a new ad, a television ad that is
very different than any Walmart ad we've ever seen. What
have you always seen in Walmart ads? Beware price is falling?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Right? Walmart always celebrated lower prices.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Prices are coming down, They're falling on the sign overhead
in the aisles, the numbers were coming down and hitting
the customers in their head.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Beware falling prices.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
So Walmart was celebrating the cheapest conceivable price.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
That was their thing.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
They have pivoted and now they are running ads celebrating
the percentage of products in a Walmart that are made
in America. I couldn't believe it when I saw the ad.
I have it and I'll share it with you. But
Walmart has made the marketing decision that the lowest price
(26:46):
isn't the best thing. What's really attractive is that you
have made in America products in the store. Now they're
gilding the lily a little bit because they are including
the food. These days, most Walmarts sell food, and all
Walmart supercenters sell food.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
So if you factor in.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Food, for the most part is domestic, most of the
stuff that isn't food. If you separate out produce actually
all food in Walmart, then I think the number is
ninety two ninety two percent of all the items for
sale inside of Walmart, excluding food, is made in China.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Like it's a ridiculous number.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Like there are five hundred and eight thousand individual items
for sale.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
At a Walmart supercenter.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It's mind numbing, right, And of that, five hundred and
eight thousand individual items for sale are made in China,
and like the four percent after that are manufactured in
Pakistan or Turkey, and that's usually linens. It's like almost
(28:13):
everything for sale in Walmart is made out somewhere, but
the food is from here, and made in America is
a hot thing now. Everybody is excited to say, hey,
we have stuff made in America. And they do actually
have some clothing made in America for sale in Walmart.
(28:34):
So they released a new ad and really pivoted from
a long standing tradition of selling to the consumer saying, hey,
we got the lowest prices. We have shopped the world
and we have figured out a way to get you
the lowest price possible.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
So that's good for you, the consumer.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
And they've they just they've decided that well, you know,
maybe Americans are willing to pay a little bit more
and know that they are making a choice that is
a product made in America, and I am a huge
fan of this. I was on the maid in America
train for many years. It was one of the issues
(29:14):
that I advocated for when I was in college working
on political campaigns. I went to college in the eighties
and in the late seventies and early eighties, we had
a real drain of products, consumer products that were manufactured
primarily in the Midwest, but also the Northeast where I
(29:36):
went to school, and I watched factory towns just completely
collapse and factories close and products be offshore for labor costs,
and it was devastating, and it was one of the
issues that I got involved with at the college level,
and that's pretty much how I got into politics, was
(29:58):
learning about why these factories closing down? Why are all
these people getting put out of work? We're still buying
all this stuff. We were near a furniture fabric manufacturing center.
So everything in your house, and I mean everything in
your house used to be made in America by an
(30:21):
American at an American factory, Like all your furniture used
to be made in America, your mother's furniture, your father's furniture,
certainly your grandparents furniture was all made in North Carolina
using local lumber, and then it was covered with fabric
that was milled in upstate New York.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
And that was the furniture.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And we went out and bought ourselves a sofa or
a love seat or a chair, and it was American made,
buy Americans with American raw material. And they closed those
factories down and started impoort Vietnamese furniture that was junk,
and they closed down these factories. And I was in
(31:07):
college at the time, and I learned all about it,
and it turned out was I thought it was just
happening to furniture and the automobile industry. We all know
what was happening in the seventies and eighties in the
automobile industry, right right, Michael Moore and Flint Michigan and
all of that. Everyone knew about that. But what most
people did not know it was happening in every industry,
(31:28):
in the furniture industry, in the appliance industry and the
electronic industry, in the clothing industry, in the athletic wear industry,
particularly athletic shoes.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
What you call sneakers. So it was happening in every industry.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
At the same time, everybody was shutting down factories, putting
Americans out of work, and sending the jobs overseas, and
then importing all that stuff without a duty, no tariff,
no duty. Was all just being imported under the guise
of something that politicians called free trade, and it was
on the shelf for the exact same price. That was
(32:07):
the worst, That was the unkindest cut of all. We
shut down the factories, unemployed, we put all the Americans out.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Of work, ship the jobs overseas.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Brought in the product, and the product was the exact
same price on the shelf. So it was a pretty
incredible time to be watching this happen and being involved
in politics. And now here we are, I would say,
thirty to forty years later, and Walmart has pivoted from
(32:39):
the lowest price possible to we are celebrating that we
have products here made in America. I think it is
an historic pivot, and I think it's a pivot in
the right direction. And I'll share with you the commercial
and we'll talk about it. That's all coming up next.
Lou Penrose on KFI AM six forty Live Everywhere on
(33:01):
the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (33:01):
App Kfi a M six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Penny is over. It's officially done. US Mint officially stopped
minting pennies. Yesterday was the last penny because it's stupid.
It costs you and me the taxpayer, like three and
a half cent almost four cents now in copper and zinc.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
And it was amazing that it took this long. It
really is. I know that there are people wistful for
the penny.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's copper, so it looks different than all the other coins,
and yeah, it brings back good memories, but in reality
it's stupid.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I mean, we were losing millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
In twenty twenty four alone, the US Mint lost eighty
five million dollars, like ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. And President Trump
said no more, and it's over.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
The US Mint pressing it's fine penny, which cost nearly
four cents a piece to make, more than the price
of producing a dollar bill. This after an order from
President Trump, who called it wasteful to continue turning out
these zinc and copper coins.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It is wasteful, I mean it's like stupid, wasteful. That's
amazing that the penny costs more than the dollar bill.
The dollar bill is cheap because it's not been updated. Notice,
the dollar bill is the only one that doesn't have
the special stuff. You look at a five or a
ten or one hundred, they have that's strip in there
and the special ink, and everybody got updated the dollar bill.
(01:34):
I think they're looking at phasing that out too at some.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Point, because it.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Does cost money to make, but the penny was the
most I think the penny and the nickel are the
most cost inefficient.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The retirement has some retailers, banks and convenience stores scrambling
to adapt, with some stores rounding cash transactions up or down.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, I don't know that anyone's scrambling to adapt.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's kind of a dramatic characterization there, I think will
be Okay, what was the last time you used a penny?
How many pennies are sitting in boxes and drawers? I'm
interested with Mark Ronner, was the last time you used
(02:20):
a penny?
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I don't use cash at all. I think we're moving
toward a cash list entirely as society entirely. I never
carried cash with me, haven't used a penny, and I
can't even remember when right.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I agree with you. I mean, like, I don't even
know the.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Last time I saw a penny. There's probably some pennies
in my car. I don't know what to do with them.
You know, you can't take pennies back to the bank,
like I know.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
There are people. I know my brother has this like a.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Like an empty water bottle that he just sticks his
coins in and it's head So you must have a
bunch of money in there. But you can't just take
that to the bank anymore. And coinstar forget it, man,
talk about usury.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
They take a goodly amount of money.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Do that. I've used coinstar a couple of times, but
it's been a while. What do they take?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
They take like seven percent unless you put it directly
into your Amazon account.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Well that's right, that's right. You can get a gift certificate, right, Okay, but.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's even money.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I don't know what kind of deal like got going
with Amazon, but I guess Amazon pays for the conversion.
But otherwise they take like seven percent, which you think
about it, seven cents on a dollar.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So what are you gonna do with the coins anyway?
You got to get rid of them.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Yeah, but Amazon's gonna wind up with all our money
sooner or later anyway, So you might.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
As well just give up.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's right, You might as well just convert it to
Amazon cash and give up.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But yeah, I did.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This idea that McDonald's and Walmart are worried about being
able to make change is curious to me, because I
was just out of Walmart a couple of days ago,
and nobody has change purses anymore. Nobody uses any currency
at all, whether it's a coin or a bill.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Did your parents have those little squeeze coin purses? My
grandpa did, remember.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That little rubber thing, little oval rubber thing with the
slit in the middle.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I was always fascinated by that and found it hilarious.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Right, Like, well, your pants pocket isn't enough. It has
to be like it's in the pants. But that's not enough.
It needs to be in a separate section of the
inside of the pockett.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
The well appointed mail of what I don't know, the
sixties and seventies had had to have one of those
on him.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I had to keep that change from hitting into the
jackknife or whatever else was in that pants pocket.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Huh No, I think I think the end of the
penny long overdue.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I mean, when you consider how much money we'd been
losing year after year after year, and that it eluded
previous administrations is.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Shocking to me. And and we're only at the penny.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The nickel loses money too, but that might be too
much for people to handle. I guess that if we
had to go slow, going to go with the penny
and then work our way up to the nickel, the
nickel coin, because the nickel is bigger than the dime,
so there's more metal in.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I guess nobody thought of that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It was, you know, it was going smallest, the biggest,
and then they got to the nickel, and I don't know,
somebody decided the nickel had to be the odd man out.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
One of these things looks not like the other, like
the quarter.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But uh yeah, they're they're very concerned that number one
McDonald's and Walmart won't be.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Able to make change.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
The US Treasurer came out at a press conference he
wanted to assure everybody that the penny was still worth
a penny.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Let me be crystal clear, the penny remains legal tender.
We have over three hundred billion pennies that remain in circulation.
And we encourage you to use them.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I mean it's such an like like ominous warning. Let
me be crystal clear, you can still use the penny.
It is absolutely legal tender. And I'm thinking as I'm
watching this, who is using a penny for anything? I
mean they there is a leave a penny, take a
penny cup at the seven eleven where I.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Next to.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
My pennies are so inconsequential that they're handing them out
for free at the counter of seven to eleven, and
the US treasures out there reminding everybody who I suspect
there are people out there that are worried that their
penny won't be taken anymore. So, now this is an
interesting question. What happens to the ninety nine at McDonald's
(06:24):
right now? A double cheeseburger is four ninety nine, a
medium sized soda is one eighty nine. Everything ends in
a nine. So will they do away with the ninety
nine trick and just go flat or will they will
they round down in their pricing and make go from
(06:45):
four ninety nine to four ninety five, which is a
four cent cut, and every single item on the menu
ends in nine, so they either have to go up
or down, or I guess they could keep it the
way it is and just after taxes applied. Round up
on that last number. But there is going to be
(07:06):
in every transaction either they're gonna make money that was
not intended for them.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Or from you, or they're gonna lose money.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And the hope is that it evens out, but that
might not happen, so it remains to be seen how.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
This is gonna go. But yeah, so, Mark, you think
we're gonna go to the.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
Complete cashless society, Well, I think we're on the way
to some kind of Star Trek version of that. But
the other thing is, I mean we're We're not that stupid,
but maybe we are because there has to have been
decades of marketing research telling people if you say five
to ninety nine instead of six, people are going to
be more likely to cough up the dough. And I'm
anxious for that to go away. Just put the six
on the menu. I don't want the five ninety nine.
(07:49):
Maybe I'm that stupid, but I don't want to be
treated like I'm that stupid.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It does work like something about four ninety nine That
feels far away from five dollars.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
Yeah, nine ninety nine is less of an ask than
ten bucks. But I think I'm ready to make the move. Yeah,
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I think it's been a lot of fun, but we
need to just grow up. And when you consider the
amount of millions of dollars a taxpayer is losing to
make this a little penny trick. So the US Treasurer said,
there's like billions of pennies out there. I don't know
where they're all going to go.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
This is the situation where you could literally say we're
being penny wise and pound foolish literally for the one
time in your life.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And when I think about my children have three boys, sixteen, fifteen,
and twelve. They have never like, they have no concept
of currency the way we grew up with currency. I
mean they don't have dollar bills or coins at all.
So they won't even notice that the penny is no
longer in circulation because they probably I don't think they've
(08:52):
ever handled pennies.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
They're going to miss the whole right of passage, that
is tucking a dollar bill into a g string.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You have more than one dollar these days, Mark, I
never get out. We'll continue with this, And what is
Walmart going to do now and also the threat of
the class action lawsuit by being sure changed.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Mark Roder nowt in the KFI twenty four newsroom with
the latest.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Yesterday the last penny
was printed, and now retailers are trying to figure out
what they're gonna do to make change.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
President and Trump's decision to stop producing the penny earlier
this year is starting to have real implications on the
nation's commerce. Merchants in many parts of the nation have
run out of pennies and are unable to dish out
exact change.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Anybody that's run out of pennies, and so what there's
always a leave a penny.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I mean, it's a penny. But they're acting like this
is a national retail crisis.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
If people are using credit and debit cards, what does
it matter.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
It's not like you got to have pennies.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Not many people are paying cash.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, I don't know anybody that's paying a cash like,
not at all. That's why I'm encouraging a review of
the nickel.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
A penny saved is a penny earned. I guess that
term is gonna go away.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's not a good saying. A penny earned is a
penny earned, then you can save it or spend it
and get one cent of value. A penny saved is
not a penny earned. It's a dumb thing.
Speaker 7 (10:29):
I kind of laughed when you said your kids don't
use currency, coin or paper and just rely on a
card on their phone. Whats when they lose their phone?
Speaker 8 (10:40):
What thems?
Speaker 7 (10:40):
If things go down, you should always carry cash, and
we have always taught our daughter to do that. Should
never ever be without cash because you have no idea
if things go down and you need to buy something.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'll bet on the average over time in the history
of the wallet, your wallet was misplaced more frequently than
your phone.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Mark Ronner, you want to weigh in on that.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I once accidentally left my wallet on the bumper of
my car and it was kind of wet out, so
it stayed there for the whole drive home. And I
don't know what that proves, but it was just a
freak event. But you never left your phone on the bumper?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Hell no, right?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I think that we are in better possession of our
phone than even.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Like our wallet.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
No, don't you have nightmares about leaving your phone and
not being able to find it. I think that's like
a latter day nightmare thing, right.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
But like if you know, sometimes my wallet will be
you know, by my keys, on the counter, or sometimes
it'll be in the arm rest inside the car, if
the cars in the garage, and so you know, if
you don't find your wallet right away, it's somewhere or
it's upstairs, you know, on the nightstand.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
But you know, you don't freak out.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
You can't find your phone and all of a sudden
you're asking people to call it.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You're running around the house.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So when you say, well, you know, if everything's on
the phone, what happens if you lose the phone. No,
one's losing their phone. It's just just a it's too important. Well, look,
that's just the reality. I agree with you that it's
it's it's hard to teach children about value when there
is no currency. But I am watching it in real time,
(12:30):
Like my boys never have money, Like they don't have
they just don't. They don't even know what to do
with it. Many many times they don't take actual cash,
Like why would they ever need money.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Well, one clear advantage of that is that you don't
have to give money to anybody who approaches you asking
for money. You're not lying if you say I'm sorry,
I don't have anything. Really just don't have any.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
But when I look at it through the I look
at the world through the eyes of my son's growing up.
You know, if something's going on. They didn't take a lunch,
they're going to buy a lunch at school. Okay, they
don't actually buy lunch at school. I have to go
transfer money for my Wells Fargo account into their lunch
account and it just goes. I mean, they don't see
(13:18):
any coins or cash. There's no cash register, there's none
of that. And during the week they just don't really
use money or need money to buy anything. And if
they do need to get something. We were just at
a football championship tournament. My youngest son plays football, and
this past Saturday was the playoffs and then the last
(13:41):
game of the season. He won by the way, completely
undefeated season. And of course there's concessions there, but they
don't take cash. There's like a Vemo thing, there's a
QR code. I don't know how to do any of
that stuff, but you can't buy anything. I couldn't buy
a cup of coffee because they don't take any cash.
The lady gave me a cup of coffee, but like
they are just the running their phones through things, so
(14:03):
they really don't have any need for any cash at all.
And there was certainly no coins involved. So that and then'
that's that generation. So I actually saw this happen, and
I do bemoan it because in that it is certainly
convenient to teach young people how to understand value is
(14:24):
challenging when there is no actual tangible currency involved.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
I watched this.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I lived through the Chucky Cheese years, and those of
you that have children, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
The Chucky Cheese years.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Either you're having a birthday party at Chuck e Cheese
or you're being invited to a birthday party at Chuck
e Cheese. Five years old, six years old, seven year old,
eight year old, and I watched the transition. Back in
the early days of my Chuck E Cheese years, each
kid would get a little bucket filled with tokens coins
and it had hef to it right, and it it
(15:00):
was interesting because as you were playing and the bucket
was getting lighter and lighter. You start to think and choose,
right do is do I really want to play this
game one more time?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I'm running out of coins. I want to make it last.
Where are the games that only require two coins instead
of four coins? Right, little my?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I watched them start making these decisions and making these choices,
and then Chuck E Cheese switched to the stored value
card and it was ridiculous. All you did was just
swipe and swipe and swipe and swipe and swipe until
the game didn't work anymore, and then you cried. So
not having the tokens, uh, you know, robbed us of
(15:42):
an opportunity to teach a little bit of a lesson.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
I like large denominations. I like large bills. You know
why it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Hurts to break a fifty? Like a twenty, no problem?
And you know five five is a tip, So really,
the only bill left that you really like looking at
is the fifty and the one hundred. You don't really
carry hundreds around, but a fifty dollars bill in your
wallet kind of fun to look at.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And you think, hmmm, really rather not break the fifty
because it hurts the break a fifty it hurts.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
To break a hundred, and now there is like there
is no connection between denominations and bills and coins with
young people.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
And I think that's just something that we're gonna have
to come to deal with.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Eventually, it'll all become credits according to the Star Wars movies. Anyway,
Lou Penrose ONKFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Penny's done.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
The last penny was minted yesterday, and we are deciding
if we like it or not. We're also deciding if
we want to keep the ninety nine thing going. Every
single thing on the menu ends in ninety nine, so
if they change the ninety nine think about this mark.
Everything on the menu is in ninety nine, So if
(17:01):
they drop it to ninety five, they're eating four cents
on every item sold.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
That could be the profit margin in a day for
a franchise. I don't mind them rounding up, that's fine.
I like those menus you go to where it just
says like seven, you know like that.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I do like that.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
You're right, But if they round up, now they're making
a penny on every item for free, they've effectively raised
the prices so as to comply with the penny shortage.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
So now you're kind of getting robbed. Well, well, little
were and robed one or the other.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
How many times have you noticed on on your bill
lately some sort of weird surcharge for something or other.
I mean they're gonna get you one way or the other,
coming or going the plan.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I meant the thought is, and I listen to an
economist today say that it'll work out like it evens
out because the randomness of commerce, that Walmart will be fine.
They will round down and round up, and it just
always seems to work out. But I don't know, I
can I can hear that class action lawsuit coming.
Speaker 9 (18:10):
Everyone I know uses cash just because you guys don't.
Don't start talking about people who don't use cash.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
All right, Mark, how much money is in your pocket
right now? None? I do not carry cash, like, not
a single dollar bill. And we just got scolded. That
was good, Mario. How much money is in your pocket?
I have about twenty five dollars, You have a twenty
and a five, or you have five singles in my wallet?
Twenty five? Yeah, Tony, how much money is in your wallet? Zero?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
No cash and no cash and any coins.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
No, no, of course not.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It's like no, while right, the odds of there even
being a rolling around penny in the cup holder in
your car is low because where would you.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Have gotten it? No, exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I saw a bucket of change that's been sitting for
years now, right.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, My brother used to work at a grocery store
and there was a Heineke in display, so they would
like these great, big green plastic honeken bottles. They're like
three feet tall, and he cut a hole in the
top of it and puts the coins in there, and
now it's full, and now it's worthless.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
So I'm not sure where exactly he's going to go
to dump out his honeken.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
Change, because cash most people I know, and businesses. I
know a lot of people have businesses and waitresses, you know, servers.
Everybody likes cash.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
All right, flow And she just asked my credit union
the other day when this news story about the penny broke,
and most credit unions do take any type of coin,
including pennies, and a lot of them wave any kind
of a fee. Well, the credit unions do that a lot.
They're big on waving those fees. But yeah, you're right,
there is a fee. My bank does doesn't have a fee.
(20:01):
They just hand me a bunch of paper wrappers and
they want me to wrap my coins and I'm not
doing that. So it's cheaper just to go to Coinstar.
But I have to imagine now would be the time
to go through your house and empty out all the water,
the five gallon water, but you know, bottles and all
the plastic Heineken display bottles.
Speaker 8 (20:22):
The only people I know that use cash or people
buy weed because they throw an extra stuff at a
dispensary or the dealer. You can't, you know, use a
credit card with like a drug deal But I don't
do drugs, nothing like that.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
But that's the people using cash. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
The only people that use cash in business in California
are the dispensaries. You know why that is because it's
illegal to south marijuana in the United States. We forget
in California. We think because it's so ever present that
it must be legal, but it is still a federal crime.
(20:59):
So you can't use a credit card and you have
to pay your taxes in cash.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I see these.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Guys, you know, going up to the franchise tax board
with the bundles of cash. That's the only way you
can do it, and I think that's stupid, Like that
really needs to be changed. It's been attempted in Congress
a number of times. I think in this administration it
probably will change because it's frankly unsafe and it's just
kind of dumb. But at this point in time, you're
(21:29):
engaging in a federal crime selling a controlled substance.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Talk to the TSA over at LAX.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
That's like one of the biggest jokes going, Like the
TSA take weed vape pens off of travelers departing out
of LAX more than any other single item, because in
California we just forget people like vape weed so much
that they think they can just go to.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Cabo with a weed pen.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
They think they can just go to Punamina and they
have the pen on them and the TSA is constantly
pulling them up, like doesn't happen in any other airport,
even San Francisco, not as much compared to LAX.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
According to TSA, I talked to some of those people.
This is Lisa, and the only time I use cash
is if I think the cashier is stupid and they
might have trouble counting the change back. I just do
it for fun.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, I appreciate the call. Don't be picking on the cashiers.
They have a hard enough time. I think, Mark, I
think you're right. I mean, I think this will be
the end. And it's not because there's a big government
conspiracy to digitize currency, to control us.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I don't think it's any of those things.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
I just think that you're I mean, you're raising I
am raising a generation of young people that just don't
think about cash at all.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Well, things change, We're resist resistant to change. I mean
Nixon took it's off the gold standard. We survived that.
And you may need a few pennies here and there
to make a wish and throw into a fountain.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah, what are they going to throw in the fountain? Well,
I mean you say things change. The penny has been
the one cent coin has been with us since seventeen
ninety two, like Benjamin Franklin designed it. So things change,
but the currency has not changed.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Well, this is the first change in a long time.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Ben Franklin didn't have to pay five bucks for a
cup of coffee. You know, thinks there's inflation. We'll see
where this goes.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I I wonder how long it's going to take, because
the penny's going to be around for a while, when
like when the European Union got rid of the currency.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
My dad is Italian.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
My dad's past now, but he was Italian and had
a ton of Italian.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Lira, which was the currency in Italy.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And then Italy became a member of the European Union
and switched to the Euro and I was like, Dad,
you got to cash this in, man, you got to,
you know, get rid of all this lyric. It's going
to become worthless. And I did some research. I'm like,
I honestly thought, I need to fly to Rome.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I guess yeah. I don't know why he had all
this lera.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I don't know what he was doing, but he just
had it here in California. And it turns out you
could go to there was a couple of banks that
you could cash in your era and and exchange it,
but it.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Was time sensitive.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
You only had I think like ten years to cash
in your era and exchange it for euros, and it
was even less time for coins.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
The treasurer says that the one cent piece will always
be worth one cent but I think eventually you're gonna
have a hard time turning it into one cent worth
of value or handing somebody one hundred pennies is not
going to be something that anyone's gonna want to do
business with. So give rid all those coins. Let's let's
be done with it and move on. Loup Penrose on
(24:52):
KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
The penny's over talking about your money.
Speaker 10 (25:06):
I had to experience with a young cashier at Walmart
and I was using an old twenty dollars bill with
the little face. I don't know where I got it from,
but anyways, he thought it was a fake dollar bill.
He was looking at the twenty and he had to
college manager over the confirm that it was real.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah, that old school twenty yo Penrose.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Look up the Cosby Show episode of Cosby teaching Theo.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
The meaning of a dollar. It is classic and timeless.
I appreciate the call yo hey.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Coming up following the news at nine, speaking of Walmart,
Walmart released a new ad, a television ad that is
very different than any Walmart ad we've ever seen. What
have you always seen in Walmart ads? Beware price is falling?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Right? Walmart always celebrated lower prices.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Prices are coming down, They're falling on the sign overhead
in the aisles, the numbers were coming down and hitting
the customers in their head.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Beware falling prices.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
So Walmart was celebrating the cheapest conceivable price.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
That was their thing.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
They have pivoted and now they are running ads celebrating
the percentage of products in a Walmart that are made
in America. I couldn't believe it when I saw the ad.
I have it and I'll share it with you. But
Walmart has made the marketing decision that the lowest price
(26:46):
isn't the best thing. What's really attractive is that you
have made in America products in the store. Now they're
gilding the lily a little bit because they are including
the food. These days, most Walmarts sell food, and all
Walmart supercenters sell food.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
So if you factor in.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Food, for the most part is domestic, most of the
stuff that isn't food. If you separate out produce actually
all food in Walmart, then I think the number is
ninety two ninety two percent of all the items for
sale inside of Walmart, excluding food, is made in China.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Like it's a ridiculous number.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Like there are five hundred and eight thousand individual items
for sale.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
At a Walmart supercenter.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It's mind numbing, right, And of that, five hundred and
eight thousand individual items for sale are made in China,
and like the four percent after that are manufactured in
Pakistan or Turkey, and that's usually linens. It's like almost
(28:13):
everything for sale in Walmart is made out somewhere, but
the food is from here, and made in America is
a hot thing now. Everybody is excited to say, hey,
we have stuff made in America. And they do actually
have some clothing made in America for sale in Walmart.
(28:34):
So they released a new ad and really pivoted from
a long standing tradition of selling to the consumer saying, hey,
we got the lowest prices. We have shopped the world
and we have figured out a way to get you
the lowest price possible.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
So that's good for you, the consumer.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
And they've they just they've decided that well, you know,
maybe Americans are willing to pay a little bit more
and know that they are making a choice that is
a product made in America, and I am a huge
fan of this. I was on the maid in America
train for many years. It was one of the issues
(29:14):
that I advocated for when I was in college working
on political campaigns. I went to college in the eighties
and in the late seventies and early eighties, we had
a real drain of products, consumer products that were manufactured
primarily in the Midwest, but also the Northeast where I
(29:36):
went to school, and I watched factory towns just completely
collapse and factories close and products be offshore for labor costs,
and it was devastating, and it was one of the
issues that I got involved with at the college level,
and that's pretty much how I got into politics, was
(29:58):
learning about why these factories closing down? Why are all
these people getting put out of work? We're still buying
all this stuff. We were near a furniture fabric manufacturing center.
So everything in your house, and I mean everything in
your house used to be made in America by an
(30:21):
American at an American factory, Like all your furniture used
to be made in America, your mother's furniture, your father's furniture,
certainly your grandparents furniture was all made in North Carolina
using local lumber, and then it was covered with fabric
that was milled in upstate New York.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
And that was the furniture.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And we went out and bought ourselves a sofa or
a love seat or a chair, and it was American made,
buy Americans with American raw material. And they closed those
factories down and started impoort Vietnamese furniture that was junk,
and they closed down these factories. And I was in
(31:07):
college at the time, and I learned all about it,
and it turned out was I thought it was just
happening to furniture and the automobile industry. We all know
what was happening in the seventies and eighties in the
automobile industry, right right, Michael Moore and Flint Michigan and
all of that. Everyone knew about that. But what most
people did not know it was happening in every industry,
(31:28):
in the furniture industry, in the appliance industry and the
electronic industry, in the clothing industry, in the athletic wear industry,
particularly athletic shoes.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
What you call sneakers. So it was happening in every industry.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
At the same time, everybody was shutting down factories, putting
Americans out of work, and sending the jobs overseas, and
then importing all that stuff without a duty, no tariff,
no duty. Was all just being imported under the guise
of something that politicians called free trade, and it was
on the shelf for the exact same price. That was
(32:07):
the worst, That was the unkindest cut of all. We
shut down the factories, unemployed, we put all the Americans out.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Of work, ship the jobs overseas.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Brought in the product, and the product was the exact
same price on the shelf. So it was a pretty
incredible time to be watching this happen and being involved
in politics. And now here we are, I would say,
thirty to forty years later, and Walmart has pivoted from
(32:39):
the lowest price possible to we are celebrating that we
have products here made in America. I think it is
an historic pivot, and I think it's a pivot in
the right direction. And I'll share with you the commercial
and we'll talk about it. That's all coming up next.
Lou Penrose on KFI AM six forty Live Everywhere on
(33:01):
the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (33:01):
App Kfi a M six forty on demand
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