Chipotle Has Been Cheating You Out Of Pennies

Some of you might be saying, “Pennies? Who cares?!”
That’s the wrong attitude — pennies add up, and they aren’t asking you if they can take them.
Chipotle has been rounding their receipts up and stealing pennies from you!
Here’s an example: If you have a subtotal of $8.64, and the tax was $0.60, the grand total should be $9.24. But no. With Chipotle-style math, the total is $9.25.
This is part of a program that is aimed at getting people in an out faster, not having to deal with coins below the rounded number.
The problem with this is that most of the locations have registers that automatically spit out the coins — so no time is actually saved by this program.
Also, get this: it seems to only be happening in high traffic areas.
Some receipts in Missouri don’t do it, and yet NYC can’t get enough of it!
Here’s what Chipotle said:

“It├óΓé¼Γäós something we do in some high volume markets, including New Jersey. The way it works is that prices auto-round to the nearest quarter and that├óΓé¼Γäós indicated on the receipt. The idea is simply to limit the possible combinations of change on cash transactions to keep the lines moving quickly in high volume areas.”

It just doesn’t seem right to do without telling people you’re doing it, regardless if it’s just pennies.
We’re starting to see change, though — they are posting the roundings on the receipt (though no warning is given BEFORE the purchase of food), and we’re seeing that locations are starting to round down only.
Keep an eye out!
[Image via AP Images.]