Time to stop pinching pennies
We've all been there. You're standing in line at the supermarket checkout counter. You've got a small item, perhaps a pack of gum priced zł.1.47, in one hand, and in the other, a wallet recently refilled at the ATM machine. You watch nervously as the cashier snatches the pack from your clammy fingers, and punches in the price. All you have is a 100-złoty bill.
You hand the bill to the cashier, but you know what her response will be: "Don't you have anything smaller?"
This might prompt a vain rooting around in your pockets for that elusive zł.1.47, but it's hopeless. Inevitably, due to the store's lack of small coins, you're forced to leave the shop without your gum; the sheepish look on your face a result of 'no-change shame' and a ripe case of halitosis.
Polish supermarkets' inability to produce the required change can send consumers flying into fits of apoplexy. At some grocers, customers are even forced to accept their change in the form of matches or cheap lollipops. But often, the stores are not to blame. A rapid drop in the use of those copper-colored one-, two- and five-groszy coins means the problem has grown to a point where banks are now unable to meet demand.
Experts say that the National Bank of Poland (NBP) won't order more coins minted because the cost of production exceeds the coins' value. The result is a lack of small-denomination coins at NBP, meaning it can't fulfill commercial banks' orders for the coins.
"Instead of sending us a specific amount in one or two groszy, NBP passes us other, higher denominations," ING Bank Śląski spokesperson Joanna Majer told Rzeczpospolita.
According to the NBP, the amount of low denomination coins in circulation is sufficient, but most are not used in everyday transactions. If people began using the coins again, the bank claims, the deficiency at supermarkets, as well as banks, would disappear.
The next few years could also see these coins become obsolete. If Poland joins the euro, as expected, all those unused groszy could become worthless, as countries can only exchange their old currencies for new euro for a limited time.
So break open your piggy banks and pour out your change buckets. The time to part company with that dusty box of copper has come. The WBJ is asking you to use up all those tiny one- and two-groszy coins hidden between the cushions of your couch. The Polish economy depends on it.
And so does my case of halitosis.
You hand the bill to the cashier, but you know what her response will be: "Don't you have anything smaller?"
This might prompt a vain rooting around in your pockets for that elusive zł.1.47, but it's hopeless. Inevitably, due to the store's lack of small coins, you're forced to leave the shop without your gum; the sheepish look on your face a result of 'no-change shame' and a ripe case of halitosis.
Polish supermarkets' inability to produce the required change can send consumers flying into fits of apoplexy. At some grocers, customers are even forced to accept their change in the form of matches or cheap lollipops. But often, the stores are not to blame. A rapid drop in the use of those copper-colored one-, two- and five-groszy coins means the problem has grown to a point where banks are now unable to meet demand.
Experts say that the National Bank of Poland (NBP) won't order more coins minted because the cost of production exceeds the coins' value. The result is a lack of small-denomination coins at NBP, meaning it can't fulfill commercial banks' orders for the coins.
"Instead of sending us a specific amount in one or two groszy, NBP passes us other, higher denominations," ING Bank Śląski spokesperson Joanna Majer told Rzeczpospolita.
According to the NBP, the amount of low denomination coins in circulation is sufficient, but most are not used in everyday transactions. If people began using the coins again, the bank claims, the deficiency at supermarkets, as well as banks, would disappear.
The next few years could also see these coins become obsolete. If Poland joins the euro, as expected, all those unused groszy could become worthless, as countries can only exchange their old currencies for new euro for a limited time.
So break open your piggy banks and pour out your change buckets. The time to part company with that dusty box of copper has come. The WBJ is asking you to use up all those tiny one- and two-groszy coins hidden between the cushions of your couch. The Polish economy depends on it.
And so does my case of halitosis.
