WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - At Mr. Kleen, a laundromat near New Castle, more people are wandering in searching for coins than depositing them for a trip through the spin cycle.
The washing machines, which take nickels and quarters, have been lighter than usual, while the cash-for-coin exchange machine is nearly tapped out, said employee Cynthia Watts.
“I wish people would bring their own,” she said. “We have a lot of coins going out. Not as many coming in.”
It’s a problem faced by laundromats, convenience stores, grocery stores and many other businesses throughout the country. The U.S. is experiencing a coin shortage as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials say it will pass as the economy opens more broadly, but in the interim, some stores are asking for exact change or encouraging customers to donate their change because supplies are dwindling. Others aren’t giving out coins at all.
The U.S. Mint’s production of coins slowed during the spring, it says, because of safety measures implemented to protect employees amid the pandemic. But the bigger problem is that existing coins aren’t circulating as they normally do.
“The flow of coin through the economy has gotten all … it’s kind of stopped,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told the House Financial Services Committee. “The places where you go to give your coins and get credit, cash - those have not been working. Stores have been closed. So the whole system of flow has kind of come to a stop.”
Until banks can sufficiently supply stores, chains including Walmart, Wawa, CVS and Dollar Tree are requesting customers pay using credit, debit, check or exact change if possible.
Wawa is encouraging customers to donate their change to the Wawa Foundation due to a national coin shortage.
Wawa, which has about 50 stores in Delaware, is also asking customers to round up cash purchases to the nearest dollar, promising to donate the change to the Wawa Foundation, which supports the USO and other community charities.
Select 7-Eleven stores are incentivizing customers to bring in change, offering a free Slurpee to those who trade $5 in change for $5 in cash.
Kroger, the grocery store chain with locations in Dover and Millsboro, has taken more drastic measures. It is not returning coin change to customers. Instead, the store is loading the value on loyalty cards to be used toward future purchases.
“We know this is an inconvenience for our customers and we appreciate their patience,” Kroger said in a statement.
The shortage could have an adverse affect on low-income consumers who don’t have credit or debit cards or can’t afford to donate their change. It could also impact businesses like Mr. Kleen that rely on customers being able to pay using coins.
As the Federal Reserve “strategically allocates” its supply among needy banks, many banks are asking customers to consider depositing coins they may saved to help spark circulation of the country’s roughly $48 billion of coinage.
“As the Federal Reserve works to manage inventory and distribution, limitations for ordering coin have been put in place for all financial institutions,” said WSFS spokesperson Eric Springer. “We encourage Customers who want to deposit coin into their accounts to bring it to one of our banking locations.”
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