In comic books, there are heroes and there are villains. Every couple of weeks a new issue comes out, and readers shell out the price on the cover to keep up with the story.
Comic book prices are set by the publishers, and almost universally end in 99. It’s never been an issue, until Canada decided to stop distributing the penny.
“We can’t change the prices on a lot of our product,” said Chad Boudreau, an owner at ComicReaders in Regina. “Some comics are considered collectable items; you don’t want to put a price tag on them, so in most cases we’re going to stick with cover price.”
Where that will become a problem is at the register, where cash purchases will need to be rounded up or down. Boudreau says that is simply bad accounting, and will have an impact on the books.
“It might only be a dollar or two to the positive or negative every day,” added Boudreau. “But, 365 days a year, we’re not talking about pennies now, we’re talking about significant dollars.”
Joining the elimination of the penny in changes to Canadian currency is the introduction of the plastic twenty-dollar-bill, which does not work in the vast majority of vending machines.
“It reflects poorly on me,” said Stacy Kraus, owner of Regina’s Smart Choice Vending. “People think my machine, perhaps, isn’t of quality, or isn’t providing a service, when truly it’s just a currency conversion problem.”
Kraus has newer model machines which only require a software upgrade to accept the new bills, but those changes came with a fee and a long wait. She applied for the upgrade in November, and it only arrived last week.
She’ll have to go through the same process when the government rolls out the new five and ten dollar bills later this year.
“We’re lucky that we have the ability to upgrade the software and roll with these changes,” added Kraus. “But many people may actually lose their livelihood.”
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