{"id":52394,"date":"2020-07-30T19:19:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T01:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nationwide-coin-shortage-leaves-durango-businesses-pinching-pennies\/"},"modified":"2020-07-31T01:19:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T01:19:13","slug":"nationwide-coin-shortage-leaves-durango-businesses-pinching-pennies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nationwide-coin-shortage-leaves-durango-businesses-pinching-pennies\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationwide coin shortage leaves Durango businesses pinching pennies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The public health response to the coronavirus pandemic has slowed circulation of coins. Now, local businesses don\u2019t always have spare change when they need it.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

La Plata County banks, laundromats and car washes are seeing the signs of yet another unexpected disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic \u2013 a coin shortage.<\/p>\n

Word of a coin supply disruption has been rolling through the nation for months. Retail stores, like King Soopers, have stopped giving coins for change. Businesses dependent on coins have offered incentives to customers for using coins. While some local business representatives say the shortage seems to be easing, others have not returned to a sense of normalcy.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The shortage) had a slow trickle effect and all the sudden it\u2019s like, go to the bank and now we can\u2019t get change,\u201d said Jim Shoultz, general manager at Durango Rapid Wash.<\/p>\n

In normal circumstances, coins go in and out of circulation over a predictable period of time. Retail transactions and coin recyclers typically return a significant amount of coins to circulation on a daily basis. In 2019, retailers and coin recyclers put more than 80% of the nation\u2019s circulating coins into the supply chain, according to a U.S. Mint statement<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

But the circulation of coins has slowed. Public health precautions, intended to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, have kept people home and shopping less. Some businesses that primarily use coins, like arcades, vending machines and laundromats, temporarily closed their doors because of stay-at-home measures. National media outlets also have reported that COVID-19 precautions such as limited staffing have slowed production of new coins at the U.S. Mint.<\/p>\n

There are enough coins in the economy, the U.S. Mint statement said. But slower circulation means sufficient quantities of coins are sometimes not readily available where needed. To help replenish the supply chain, consumers can pay for items in exact change and return spare coins to circulation, the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the fact that car washes usually run on coins, it makes it extremely difficult,\u201d Shoultz said.<\/p>\n

Durango Rapid Wash converted its machines to take dollar bills instead of coins.<\/p>\n

The Bank of Colorado had to redirect its regular coin shipments, and in June transfer $50,000 in coins in one shipment. The transfer weighed more than 3,200 pounds and required a special vehicle, said Greg Behn, regional president for the bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a point where everybody was a little worried about it in early July, but I think it\u2019s starting to relax a little bit,\u201d Behn said.<\/p>\n

For example, Texas restricted banks\u2019 coin orders, but those restrictions have since been lifted. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, a coin shortage would be abnormal, but during the pandemic, not so much, Behn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things are coming out of COVID that we didn\u2019t foresee ahead of time. \u2026 It\u2019s just one of those issues we\u2019ve got to work through,\u201d Behn said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a major issue in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coin circulation disruption has not affected the city of Durango\u2019s parking meter program, said Wade Moore, parking operations manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing customers having an issue getting coins,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt seems to be more of a national problem than a local problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Moore said Durango parking meters help put $10,000 to $15,000 in coins back into circulation every week.<\/p>\n

Businesses like Town Plaza and North Main Laundromats say they are seeing local impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last four or five months, it\u2019s been a tremendous hardship on our business,\u201d said Richard Andrews, who owned the businesses for 30 years.<\/p>\n

Andrews believes businesses from around town have come to the laundromat to get quarters for their customers. He\u2019s refilling coin dispensers more frequently. For example, he filled dispensers at both locations Wednesday, and then again Thursday.<\/p>\n

But he also sees people coming in, getting change and leaving \u2013 without bringing any laundry in with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s $1,200 in coins that aren\u2019t going back into my machines,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s a phenomenon, to tell you the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s been a tremendous hardship,\u2019 laundromat owner says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1504,431,685,28,1823,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-banking","tag-business-general","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-money-and-monetary-policy","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52394"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}