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A penny for your thoughts? Well, maybe try a nickel. Though it will remain legal tender, the last-ever one-cent coin was printed Wednesdayand not without some drama. After being in circulation for 232 years, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia hosted a ceremonial event during which U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the final circulating penny. There are an estimated 300 billion pennies currently in circulation, a number far exceeding the amount needed for commerce, the Mint said in a statement but retailers say theyve already been dealing with coin shortages and a lot of confusion about how to price goods and services. It took about nine months for the pennys final day to arrive. In February, President Donald Trump announced that he had instructed the Mint to stop making the coin, citing the rising cost of production. Indeed, the Mint said the cost of making a penny has more-than doubled during the past decade, to 3.69 cents per penny. The coin has long been a target of lawmakers: As far back as 1989, legislation has periodically been proposed to limit or eliminate penny production. But its death knell ultimately came at the hands of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. THE PRO-PENNY GROUP Even though end days for the penny were announced in February, retailers and penny proponents are now grappling with what its elimination means. A perhaps-surprisingly vocal group has fought for years to keep the penny in our pockets. Americans for Common Cents is a pro-penny lobbying group that has an incentive to keep the coins in circulation as it is primarily funded by Artazn, the company that provides the blanks used to make pennies. Americans for Common Cents argued in February that the penny is not as problematic as it seems and eliminating this coin will actually increase minting costs if demand surges for nickels, which are even more expensive to mint. In response to Trumps announcement about the pennys end days, the group advocated instead for modernizing the currency system and, instead of eliminating the penny, focusing on making coin production more efficient. Since then, phasing out the penny has been a bit chaotic partly because theres no real plan for what retailers should do, Mark Weller, executive director of Americans for Common Cents, told CNN on Wednesday. When countries like Canada, Australia and Switzerland removed low-denomination coins from circulation there was guidance for retailersand thats not been the case in the U.S., he said. By the time we reach Christmas, the problems will be more pronounced with retailers not having pennies, Weller told CNN. PENNY PAIN FOR RETAILERS But a penny shortage has already arrived, affecting retailers like gas stations that handle a lot of these coins. And retail groups told Reuters last week that theyre frustrated by the lack of guidance theyve received from the Trump administration, which has forced them to round down transactions to avoid upsetting customers and violating laws in some states. Kwik Trip, which operates about 900 convenience stores in the midwest, announced last month that all cash purchases will be rounded down to the nearest five centsand that the policy will remain in place until a permanent legislative solution is enacted. Rounding down transactions may not seem like a big deal, but it could become a significant cost for high-volume businesses where pennies are commonplace. And to counteract the coin shortage, some stores are offering incentives to customers who pay with pennies, according to Reuters reporting. Any merchant that accepts cash is grappling with this, Dylan Jeon, senior director of government relations with the National Retail Federation, told Reuters. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from Fast Company with any guidance for retailers. PENNY LEGACY The penny was first minted in 1792 and has seen many evolutions in materials over its lifetime, including during World War II when it was made from a zinc-coated steel due to a copper shortage in 1943. The image of President Abraham Lincoln first appeared on the penny in 1909 to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of his birth. While pennies for circulation will be discontinued, the Mint will continue to produce a limited quantity of the coin for historical and collector purposes. And its mostly focused on celebrating the copper-colored coin. While general production concludes today, the pennys legacy lives on, Kristie McNally, acting Mint director, said in a statement. As its usage in commerce continues to evolve, its significance in Americas story will endure.
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E-Commerce
Six hundred employees just packed up their desks and quit their jobs at Paramount Skydance. The mass exodus happened after the company, formed by Skydance Medias takeover of Paramount Global, told employees that they were instating a five-day back-to-office mandate, set to begin on January 5. The company, led by new CEO David Ellison, let staffers know that if they didn’t plan to come back to the office, they could take a buyout deal starting on September 15. However, the media giant likely didn’t expect to be handing out quite so many severance packages. According to company disclosures filed on Monday, around 600 employees in the Los Angeles and New York offices at the vice-president level and below took the deal, which reportedly cost Paramount Skydance $185 million in “restructuring changes.” While the company may be trimming employees, it doesnt seem to be trimming spending. The company called for incremental programming investments in 2026 in excess of $1.5 billion. Paramount said it had already trimmed about 1,000 employees earlier this year and expects to cut around 1,600 more, as the company moves to divest both Televisión Federal in Argentina and Chilevision in Chile in an attempt to ensure continued focus. The restructuring comes after Ellison took charge of the company post-merger and pressed the importance of in-person work. I believe that in-person collaboration is absolutely vital to building and strengthening our culture and driving the success of our business,” Ellison wrote in a September memo. “Our people are the key to winning, and being together helps us innovate, solve problems, share ideas, create, challenge one another, and build relationships that will make this company great.” Still, an $185 million price tag seems a tad excessive for more collaboration. Either way, Paramount is not the only media giant to enforce a return-to-office mandate.NBCUniversal recently announced workers would have to return to the office at least four days a week, in a similar policy beginning in January. Comcast, the parent company of NBCU, previously did the same. While employees leaving in large numbers due to such mandates seems like a major upheaval, some research says that is the point (at least in part). According to a 2024 Bamboo HR report, back-to-office mandates can help companies avoid layoffs. Per the report, nearly 2 in 5 managers, directors, and executives (37%) say their company enacted layoffs in the last year because fewer employees than they expected quit during their RTO. Likewise, 25% of VP and C-suite executives and nearly 1 in 5 HR pros (18%) say they actually hoped employees would voluntarily leave amid mandates. Either way, back-to-office mandates are fairly unpopular, so the true cost to companies remains to be seen. However, when it comes to media giants, at least, some of the cost will trickle down to the customer. Paramount Skydance is planning to raise Paramount+ subscription prices starting January 15. Both the Essential (ad-supported) plan and Premium (ad-free) plan will go up by $1, to $8.99 and $13.99 per month, respectively. “Our ongoing investments in Paramount+ are enhancing the value we deliver to consumers,” Ellison said. “To support this continued investment, we plan to implement price increases in the U.S. early in the first quarter of 2026.”
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E-Commerce
Just a week after self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani made history as New York City’s first Muslim to be elected mayor, fellow Democrat Jack SchlossbergPresident John F. Kennedy’s (JFK’s) grandsonannounced he is also running for office in New York City, in the Empire States 12th Congressional district. If elected, he would represent New York in the U.S. House of Representatives. Both men are among a wave of young, progressive, charismatic candidates calling for change, amid a backlash to not only Donald Trump’s second-term agenda, but also a historically unpopular Democratic Party that many feel are doing too little, too late. That list of progressives also includes Arizona representative-elect Adelita Grijalva; Robert Peters, who is running in Illinois’ 2nd district; and Graham Platner, a democrat running for senate in Maine in a bid to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins. But there are a number of parallels between Mamdani and Schlossberg in particular. Both are in their early 30s and grew up attending high school in New York City. They also come from political-minded families with impressive mothers. Mamdani’s mom is Indian-American activist filmmaker Mira Nair, while Schlossberg’s mom, Caroline Kennedy, is a lawyer, former U.S. Ambassador to Australia and Japan, and a civic-minded head of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. At 34 years old, Mamdani will be New York City’s youngest mayor since 1892, while Schlossberg, 32, is running to replace retiring longtime Democrat Representative Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who is 78 and has held the seat for over 30 years in the liberal district that includes the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Midtown, and Chelsea. (That’s also where Schlossberg was born and raised, and currently lives.) Both Mamdani and Schlossberg are also wildly popular on social media, in part for their fresh-faced looks and upbeat, pragmatic-but-populist approach to making the world (or at least New York City) a better place. Old money, fresh face To that end, Schlossberg’s newly minted campaign website, which bears the URL “Jackfornewyork,” introduces the candidate as a “A New Generation for New York” and features pictures of “Jack” (JFK’s nickname, and Schlossberg’s namesake) riding his bike in Manhattan with a backpack, not unlike his famous uncle, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. (At 6’2 and with signature Kennedy looks, Schlossberg also has a large female following on social media.) Like Mamdani’s campaign, Schlossberg’s website emphasizes his practical-but-populist approach to leadership. “Jack wants to take his fight to Congress to make sure New Yorkers have a voice that represents their values and amplifies their fight,” it reads. “Hes focused on rooting out corruption, defending civil rights and personal freedoms, making housing affordable, protecting public health, and rebuilding trust in government.” (Sounds a lot like Mamdani, no?) Where “Jack” might get into trouble, however, is his political inexperience. While he is a Kennedy, and has been in the family business for a whilewhich includes various duties, including presenting the Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library in Bostonthis is his first run for office. Mamdani also was criticized for lacking experience, but he at least ran for mayor after he was first elected to the New York State Assembly. What Schlossberg does have going for him: He enters the race with the political clout of the Kennedy name and a large, established social media following across platforms, including Instagram, where he goes by “jackuno” and has 739,000 followers. Online, he is part influencer, part instigator, often challenging political opponents whether his own uncle, Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr.; Trump; or Vice President Vance, who he has trolled incessantly, making what some have criticized as inappropriate jokes about his wife, Usha (including jokes about having a child with her). In that sense, Schlossberg’s informal approach, his tell-it-like-it-is political commentary, and his sense of humor could be what New Yorkers want in a candidate to help turn the city aroundor it could be the very thing that undoes him in his race for Congress in 2026. Only time will tell.
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E-Commerce
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