Virginia Chick-fil-A offers free food for coins amid shortage
The announcement comes at a time when the circulation of coins has been disrupted as the economy fights to reopen
A Chick-fil-A in Virginia is offering customers food vouchers in exchange for coins to avoid going cashless amid a nationwide coin shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For every $10 of rolled coins, customers will receive the same value in paper bills in addition to a Chick-fil-A card for a free entree during select hours on Wednesday.
"Due to the decrease in coin circulation nationwide, some restaurants may choose to offer incentives like this one to ensure they maintain enough coins to provide guests proper change, should they choose to pay with cash," a spokesperson at Chick-fil-A told FOX Business.
The Lynchburg Chick-fil-A will collect coins until the need is met.
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The announcement comes at a time when the circulation of coins has been disrupted as the economy fights to reopen, forcing businesses to go cashless or consumers to pay in exact change.
In a virtual hearing last month, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the flow of coins has "kind of stopped" as a result of consumers not going to stores and businesses facing lockdowns.
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"The places where you go to give your coins, and get credit at the store and get cash — you know, folding money — those have not been working," Powell said in the hearing with the House Financial Services Committee. "Stores have been closed. So the whole system has kind of, had come to a stop."
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The national coin shortage has prompted some banks to take initiatives in raising pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters that could be distributed to local businesses. In Wisconsin, the Community State Bank started a Coin Buy Back Program, offering $5 to donations of $100 in coins with a maximum bonus of $500.
The Chick-fil-A located in Lynchburg joins a number of businesses that are struggling to maintain a steady coin flow.
Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chain, has halted the use of coin change to its customers earlier this month. CVS and WaWa have also requested that customers pay with exact change.