It seems strange that chain stores haven't declared themselves "penniless" long ago without waiting for the government.

When I was in Germany in the 60s, stores all had policies about not handling pfennigs (1/100th of a Deutsche Mark), rounding all totals to the nearest 5 pfennigs. This was when a Mark equaled a U.S. quarter, and a quarter was worth about 10 times what it is now (due to continuous devaluation by the Fed), so in today's money, the pfennig would be worth about 2.5¢. Even so, I never heard anyone complain.

If Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. would just lead the way--at least for cash transactions, which are a nuisance for cashiers anyway, I'm pretty sure the only consumer response would be applause.

Probably no one would care if they rounded away nickels and dimes too. You can't buy anything with a nickel or a dime, so why not be done with them?

The way the Fed is aggressively devaluing the dollar lately with infusions of money not tied to products or services, it won't be long before even quarters will be worthless, but that's another story.