It "ain't" poor education - it's laziness and/or not having enough
change in the register. Anyhow,...
1) I see plenty of rounding in the New York area, but it's only to the
extent that the cashier wishes to avoid making change with pennies and
only in cases where you pay the cashier direcetly. Where there is
table service for the bill, it's not as common, but I don't always pay
attention to the coins - 9 times out of 10 I leave the change as part
of the tip (except when I need quarters to do the laundry).
2) I can't say I'm all that surprised about change-making practices in
DC. For what it's worth, I don't remember cashiers rounding much in
California, either, but the "take a penny, leave a penny" trays were
more common and occasionally the cashier would give the rounded change
to the customer and take the penny or two from the tray to make up the
difference.
3) My experience has been that menu prices at many casual eateries in
the Northeast are often set such that the bill with tax comes out to a
round number or are set to rounded numbers that already include the
sales tax.
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