Shares in Ford popped after the bell today, after the automaker said it was taking a serious hit to pivot away from electric vehicles. We’ll talk about those changes and what they say about consumer demand for EVs later in today’s newsletter. Plus, what your company’s holiday party is really saying, and an exciting announcement about one of our podcasts. But first, let’s check in with businesses that deal in cash and ran out of pennies. —  Tony Wagner, newsletter editor

It’s been a little over a month since the U.S. Mint produced its last penny.

Businesses are starting to run out of the one-cent coin, and they’re trying to figure out how to make change — especially because rounding up or down five cents can have a serious impact on a business's bottom line.

The Federal Reserve distributes pennies to banks and credit unions. A spokesperson said it’s using available inventory to fulfill penny orders. That said, some of the Fed’s distribution sites are no longer doing penny transactions.

Steve Kenneally with the American Bankers Association said banks are telling him that they had penny inventory on hand, although it was “shrinking perilously low.”

Now he expects banks to start having difficult discussions with their customers, he said. Among banks’ customers? Retailers.

Cash makes up roughly 50% of transactions at convenience stores, said Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores. 

A lot of them are rounding in favor of the customer. Meaning?

“Rounding down to the nearest nickel in terms of the price and rounding up in the change that you give customers,” Lenard said.

He said a penny here, and penny there adds up — big time.

“In convenience stores alone, that costs the industry about a million dollars a day if every store were to do that,” Lenard said.

They can’t just switch to all digital payments, he said — those come with processing fees. And some customers just like paying in cash.

It’s a similar story in restaurants.

“To round in the customer's favor consistently could cost the industry between $13 and $14 million a month,” said Sean Kennedy with the National Restaurant Association.

Kennedy said without a national rounding standard, things can get confusing.

If you round up in a customer's favor, for someone who's paying in cash, but then make people paying with credit cards pay the exact amount, no rounding, “you could have nuisance lawsuits that come up,” Kennedy said.

The federal government could clear things up, said Danny Soques, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“Either some guidance from the Treasury, the executive branch, or directly from Congress through law,” he said.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and with that comes the obligatory office holiday party. You tend to hear a lot about the dangers of an open bar at these things; who embarrassed themselves and whatnot. But Hawks, author of the forthcoming “Act Like an Owner,” told us a holiday party can give employees a powerful signal about the health of the business going into the new year. What impression is your work party giving?

“This Is Uncomfortable,” Marketplace’s podcast about life and how money messes with it, is back on January 15! But we’re not just back for a new season, we’re back every week, for good. 

Host Reema Khrais is still bringing you the intimate stories you’ve come to expect, but also new conversations with all sorts of people: behavioral economists, therapists, and big thinkers who’ll help us make sense of how our culture and economy are shaping our relationship with money, and how we see ourselves.

Listen to the trailer and subscribe wherever you get podcasts!