Are retailers ripping us off 1 cent at a time?

...couldn't resist wondering this after seeing one of my wife's statements which was supposedly 3 cents in credit, and also being reminded of the till slips you see at every shop now which shows a "rounding" difference [with the 1c and 2c out of circulation, aything that's not a multiple of 5c is impossible to settle in cash]...

What if I had every cent that those not-so-accomodating stores rounded off?

I think its safe to say that I'd be wondering what to do with my new found financial freedom. To be fair, though, most retailers are very honest and will round down the amount. But this is not always true. I have many times walked away from paying for an item costing Rx.99 without any change. And where does it all go to?

I'm also reminded of a story from years ago [book or movie perhaps?] where an individual arranged for the rounded decimals [after the cents] on interest calculated on a bank's customers accounts to be transferred to his own account, which became a huge sum in a very short space of time, with no one else ever knowing they had lost anything.

If only we could focus that much creative energy on doing something good!