January 2019 was a grim time at Santa Fe’s Silver & Post. For the first time in the company’s 105-year history, it was going to miss achieving its monthly financial budget goal– all due to a $556 flip chart invoice that had fallen between two desks.
Finance VP Mark Swetland called an emergency meeting – during which a number of options were debated, including lying – and just when everyone was about to give up, a cost accountant came up with the “penny tray” strategy
The idea was simple: Collect enough from the plastic “Take a Penny, Give a Penny” trays at convenience stores to meet the budget, then return the pennies in February when funds are available.
Upon checking into the legalities of penny trays, the company determined that if one “takes” a penny, there’s no set timetable for “giving” it back. So 267 Silver & Post employees fanned out across the city, collecting 55,600 pennies from 12,304 stores. The funds were deposited in time to meet the budget.
“It was a close call,” says the manager, who notes that careful records were maintained and that employees returned to the same stores the next month and put the pennies back.
While Silver & Post has not had to utilize the strategy since, hundreds of US companies have. Amounts taken and given back ranging from as low as $15, to over $10,000 – which required a mobilized force of over 1500.
