THE BRIGHT SIDE
October events have started!
It is time for spooky Halloween fun. Lake Geneva Business Improvement District’s annual Oktoberfest is this weekend. Get ready for some great fall fun with the 30th anniversary of Lake Geneva’s Oktoberfest. This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th, Flat Iron Park and throughout downtown will be full of fall fun. There will be polka and German music, a traditional German beer garden, of course, traditional German food will be available, including brats and pretzels, family-friendly activities, contests, and a new pumpkin strolling showcasing artisan carved pumpkins.
This new addition to Oktoberfest will feature twenty-six artisan-carved pumpkins along the downtown streets. As always, the downtown shops will be open and ready for your shopping pleasure.
The U.S.-minted penny will finally be phased out of the currency system.
The U.S. Treasury Department confirmed in May 2025 that it will stop producing and circulating new pennies beginning in 2026. This decision effectively phases out the one-cent coin from circulation over time. It costs significantly more to make a penny than the coin is worth. The U.S. Mint’s 2024 annual report showed it cost 3.69 cents to produce a single one-cent coin, resulting in a loss of over $85 million for the year. In a digital economy, fewer people use cash for everyday purchases.
A 2025 Federal Reserve study found that cash transactions in 2024 dropped to only 14% of all transactions. Existing pennies in circulation will still be valid and can be used indefinitely. You can continue to use them in transactions, deposit them at banks, or cash them in at coin-counting machines. As the supply of new pennies dwindles, retailers will likely begin rounding cash totals to the nearest nickel. This is the case with Kwik Trip. Kwik Trip announced it’s getting rid of pennies at its 900 convenience stores. Instead, cash transactions will be rounded down to the nearest five cents, to the advantage of customers paying in cash.
Credit cards and digital transactions will remain the same. For example, a $1.04 cash purchase in the store will round down to $1.00, but a credit card purchase of $1.04 will still cost you $1.04. Kwik Trip says stores will enact the new cash transaction policy as their penny supplies are exhausted, indicating stores will be going “penniless” at different times. Kwik Trip says its register systems have been updated to automatically apply the rounding rules on cash transactions.
