A young researcher at the University of British Columbia says grocery stores across the country are cashing in on the demise of the penny. Third-year economics and mathematics student Christina Cheng used a computer simulator to generate virtual grocery baskets, then analyzed the data to see who benefits from penny-rounding. The 19-year-old says the impact is minor for Canadian consumers, but grocery stores across the country are making more than three million dollars per year from the rounding up of cash transactions. Karl Littler with the Retail Council of Canada says the group disagrees with Cheng’s findings because her methods do not reflect real grocery baskets and do not fully take into account the impact of taxes on bill totals.