1 Cent - Kmart Foods La Crosse, Wisconsin

Kmart Foods operated as a standalone grocery division under the Kmart umbrella during the 1970s and early 1980s, distinct from the general merchandise stores. These scrip cents were issued for use within the La Crosse, Wisconsin location — most likely as change-making tokens during a period when register systems and pricing structures made small-coin management genuinely inconvenient for high-volume grocery checkout. The practice of issuing paper fractional scrip in place of coin was largely extinct in mainstream retail by this point, which makes the La Crosse issue an unusually late example of the format.