Weird Prices

[BizzaroStormy]

Everywhere I go, I see prices that force you to use the penny (or your country's equivelent) $7.99, $10.48, Only 7 low payments of $66.66!!!

Seriously, what is the point of all this? If all prices could be rounded to the nearest 5 or 0 (after tax) then all the pennies could be melted down and made into something useful, like toilet seats. And while I'm on that topic, the penny. A little piece of metal thats not even worth the stuff its made of.

[TheCountAlucard]

I'd rather have a divisible-by-five system too, 'cuz I'm weird like that, but sadly, the nickel is just about as bad off as the penny.

[BizzaroStormy]

True. Personally I would like it if the whole world worked of one universal currency. One that only deals with whole numbers.

[randman22222]

In Abu Dhabi there is nothing below a 5 fil (like cent) coin. And those aren't even used. They just round to the nearest 25 fils.

FYI, 1 USD = 3.67 Dirhams. (like dollars.)

[coracleboat]

Wasn't this all because everyone wants you to think the price is smaller?

It's only .99! 23.99 is a smaller number than 25.00, so it's a good deal!

Yeah, I hate uneven numbers. I am not very good at them, and when I see a bunch of things ending in .99s, my brain just shuts down, even though I know they're really just a dollar above what they pretend to be.

[Rawhide]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_point
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_rounding

[BizzaroStormy]

So basically its the store owners making the stupid people think they're buying something for a dollar less than the actual price?

[ZombieRockStar]

Free! For only 99.99.99!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d43r6iVgsc)

An alternate theory that I've heard is that it's there to keep cashiers from pocketing the money, since it guarantees change in return, which means the register has to open, which means the sale is logged, which means the amount of money in the register can be compared to what was sold, since every sale gets logged.

Occasionally, you will get retailers who will price their items so that it'll come out even when taxes are added on, so there's another reason.

Otherwise, it may have just started out as thinking people could be fooled, but only continues today because to change it would mean *gasp, shock* raising prices.

Notwithstanding abolishing the penny, which is an idea I fully support.

[BizzaroStormy]

Lol, god i miss that show.

[thubby]

rawhide, stop being so knowledgeable and beating me to the punch.
the penny will exist as long as something, somewhere, costs $9 and tax exists.

[randman22222]

It doesn't have to... Here they certainly have taxes. Here they certainly do the .99 thing. They still don't have them, and just round.

[Tempest Fennac]

At least when tills were first invented, ZombieRockStar is right according to "Made in America" by Bill Bryson (the psychological aspect apparently came along a bit later on).

[Reinboom]

My father sets all his items at XX.95 when possible. He owns a significant number of booths at a flea market, and given that he is not an official retailer (due to laws for that state for flea markets), he doesn't have to charge tax.
This does two things:
1. People are seeing the .99 transparently now, rounding up almost instinctively. .95 is different, it's not as easy a catch. This might also explain .98s...
2. People hate pennies. Given them back a nickle makes them think they actually got 'real' change back.


For the two stores I work at, there's also a lot of products set for the strange sales tax (6.85% here, btw) so the products with the tax comes out even. It messes up usually when there are multiple products gone through...
It's also strange to explain to people that 1 drink costs 1$, but, 2 drinks costs $2.01
Yep.

[BizzaroStormy]

I remember the old tabletop gaming store I used to go to, the owner had tax figured into all the prices already, which made it much easier on us customers. Sadly the place closed down in December of '05 so the owner could try some different buisnesses which failed and he ended up reopening the shop in summer of '07 which was nice but sadly I had already sold off all my MTG cards which by that time were obsolete anyway.

[Dave Rapp]

It could be worse. We could have a haypenny or some eqpivalent, and pay $9.99.5 or... worse, $9.99.9!

Actually, don't they already do that extra .9 cents thing with gasoline? As if we're not already paying enough.

[KuReshtin]

It could be worse. We could have a haypenny or some eqpivalent, and pay $9.99.5 or... worse, $9.99.9!

Actually, don't they already do that extra .9 cents thing with gasoline? As if we're not already paying enough.

Here in the UK, the petrol prices are done by listing the price in pence, and always a tenth of a penny below the actual price.

So, for instance, yesterday, when I filled the car up I paid 111.9 pence per litre (US$4.14.03/US gallon). Obviously, getting only 1 litre of petrol would still cost me £1.12...

The Swedish pricing system will be changed (if it hasn't already, I'm not sure) when the 50 öre coin (half a krona) is discontinued. Still won't change the fact that retailers will charge 29:95 SEK for something, though.
And as mentioned in the link about the Swedish rounding posted by Rawhide, it only affects purchases where the payment is made with cash.

Credit card purchases and the like will still be charged the 'actual' amount on the price tag.

[Zukhramm]

The Swedish pricing system will be changed (if it hasn't already, I'm not sure) when the 50 öre coin (half a krona) is discontinued. Still won't change the fact that retailers will charge 29:95 SEK for something, though.
And as mentioned in the link about the Swedish rounding posted by Rawhide, it only affects purchases where the payment is made with cash.

Credit card purchases and the like will still be charged the 'actual' amount on the price tag.

Wait, are they going to discontinue the 50-öre coins?

[Kantur]

As for why it's still done, I believe Rawhide's covered it well.

As for why it happened origially, admittedly I can't remember where I heard it, the reason I've heard of is that it was so retailers would have to go into the till to get the change, so they'd have to physically ring up the purchase back before barcodes and being able to scan everything. So back then if everything was to the nearest £/$/whatever, unscupulous employees could've just pocketed the money and pretended they hadn't sold whatever it was.

[DigoDragon]

I read an article last month that pennies cost more to make then their worth and since copper value are still climbing... I smell conspiracy! Though maybe that's not saying much since I run a conspiracy style web comic. :smallamused:

Eh, I think so many people use "plastic" now that all money will go out of style in another 20 years.

[ForzaFiori]

I read an article last month that pennies cost more to make then their worth and since copper value are still climbing... I smell conspiracy! Though maybe that's not saying much since I run a conspiracy style web comic. :smallamused:

Eh, I think so many people use "plastic" now that all money will go out of style in another 20 years.

as long as there are criminals, there will be paper money. Plastic has this horribly problem about making it very easy to track purchases.

[KuReshtin]

Wait, are they going to discontinue the 50-öre coins?

That's what heard. Might very well be that they've just proposed it, but I'm sure I've read something about it.

[dish]

China doesn't seem to do psychological pricing. I've just checked a receipt I got from the supermarket today and the prices consist of: 52.30, 6.30, 5.50, 36.80, and so on. This is strange, because '9' is usually considered to be one of the more auspicious numbers...

All the prices end in zero because after years of Swedish rounding it has been accepted that the fen (0.01 RMB) is no longer carried by anyone except for the banks. (And the banks will only use it if you're converting foreign currency.) This is not a great loss as 1 fen is worth approximately 0.0015 US$.

[Zanthur]

I think that getting rid of the penny would make life much easier, however there are too many people that would have a hard time getting used to it. That would probably set us into a few years of people trying to get used to it. Same when in I believe it was the 70's, the US government tried converting all measurments from Imperial to Metric. Didnt work so well. No, it isnt the same thing, but it still is trying to change part of people's everyday life and some people just cant adapt to change. Honestly, I could care less. I save all my change in an old wide-mouthed wine jar and by time its full, I generally have about $100. Usually only about $3 or $4 of that is pennies. The reason I actually do save the pennies is because otherwise I would have to figure out something else to do with them. I might just start saving them in a seperate jar, but then I have to sort through my change each night rather than just dumping it in the jar. Yes, it sounds like I'm lazy, and I am. Anyways, back to the main point, I can see it working to rid the US of pennies, but its going to be a long process. Very long. People will be finding pennies in their couch cusions and then will want to change 5 in for a nickel, but then stores will have stopped taking them. If they were to get rid of them, I think that the government should give people a certain amount of time to get rid of their pennies, and get reimbursed, and if they dont by that set time limit, then they could have penny deposits at the banks or something, so the government can get the pennies back and use them or something. Lots of issues, but I'm open to trying it.

[Austran]

Everywhere I go, I see prices that force you to use the penny (or your country's equivelent) $7.99, $10.48, Only 7 low payments of $66.66!!!


That is nothing. Some filing stations here in my country put prices like R$ 3,197 a liter! I doubt that any country even has a coin of value 0,001!

[Ilena]

Ya know i think im gona start paying with cash for stuff and then saving all the change, i wonder how much money i can get collected in 5 years time ... could be fun! But i like pennies, they are fun to toss at people and i find them on the ground all the time. I mean 1 cent is 1 cent, but if i find 100 pennies in a week ... each week ... it adds up!

and as for gas prices, we are currently sitting at 1.34 per L, works out to something like 5 - 6 dollers per gallon in the us i think .. something like that anyway ... its crazy.

[coracleboat]

Ya know i think im gona start paying with cash for stuff and then saving all the change, i wonder how much money i can get collected in 5 years time ... could be fun! But i like pennies, they are fun to toss at people and i find them on the ground all the time. I mean 1 cent is 1 cent, but if i find 100 pennies in a week ... each week ... it adds up!

and as for gas prices, we are currently sitting at 1.34 per L, works out to something like 5 - 6 dollers per gallon in the us i think .. something like that anyway ... its crazy.

Where are you going that you find a hundred pennies a week?

I must imagine that you are a professional couch diver, going from home to home and defeating colonies of dustbunnies with some sort of ghostbuster rip-off backpack gun.

[Zanthur]

I save some change in my car (in the cupholder and ashtray), but most of it is pennies. I throw them at people while I drive. Pretty fun to watch their reactions. Once I pulled up next to my dad but he didnt know it was me so I threw a penny at his window. Then we raced... His 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 against my 1996 Pontiac Bonneville. I actually kept up with him, which was a bit surprising.

[Jack Squat]

It is true that the penny is worth less than what it's made of...but even so, pretty much any bill costs about 17 cents to make IIRC, so I wouldn't say we're at a net loss.

I like the idea of pricing items with tax already put in it...I'd much prefer more stores do this...it makes me putting together enough change much easier than figuring out tax in my head (granted...with a 9.25% tax, it's pretty easy to figure out tax by rounding to 10%).

[KuReshtin]

It is true that the penny is worth less than what it's made of...but even so, pretty much any bill costs about 17 cents to make IIRC, so I wouldn't say we're at a net loss.

I like the idea of pricing items with tax already put in it...I'd much prefer more stores do this...it makes me putting together enough change much easier than figuring out tax in my head (granted...with a 9.25% tax, it's pretty easy to figure out tax by rounding to 10%).

When I visited the US I couldn't get it round my head that the prices listed didn't include the tax as I'd never been anywhere else where they did that.
In all the Nordic countries and all other European countries I've been to, the sales tax is already included in the marked price.

It confused the hell out of me.

[Jack Squat]

yeah, you'd think that with one of the reasons for revolting being that we didn't like that we had to pay for the items and then head over to pay tax on them, that we'd have combined the two fairly early on.

Might be something I suggest to some store managers I know...who knows, it might catch on.

[de-trick]

then again, If I buy something for a dollar or what ever and Im in a hurry and theres like 5-10 cents change and im in a hurry i just say keep it, and hurry my way out of there.

[Telonius]

When I visited the US I couldn't get it round my head that the prices listed didn't include the tax as I'd never been anywhere else where they did that.
In all the Nordic countries and all other European countries I've been to, the sales tax is already included in the marked price.

It confused the hell out of me.

I have nothing to back this up, but I suspect that it helps deflect blame for the retailers. "Hey, I only want to charge you $1.99 for this. It's the government that took the extra 20 cents."

[Shademan]

we got the same **** here in norway.
COME AND BUY! ONLY 299!
or 99.50!
what the bleedin' 'ell!?
Why cant they just write 300 or 100!? we who have problems in math must bring a frickin calculator to the store just to keep track of things!

[WalkingTarget]

I have nothing to back this up, but I suspect that it helps deflect blame for the retailers. "Hey, I only want to charge you $1.99 for this. It's the government that took the extra 20 cents."

I think it's related to this. My guess is that there are enough variations in sales tax in different cities/states in the US that advertisements can't take tax schemes into account. A national (or at least regional) commercial might say something costs a certain amount but sales tax variations even between nearby cities work out to different final costs so the advertised price has to be the pre-tax amount so that they have a uniform base-line cost (Illinois has a particularly convoluted sales tax scheme though, so my observations might be a bit skewed here).

I know a lot of local, small town restaurants that charge nice round numbers for everything and have the tax figured in already, but I've never seen that behavior in anything above the local level.

As for the $x.99 phenomenon, I agree with what others have said, probably just a marketing gimmick.

[Felixaar]

Suggestion? Move to Australia, with me. Our smallest denomination is five cents, though all things are still priced like we have pennies - but they get rounded once they are added together. It's just our way of squeezing an extra ten or twenty cents out of you.

[Burrito]

When I visited the US I couldn't get it round my head that the prices listed didn't include the tax as I'd never been anywhere else where they did that.
In all the Nordic countries and all other European countries I've been to, the sales tax is already included in the marked price.

It confused the hell out of me.


It's way more confusing than that. Some states tax food, some don't. Some tax clothing, some don't. Some states don't even have a sales tax, while some municipalities have their own sales tax added onto the state tax, and some of those fluctuate depending on what part of the city you are in. And some items, like tobacco and alcohol are taxed at a higher rate than other items.

[Rawhide]

Australia originally had no sales tax on retail items, instead, everything received a wholesale tax (which was widely all over the place for different items).

This is an over-simplification to be sure, but a while back (pretty much) all these wholesale taxes were thrown out and instead passed on to the retailer to charge with a "GST" (Goods and Services Tax). This is a flat 10% tax for all goods and/or services except for those that are exempt (like plain milk, but not flavoured milk).

While you do have to be careful and look at the price on the invoice when receiving a quote (see if it lists Inc. GST or Ex. GST), pretty much everywhere lists the GST inclusive price. Also, I'm not going to go into the full intricacies of it, but as an example, GST is not charged if you were say an American buying an item from an Australian store and having the item shipped directly to your American street address.

[KuReshtin]

Sweden's got (I believe) three different 'sales tax' (mervärdesskatt) rates.
Most products and services have a 25% sales tax (already added to the price tags, as I said before) but some items have a 16% sales tax (food and hotels, mostly) and some have a 6% sales tax (books and newspapers, cinema, concert and theatre tickets, taxi, bus, airplane and train fares and athletic events).