Who Are They Fooling?
Why is it that companies list all of their prices a penny or a dollar short of a nice round number? Wouldn't it be easer to go to a store and be able to easily total your expenses in your head? For example: I go in to the supermarket to buy some things but I only have a certain small amount of money with me. I buy items at $0.39, $1.99, $3.29, $5.99 Wouldn't this be easier for customers to total if the prices were $0.40, $2.00, $3.30, $6.00? I would be willing to pay the extra cent for the ability to easily total things in my head. Pennies are worth nothing to me. I never spend them. Instead, I keep them in bottles at home because it isn't worth my while to put them back in my pocket in the off chance that I will actually need 3 or 4 cents of change. OK, now hold on' you are thinking, why not just round it in your head? This is what I do. The problem is that let's say I am buying twenty or so things. If I have been rounding, I may actually have enough for that one last thing but don't realize it because I cannot remember the actual prices anymore. I have lost out.
The previous example is minor. Let's consider how they do it in relation to cars. Why do gas stations advertise their gas at say $1.43 9/10?! I would like to walk in to the cashier some day and ask for the extra 3/10 of a cent change that I am entitled to. I can just imagine the bewilderment on the cashier's face.
Clerk: I can't give you change like that.
Me: Well why not?
Clerk: Duh! There is no such thing as 3/10 of a cent!
Me: What?! Right out there your sign says that your gas is $1.43 9/10. I want my change!
Clerk: I'm sorry sir, I can't do that.
Me: I'd like to see your manager....
Even stranger to me is when they price a car like that. Call me a fool, but from my perspective $13,999 is the same thing as $14,000. Are there people out there that actually look at that price and say it's only thirteen thousand? Or perhaps they look at it like $13,999, I can afford that, but good God, that extra dollar will break me for sure!
This really confuses me.
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