99P

[grandfatherd]

In a conversation I was having with friends, the question asked was about the prices of items having a price ending in 99p.
When one looks at prices of all types of products, the majority do seem to have an ending of 99p,
Can anyone tell why this is? as no one having the conversation has a clue
Danny

[bednobs]

it's to make things seem cheaper

[grasscarp]

It is to make the staff open the till and give you back a penny. If it was just x number of pounds they could pocket it without ringing it up.
It is also psychological that if something is 3.99 for example you think it is 3 something rather than almost 4 so makes things look more reasonably priced.

[ummmm]

It's psychological. £14.99 sounds cheaper than £15.

(I know it cheaper)

[mccfluff]

psychological - you feel the product is much cheaper than if rounded up to the pound

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7522426.stm

[Baldric]

£20 is expensive

£19.99 doesn't look so bad,

[factor-fiction]

There are some theories that it was a way of forcing a cashier to put a sale through the till and open the till to get a penny change, but I think there is some doubt about whether that was the real reason.
It just sounds cheaper to say £1.99 than £2; and when people buy 2 items at £5.99 they seem to double the £5 in their head and ignore the 2 x 99p

[ummmm]

You want to see how much money they spend on the psychology behind the music they play.

[jackthehat]

It's a psychological trick.......

It fools the GBP into believing that they are 'not' paying almost an extra pound for something, as the brain tends to focus on the actual figure behind the '£' rather than the figures after the decimal point.

[Wharton]

You can't get anything for 99p in The Pound Shop :-)

[factor-fiction]

As an aside, Wharton, I bought 4 items from a 99 cent store in the US and was charged $4 rather than $3.96. When I looked at the bill I saw that each item is charged at 99.99 cents and the bill is not rounded down.

[cupid04]

How do they get away with £1.39.9 when selling diesel and petrol. How can you have .9 of a penny? I only used that as an example. No idea how much fuel costs at the moment.

[grasscarp]

wouldnt that be because of the sales tax Factor?

[factor-fiction]

No grasscarp- the sales tax here was included (or was nil)- sales tax is normally 5-10%. It was just the price- 99.99 cents.

I was hoping we could avoid another discussion on how they can charge something .9 p on petrol. When did anyone ever buy just exactly1.000 litres of petrol?

[factor-fiction]

If you but 10 litres at 139.9 per litre it costs £13.99, cupid. If you buy 10.01 litres at 139.9 it costs £14.00. I don't see a problem

[ummmm]

I don't think I've ever paid attention to how many litres of petrol I've put in the car.

[chrisgel]

Wharton - Looks like you can
http://www.theweek.co.uk/business/53044/poundland-price-cuts-99p-stores-penny-battle

[ChuckFickens]

"How do they get away with £1.39.9 when selling diesel and petrol. How can you have .9 of a penny?"

Well you can only dispense in full penies though. so if petrol is £1.39.9 the closest you can actually get out the pump is £1.40 which gives you 1.0007 liters

[ChuckFickens]

Errrm, excuse typo in my answer :-0

[baza]

have you tried to buy fuel in these modern pumps in measured litres, you cannot, the old type pumps measured the gallons. you could then set it above the amount you wanted then stop at the required (money) amount.
I worked in a tailors where the prices were in guineas so the punter thought they were getting old values.

[ChuckFickens]

"have you tried to buy fuel in these modern pumps in measured litres, you cannot"

I have and I've more often than not managed to buy fuel.