Why "everything" prices end in .99?

Seamus1964

Why is everything priced 9.99, 19.99, or 99.99? More specifically, why do all those prices end in .99? Why not just be honest and price them at 1, 10, and 100?
Fuel prices are just ridiculous with those extra .99 cent from cent e.g. €1.19.(99)

Firewalkwithme

It's simple consumer psychology really. 99 sounds better value than 100.

MadsL

Waterford appear to have solved that and banned 1c and 2c coins.

BrianJD

I work for a grocery chain and from customer feedback the policy now is to use rounded figures.

Seamus1964

MadsL wrote: »

Waterford appear to have solved that and banned 1c and 2c coins.

Did they now?

Karl Stein

€11.99? I'll take it.

Sorry there's been a mistake it's actually €12. Feck that, I'm not made of money.

MadsL

Seamus1964 wrote: »

Did they now?

Sorry Wexford...

http://www.thejournal.ie/wexford-rounding-up-trial-1085059-Sep2013/

Muff_Daddy

I've heard millions are made per year in retail from people not bothering to take their 1 penny change. If you think about it, how many times do you leave a shop after purchasing something for x.99, and not bothered taking the change? I know I've done it countless times.

That, plus advertising something as €199.99 just makes it seem more affordable than advertising something as €200. It's marketing 101.

Jesus Wept

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

It's simple consumer psychology really. 99 sounds better value than 100.

No it doesn't.

The Moldy Gowl

Muff_Daddy wrote: »

I've heard millions are made per year in retail from people not bothering to take their 1 penny change. If you think about it, how many times do you leave a shop after purchasing something for x.99, and not bothered taking the change? I know I've done it countless times.

That, plus advertising something as €199.99 just makes it seem more affordable than advertising something as €200. It's marketing 101.

I doubt that. To make 1 million this would have to be done 100 million times. So Ireland would need to sell 100 million things at .99 and hope no one wants their change back.

Everyone in Ireland would have to do this 22 times a year. That's just to make 1 million of just penny change
/pedantic

Birneybau

i heart chewy louie wrote: »

No it doesn't.

Well, if you say so.

The Moldy Gowl

i heart chewy louie wrote: »

No it doesn't.

99 is literally better value than 100

worded

I heard some of the reason was to stop workers at the tills pocketing the 10 rather the customer waits for their 1 cent change from the 9.99. it keeps the teller honest. No one thinks of this.

It's bull**** the amount of things priced to .99 particularly at my local fruit and veg shop. What's wrong with 1.19 or 1.29 or 1.39 for items. Why does everything have to end in .99 ?
I just don't shop there anymore I'm sol pissed off with it

Muff_Daddy

Gowlasauras Rex wrote: »

I doubt that. To make 1 million this would have to be done 100 million times. So Ireland would need to sell 100 million things at .99 and hope no one wants their change back.

Everyone in Ireland would have to do this 22 times a year. That's just to make 1 million of just penny change
/pedantic

Well you very well may be right, it could be B.S., its just something I've heard, but when I said millions, I wasn't talking about just Ireland, I was talking on a global scale.

blackwave

MadsL wrote: »

Sorry Wexford...

http://www.thejournal.ie/wexford-rounding-up-trial-1085059-Sep2013/

That was a trial by the Central Bank, to gauge consumer reaction to getting rid of 1c & 2c coins. A lot of EU countries actually have gotten rid of 1c & 2c coins as they cost more to mint than they are worth and are rarely used by anyone.

McDermotX

Keeps the pennies/cents in circulation. Simple as.

hfallada

worded wrote: »

I heard some of the reason was to stop workers at the tills pocketing the 10 rather the customer waits for their 1 cent change from the 9.99. it keeps the teller honest. No one thinks of this.

It's bull**** the amount of things priced to .99 particularly at my local fruit and veg shop. What's wrong with 1.19 or 1.29 or 1.39 for items. Why does everything have to end in .99 ?
I just don't shop there anymore I'm sol pissed off with it

What? Most shops have more cameras on a till than the whole store. The last shop I worked in had 4 cameras on the single till. No cashier is going to risk their job for a few cents a day.

If you buy several items the .01 evens out. Having worked in a shop. Very few transactions ended in .01 change

eug87

Makes cents.............leaves jacket,runs for the hills.

Akrasia

If you hear something is 1.99, your brain puts it in the 1 euro bracket along with everything else priced between 1 euro and 2 euros. If I see a packet of biscuits for 1.10, it's in the same mental category as biscuits that cost 1.99. (when on autopilot)

It's commonly used because it is ridiculously effective.

worded

hfallada wrote: »

What? Most shops have more cameras on a till than the whole store. The last shop I worked in had 4 cameras on the single till. No cashier is going to risk their job for a few cents a day.

If you buy several items the .01 evens out. Having worked in a shop. Very few transactions ended in .01 change

The .99 cent ending has been there for years pre camera and scanners even.
I heard this directly from a shop owner years ago. The primary reason was to stop theft by the cashier.

I'm taking about the cashier cancelling the same of a 10 pound sale and keeping all of it not them keeping the 1 cent of a 9.99 scenario.

The customer standing there expecting change keeps the cashier honest

colossus-x

In my mums day they used to get paid a penny a day at work. She's old now but psychologically a penny is a lot of money to her so a penny less is a big saving.



I just made that up.

fergiesfolly

Can anyone give a reasonable explanation as to why petrol/diesel prices always end in .9
Has always bugged the **** out of me

evo2000

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

It's simple consumer psychology really. 99 sounds better value than 100.

You d have to be as thick as the wall for that to work infairness...

Birneybau

eug87 wrote: »

Makes cents.............leaves jacket,runs for the hills.

I wasn't gonna thank it but then...I felt generous ; )

Senna

fergiesfolly wrote: »

Can anyone give a reasonable explanation as to why petrol/diesel prices always end in .9
Has always bugged the **** out of me

It's all physiological, makes the consumer think it's closer to 1 than 2 (or 9 then 10 etc).
Its really simple reasoning and it is proven time and time again to work.

efb

This corner unit is now THREE NINE NINE!!!
this grinds my gears its three hundred and ninety nine!!!

worded

I'm refusing to buy anything that ends in .99 from now on.
Who's with me on this? Even 99%

evo2000

worded wrote: »

I'm refusing to buy anything that ends in .99 from now on.
Who's with me on this? Even 99%

i give em the euro and tell em keep the change just to spite it!

Juwwi

evo2000 wrote: »

i give em the euro and tell em keep the change just to spite it!

Why do you leave out the " ya filthy animal " bit

diomed

It's from the song 1999
"tonight I'm gonna party like it's €19.99"

jimmii

evo2000 wrote: »

i give em the euro and tell em keep the change just to spite it!

You seem like the crazy rebel type who doesn't play by the rules.

DoYouEvenLift

evo2000 wrote: »

You d have to be as thick as the wall for that to work infairness...

Never underestimate the amount of stupid people there are in society.

Loughc

Seamus1964 wrote: »

Why is everything priced 9.99, 19.99, or 99.99? More specifically, why do all those prices end in .99? Why not just be honest and price them at 1, 10, and 100?
Fuel prices are just ridiculous with those extra .99 cent from cent e.g. €1.19.(99)

It was designed to get the penny into circulation and it stayed as a marketing tool.

evo2000

jimmii wrote: »

You seem like the crazy rebel type who doesn't play by the rules.

I dont f*ck about! hashtag yolo hashtag Thuglife! Hashtag The hash key is broken on my keyboard!

Ruu

diomed wrote: »

It's from the song 1999
"tonight I'm gonna party like it's €19.99"

Prince wrote that while doing the weekly shop at Aldi, fascinating how these things happen.

The Bould Rabbit

They should just introduce a 99 cent coin.


Life would be so much easier and stress free.

Akrasia

evo2000 wrote: »

You d have to be as thick as the wall for that to work infairness...

Its subconscious and it works on practically everyone.

Our brain likes to put things into categories.

The reason why all petrol stations have their prices ending in .9 is because if you're driving down a street and one garage has petrol at 129.9, and the other has petrol at 1.30, your brain will hugely overestimate how much cheaper the 129.9 garage is, because the other one has jumped into a higher category of prices.

When we're carefully evaluating the prices of things, we can overcome this bias, but you'd be very surprised how much of an effect it has even on big purchases that we put a lot of thought into.

Akrasia

efb wrote: »

This corner unit is now THREE NINE NINE!!!
this grinds my gears its three hundred and ninety nine!!!

That's another marketing trick. the word 'hundred' is associated in our brain as a large number, so to make the corner unit seem cheaper, they say each small number individually. Along with the word 'only' this associates the price in our minds with something that is cheap and a bargain.

Devious b*stards those marketing types

bucketybuck

Muff_Daddy wrote: »

I've heard millions are made per year in retail from people not bothering to take their 1 penny change. If you think about it, how many times do you leave a shop after purchasing something for x.99, and not bothered taking the change? I know I've done it countless times.

Regardless of the mathmatics of this, surely it forgets that if the store was to round that .99c up to a euro then it would be getting that penny anyway, without having to rely on the customer not taking the change?

Seamus1964

MadsL wrote: »

Sorry Wexford...

http://www.thejournal.ie/wexford-rounding-up-trial-1085059-Sep2013/

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this one.

Kenny Logins

evo2000 wrote: »

You d have to be as thick as the wall for that to work infairness...

Of course, but we (humans) are programmed to put more weight on the first digits than the ones after the decimal when doing a rough calculation.

Darksaga87

i heart chewy louie wrote: »

No it doesn't.

Mr argument over here.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

MadsL wrote: »

Waterford appear to have solved that and banned 1c and 2c coins.

I will think you'll find it was Wexford and it was only a trial and it was optional, not a ban.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

blackwave wrote: »

That was a trial by the Central Bank, to gauge consumer reaction to getting rid of 1c & 2c coins. A lot of EU countries actually have gotten rid of 1c & 2c coins as they cost more to mint than they are worth and are rarely used by anyone.

Greece never brought the 1cent in to circulation and look what happened to them.

Look after the pennies and....

wretcheddomain

Akrasia wrote: »

That's another marketing trick. the word 'hundred' is associated in our brain as a large number, so to make the corner unit seem cheaper, they say each small number individually. Along with the word 'only' this associates the price in our minds with something that is cheap and a bargain.

Devious b*stards those marketing types

The biggest culprit is "from".

thelad95

Rey Straight Tiller wrote: »

Greece never brought the 1cent in to circulation and look what happened to them.

Look after the pennies and....

That's not why Greece went bust.

The Bould Rabbit

thelad95 wrote: »

That's not why Greece went bust.

Of course it is. They're penniless.

Firewalkwithme

thelad95 wrote: »

That's not why Greece went bust.

You do know what a joke is don't you?

Sunnyisland

Well that song 99 red balloons doesn't sound the same saying 100









Did that make sense ,thought not.