@Marvelous TK
“advertising system” sounds more apt to me.
Outside of a very small handful of very stupid people, no one looks at something that’s $99.99 and does not realize that it’s “basically $100.00”. Maybe when you’re dealing with people buying multiple piece of stuff that’s under $9.99; I have seen some people have to pause and think about it when their 5 $2.99 items come up to $16.00 with tax, but it only takes them a second to be like, “oh, wait, yeah, 3x5, not 2x5.” They did not pick up that item and think “oh its only two dollars”, they were just thrown off at the total when they didn’t account for the price rounding AND the quantity combined.
@TexasUberAlles
I’m pretty sure that there’s a dramatically lower overlap between “people who understand what’s going on with the system” and “people who like the system” there.
@Keith Mowz
whether people knowingly subject themselves to it or not doesn’t make it any less of an advertising scam
in fact that’s part of what i was saying, they’re not going to price it at the even dollar because people like feeling that they’re getting something for cheaper than they really are
except as shown by JC Penny almost bankrupting themselves when they did that ‘fair and square pricing’ thing where they made everything solid dollar amounts and eliminated price markups, people do not actually want that. They like feeling like they got a deal even when they’re fully aware that a 50% off sale when everything is marked up to 200%+ of their actual cost doesn’t actually save them any money.
a) as demonstrated in stores that have already phased out the penny and Canada, they round down to the nearest 5-cent mark to better deal with people who claim it’s all a scam to raise the prices, letting them just point and say, ‘no, you’re actually saving a few cents on each purchase, so stop byaying already’
b) the whole 99-cent thing is an advertising scam to make things sound cheaper by giving a lower dollar amount via knocking off a cent. they’re not gonna drop that cheaper-sounding stuff just ’cause pennies get phased out
@Registered Anon
Actually I just heard that it costs $1.43 American to make a dollar in pennies. So yeah if that trend continues let’s get rid of those stupid things.
@Keith Mowz
It is a bit silly that the penny costs more than twice as much to make as it’s worth. Apparently, Canadian pennies are not copper plated zinc, but mostly copper plated steel with some nickel.
@Registered Anon
If only we would follow suit. Pisses me off that we keep spending more than twice what the currency is worth to make coinage that literally is not worth the time and energy it takes to pick it up off the ground just because of some fucking zinc lobbyists.
