Have you ever wondered why everything at the store ends with .99 (.97 for WalMart) instead of being rounded off to the nearest dollar? Apparently this was done long ago (1880) due to the value of money (paper was ¢5) starting to increase (people paid with pocket change, where today we pay with bills) so items that used to cost ¢25 increased to ¢49 due to inflation.
Apparently now it’s for completely different reasons. It’s now employed as a marketing scheme to fool the consumer in thinking that the price of something is less than what it really is. The practice is called Psychological pricing (wikipedia)
Apparently the impact of a rounded number is intimidating to the consumers ($400 vs. $399.99). It’s also said that people have poor abilities when rounding the numbers ($29.99 = $29?)
Does this fool everyone? I’m sure it doesn’t and I read somewhere (sorry can’t find my source – citation needed – lol) that mentioned this practice works on 80% of people, usually those less analytical or those who are caught up in the impulse purchase. But hey, now you know.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the liquidation 50% off price sale BS. I’ll let you read about it and make your own angered conclusions.
Luc Ippersiel, better known as Skywalker here, is a hardcore gamer and computer user. You can follow Luc on Twitter (
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