Comments on: Pound for pound 99p is worth every penny

By: Greg Duke

Greg Duke — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:52:16 +0000

I agree with Hugo Istay on the petrol / diesel issue. when fuel first went above £1 per litre i thought the price would finally be rounded to the nearest penny but no, they just bought in new signs to accommodate the extra 0.9p. what difference does the 0.1p/l really make to anyone’s choice? does anyone know when the xx.9p/l pricing was brought in and by who? would be interested to know….

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:49:51 +0000

I’ve got the arithmetical equivalent of dyslexia so I always round up mentally to a whole number. It’s easier to do comparisons etc. £x.95/98/99 price tags drive me mad. They’re also insulting if you think about it for two seconds.

By: Douglas Brown

Douglas Brown — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 07:52:17 +0000

Maybe £1 looks cheaper than 99p because there is only one digit and 1 is less than 9.

By: Cotswolds B&B

Cotswolds B&B — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:28:51 +0000

“If the effect is sufficient to increase sales by more than 4% then I end up in pocket”

Studies show it makes about 15% difference.

By: Cotswolds B&B

Cotswolds B&B — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:08:29 +0000

I think a value looks cheap (in the negative sense of the word) if I see a rounded up price. I’m obviously a victim of years of 99p numeracy theory.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:01:01 +0000

@ Asif, no sales tax is only applied in the US. In the rest of the world you have to tell people the total cost of a product before they pay for it. Which is how sane people like to operate.

By: Hugo Istay

Hugo Istay — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:36:12 +0000

What about petrol? Prices always end with 0.9p – since when have we been able to pay in one-tenths of a penny?

By: Michael Meakes

Michael Meakes — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:20:51 +0000

I find that I always go for the unusually priced items, in fact anything other than a 0, 5 or 9.
I somehow think that they haven’t just rounded up, and even though I’m probably wrong most of the time I can’t help but do it.

By: Andrew Ryan

Andrew Ryan — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:45:28 +0000

What amuses me is that in America they set the price to $x.99 BEFORE they add the tax. Therefore virtually everything you buy will come to so many dollars and 17 cents, or $15.11 – nothing approaching a round figure. This means you always get a handful of change, exacerbated by the fact that the US currency has no coins worth more than 16p.

All this is further evidence that the 99c/99p strategy has nothing to do with making sure some kind of change is required.

By: Tim Harford

Tim Harford — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:57:17 +0000

Rod,
I love the idea of sales assistants making change from their own pockets with nobody remarking on it…
Tim