ilikegum
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In addition to my agreed comments by those that have already posted, here's one more tip. Some stores use these as internal codes for their employees and for inventory. For instance, you might notice that one particular store has many many items for $x.99. This may be a "normal" price for the store. In that same store, some items might strangely be priced at $x.98. This may be because anything tagged at $x.98 is a secret clearance item that they are trying to get rid of for various reasons (new item/model coming, not selling, etc). |
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geminisista
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Everybody is right. It's a sales trick.
Another sales trick stores will do when something has a sale price of 10 for $10.00, is have you thinking you have to buy all 10 in order to get the sale price of $1.00 per item.
You can buy only one of the sale items and only pay $1.00 for it, instead of buying all 10 and paying $10.00.
You will be surprised as to how many people don't know that.
Sale tactics...........buyer be ware!! |
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coleriver
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It is a trick to get you to have the lower amount in your mind as you decide whether to make your purchase. The idea is a person sees 2.99 and they think its two dollars and change, not three dollars. I am amazed it works, but since just about every store does it, particularly auto dealers it must work to some degree. |
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deathdealer0571
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It is for tax purposes, by upping the price just a little they profit immensely. |
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TreatyFrum
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Taps into psychology pricing (sometimes called 'magic pricing'). Academic research has actually shown that prices ending in 9's are interpreted more as a bargain (and anything ending with 0 is interpreted as a quality product; which is why notebooks are priced at, say, $1435.00 and not $1434.99).
So, pricing an item a $14.99 instead of $14.12 could yield +3% more unit sales. For a company that usually sells 800 units, that's an extra 24 units sold = +$360 in their pocket. Mo' Money... that's the reason! |
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lancelot682005
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Most people keep the mind set of the nature of it being just a way to confuse people in buying things that look cheaper.
The real reason this even started was simple. To get the cashier to open a register for change instead of pocketing the money.
Back when there was nothing called a sales tax, what you seen for the product price was the price. If the Item said it was $1 all you gave them was $1. To avoid getting ripped off by their own employees, someone came up with the idea to have at as change. Therefore, a product would cost $1.99 instead of $2 and they would get a penny back. Forced them to open the register which in turn would let everyone know a sale was actually made.
Now it is done for almost the same reason. If you see something for $5 on the shelf. Some criminal minds would just say.. $5 please.. pocket the money and the product would be gone. So the owner lost $5 in product and uncle sam lost his 8.25% tax. (Here in Houston that is)
Hope that makes some since... |
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enginerd
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it makes the price seem less to some people because we have a tendency to only look at the first couple of significant digits
hence, we see $17.32 as about the same as 17.98 so, the smart pricer will charge $17.98. If it were marked $18.01 it would be about the same price but would "seem" (mostly unconciously) much more to many people |
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Curious Stranger
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tis mad retarded |
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cloothe
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Because sellers know that we look first at the left-most number. (We read left to right.) So the initial impact on a price of $19.99 is "one". If the price went to $20.00, we would discern it immediately as a "two." Therefore, $19.99 feels lower. |
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Valley Mental Health tooele Utah
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so they can say the price is less then whatever it is even though it costs more after taxes |
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nathalie1977@sbcglobal.net
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To trick the mind of the shopper into thinking it's a dollar less (almost) than it really is.
When people see "18.98," their brains think "18" not "19." It works at a subconscious level.
18.99 is more attractive than 19.00 :) |
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heidielizabeth69
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makes you feel like you're getting a deal... instead of 20 bucks, 10 bucks, etc... |
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migurl48706
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cuz its closest ypu can get to a dollar but it looks cheaper |
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jub
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because to make you think that you are paying less and to make u buy it.for example you are forced to believe that the product is only 69.99,which most people think is around sixty dollars , not 70 bucks,right. |
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Renee'
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Most people pay the most attention to the beginning part of the decimal. So it if says 14.98, it looks WAY cheaper than $15.00 |
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remylebeau
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It tricks you into believing they are cheaper then they really are. You are more willing to buy something that is $5.99 then something that is priced $6.00. |
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Andrew
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In addition to some of the other comments from people it is more than just tricking the mind into thinking a $3.99 product is closer to $3 then $4. They have done studies selling the same product at various price points with greater success with a more expensive price that ends .99 then a cheaper price which ends .00. So in this experiment they had greater sales with a price of say 17.99 than they do with a price of $16.00. I read a book recently called Priceless which was fascinating looking at all the different ways we can be manipulated into paying different amounts for things and this spans all different income and education levels in the end it boils down to the basic fact that our minds are very bad at mapping value to things, we are very good at comparisons but very bad at absolutes. |
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