infinitevalence@discuss.online 1 week ago
its a marketing and sales tactic to keep people from thinking about the actual value of something. They will say mentally “at least its not over $40” or things like that.
It also allows for marketers to post a price lower than the neighbor even if that difference is only or less than a single cent.
Gas for 3.99^99 ^looks like a lower price than gas for 4.00^99^ So even though the price is almost the same, the store advertising $3 gas will win over the store advertising $4 gas.
Patnou@lemmy.world 1 week ago
real quick what is the tiny 99 used for? I was raised that those were exponents. Ami I wrong? Thank you for your reply by the way.
buttmasterflex@piefed.social 1 week ago
Yet another way to even further deceptively present the price. In this instance, it’s gas equal to $3.9999 or $4.0099, which are really just $4.00 or $4.01, respectively. All bass prices I’ve seem in the US have the $0.0099 added, whether shown or not.
TootGuitar@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
It’s actually just one extra decimal place (thousandths), so $3.999 or $4.009.
I’ve never seen a ten-thousandths place in a price in USD.
Fun fact: mills, or one-thousandths of a dollar, were actually officially specified as valid units of currency in the first several laws establishing the US mint and the coinage system, in the late 1700s.
But yeah, now they’re mostly just used to scam people at the gas pump.
justaman123@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Pretty crazy to think a mil used to be about the value of one dollar today. Although it’s pretty tough to actually compare the inflation because of too many factors. Mostly just because of how different our world is from theirs.
buttmasterflex@piefed.social 1 week ago
My mistake, thanks for the correction! I didn’t know it historically went back that far as a valid unit. I always figured it was just people being scummy with no basis for it.
Witchfire@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You know how many countries have phased out the cent? The US has decided to double dip just so they can scrape a few cents out of consumers.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Their gas prices probably are an extra 0.009 or 0.0099 higher than the “advertised” price. It’s not an exponent, just an abuse of tiny numbers to shove 9/10 of a penny into the price.