The prices ending with 9 were started by Czech entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa about 80 years ago. They are called "Bata prices" and they are meant to be more pleasant to the eye of the customer :) Look at the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1%C5%A1_Ba%C5%A5a

Also, in most stores, prices look like this

BIG FONT BOLD 9

and tiny little 99 cents

most of the people will see the price 9.99 more pleasant than 10.01 , because they make some price points in their heads, like "i will not pay for x more than y"

of course, when they see two items priced - one is 9.99 and the second is 10.01, they don't see any difference. But if you have only one item, prices as 9.99, then it's more likely to you to buy it.

but you have to use to the fact, hedwards knows everything better.

Interesting. That's the first time I've ever heard that and I'm not particularly convinced that it has anything to do with us doing it as well.

But, in either case it does give a clear indication that it's not some sort of conspiracy to trick people into paying more than they intend to.

It's one of the oldest and best documented mind games in the book. And yes, it does work to some extent. There are hundreds of studies that have been done on it, but you can start with the standard wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing.

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with it, other than possibly the minor hassle of needing to carry around small change if you live in a country with coins. I don't think it's deceptive - as long as the seller is clear about what they are selling and how much they are selling it for, I don't see the problem.

I don't know where you shop, but I rarely see that on any of the prices that matter. It will be on the sign. The price tag that matters is always printed by a computer and the size of the digits is always uniform.

But, even in cases where that's the case, you make it sound like people are paying more than the intend to. The fact is that since virtually all the prices end in 99 cents the big number up front is the only one you really need anyways.

As for the unwarranted character assassination, it's not my fault that I went to a good college. If you're that envious, I recommend you crack some books and do something about it. Because you're not suffering from knowing too much.

From what I've read, it's more due to people automatically (and irrationally) rounding to the digit furthest to the left.

Source.

The real problem with people like you is that you think if you graduated from MIT or Harvard you think you know everything.

Read some books about marketing, psychological pricing or business practice. Because you obviously haven't read anything about it, if you use
"all my friends do this and that" argument.

I take it you didn't read any of the citations because there's no information on things like sample size, confidence interval or methodology. For an article about psychology, lacking even that basic information renders it completely meaningless.

Yep. It's another common fact that most of the people when go shopping, spend more money that they intended to.

But there are plenty of other factors that make it, than pricing. It's items display, how they are organised on the shelves, etc etc. They have tons of tricks that encourage you to spend more money, than you've intended to.

And instead of trying to make MonstaMunch finding you another source, maybe just look for it by yourself. You know, "to study" meant originally to "seek for knowledge". Try that once or twice.

Round em. If it's 4.50 I think of it as 5.

Add tax, surcharges.. I think of a 5.99 product as $7. Add the tax then round.

It's got nothing to do with psychology. The most likely explanation if it's a real effect at all is poor numeracy. Sort of like why the linked wikipedia article is completely worthless, the citations I looked at lacked basic information like sample size and confidence interval.

That's a bit of a local myth, true for Czechoslovakia only. The practice is older than that, and Baťa didn't invent it.

There's a lot of apocryphal explanations floating around, none of which is particularly trustworthy. The bottom line seems to be, however, that no one particularly likes it, but it actually works. So it's here to stay.

"And instead of trying to make MonstaMunch finding you another source, maybe just look for it by yourself. You know, "to study" meant originally to "seek for knowledge". Try that once or twice."

ps. I've heard that huge universities like MIT or Harvard have great collection of books in their libraries. Go, visit one.

He does. This is why for me that topic is over ;P

Same is true with pennies. But Canada just managed to eradicate that blasted currency. I'd like to see my own country follow suite.

Canada Gets Rid of the Penny (Huzzah!) ~ a C.G.P You Tube short
http://youtu.be/nU4E6SSy5Yg


When I sell my clothing Art, I include sales tax in the price. Only bills are used in the transaction. I like it. It's neat and tidy, fast and easy. Sometimes I lose a partial dollar on a product having just a few dollars profit. I don't mind. It all washes towards median in the end.