In the first post-Jon episode, Elan took a shot at hosting the show. First, Darren talked about sunscreen myths, then Adam discussed why prices often end in .99, and Elan closed out the show with the myth that when you get arrested you only get 1 phone call.
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Show Notes
Skin Protection
Prices Ending in 99 cents
Why do prices end in .99? – The Straight Dope
Psychological pricing – Wikipedia
What I find odd about the 99 cent price tag is that retailers use it, but in my experience private sellers use round numbers. For example on Kijiji classifieds private sellers will list items (such as an mp3 player or bicycle) for $20 or $50, instead of $19.99 or $49.99. So for future reference if I’m selling an item I’ll try out the 99 cent method and see it works as well for me as it does for Canadian Tire.
Another (more cynical)reason I’ve heard for retailers to use 99 cent pricing is that it reduces the chance for employees on the cash till to rip off the store. The example is if a store has a shirt for $20 (and assuming no sales tax added at the till) and I give the clerk $20 in cash, he/she can just slip the money in his/her pocket since he/she does not need to open the till for change. But if the shirt is $19.99 or $19.95 the cash register has to be opened to provide change for the customer.
Yeah I read the stealing thing in my research. Did I not mention that?
As for why private sellers don’t do it, it’s probably because they don’t know it works!
I don’t recall you mentioning the theft issue in the podcast segment itself, but the show references do mention 99 cent pricing to help track cash transactions.