We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@care2.com saying something like:
I see it's working already.
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17 years ago
Smartcards
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17 years ago
gm - Geek of Milkbottles
(I'm old enough to know, not old enough still to care)
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17 years ago
I still don't get it ...
Mary
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17 years ago
I've not seen anything priced in round figures for a long time, did he mean $59.99?
Mary
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17 years ago
I thought it was $/£ transmutation.
Mary
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17 years ago
'gm' is mutual conductance, and concerns the gain of valves.
NT
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17 years ago
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mary Fisher" saying something like:
The post appeared twice.
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17 years ago
The message from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:
I don't do charm pricing - and I've taught the kids to mentally round up prices, too.
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17 years ago
Is that what it's called? I didn't know it had a name, other than 'con' in my mind. But we've done that to death hereabouts.
Good for you - but we shouldn't have to.
Mary
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17 years ago
No - really?
Mary
No - really?
Mary
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17 years ago
I knew a retailer who did it partly to stop his shop assistants cocking up when entering numbers on the cash register, otherwise they'd enter 6 rather than 599 and things would get rather cheaper all of a sudden.
cheers, clive
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17 years ago
Historically, one reason was that a non-round price meant that change nearly always had to be given. So the till was more likely to be opened, and this reduced the number of items that might not otherwise have gone through the till.
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17 years ago
The message from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:
It's not new. Dad said it happend in the twenties - 19s11d3f was a common price.
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17 years ago
I think that's an urban myth. Any cashier with an eye that sort of deception would have a pocket full of pennies and give one as change without opening the till.
Also, why always .99? Why not .78, .42 or whatever?
In a recent book review programme some woman said that the price of a book was £X.40 - "A strange price" she commented. It's not a strange price, it could be a tru reflection of the cost of the book including profit for the various people involved.
When EVERYTHING is .99 (or even £999.99) it can't possibly be the price including VAT unless it's rigged to be that. I just don't believe it.
Mary
Mary>
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17 years ago
It's not new but it seems to be every price you see these days. When you had a choice it was different.
And I think you meant 19s11 3/4d :-) I remember using farthings.
Mary
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17 years ago
Except that the customer would still be there. With a round figure, the customer can just leave.
Of course it's the price. The price isn't manufacturing/distribution cost plus a standard profit; it's what the market will bear.
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17 years ago
Comet (IIRC) have/had prices ending in .99, .95 and .94 as signals to the assistants. One means this is a high profit or about to be discontinued item so push this where possible. One signals the opposite - lower profit, stock in short supply etc. The other is everything not in the first two groups.
The problem is that I never remember which is which
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17 years ago
Why?
It's not a fair price.
We manage to sell many different low and high priced items, not one of them ends in 9. But we want to give customers a fair price as well as having a fair return for our labour.
As it happens, I rarely buy anything ending in 9. It won't make any difference to the economy but it satisfies me - and it means that I'm not in the shop at all most of the time so I'm not tempted to buy more.
Yesterday I went for some new specs. The price of the frames was something
- I said I'd pay something 50. There was no argument, it was accepted. Back to haggling and barter!
Mary
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17 years ago
Absolutely. Never pay the first asking price, even if you only save
49p. There is definitely a principle there.- Vote on answer
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17 years ago
So you'd be happy for your employer or customers to keep that principle?
I doubt it.