Pricing strategy

6 Comments:

1. 

   sanket

   September 14, 2007 at 1:44 pm

   Whatever be the reason, its a very very very annoying strategy! Its so easy to say and deal with “one thousand” as opposed to “nine ninety nine point ninety nine”.
2. 

   Well Wisher

   September 14, 2007 at 2:48 pm

   I have heard of multiple strategies. One is that 2.99 appears to be a much lower dollar amount than 3.
   Another is to have the price 1 cent less so as to force the cashier to open make an entry in the cash register to open cash drawer to give back the one cent back. This was probably used way before electronic payment options were available.
3. 

   xlf14

   September 14, 2007 at 3:16 pm

   Nice. The question/puzzle has always been answered before the end of the day so far.

   Yes one theory is that the practice originated to ensure that the cashier has to open the cash register and give change thus recording the sale and preventing them from keeping the cash for themselves.

   Btw, can u identify urself Mr. Well Wisher ?
4. 

   Nilesh

   September 14, 2007 at 5:07 pm

   On second thoughts, what prevented the cashier to return a penny/pennies if he could provide the penny/pennies from his pocket to the customer and keep the proceeds from the sale in his pocket and not record the transaction….
5. 

   prashant

   September 15, 2007 at 8:39 am

   Wah!!! Nilesh. You found a loophole in the system. Maybe this is the way Al Capone (crime lord of Chicago) started off to gather his millions. 🙂
6. 

   prashant

   September 15, 2007 at 9:16 am

   Well wisher is just a simple man wishing for a well (kuva) in his village and I hope he gets it. :-). The rains must have been poor this year. 😉