From my experience working in retail I’ve seen people say out loud something like “oh, it’s only 4 dollars!” When the sticker says $4.99. This shit apparently works on a lot of people for some reason.
This is my neighbor all the time.
Like dude, round up!
I think I’ve heard a couple people do this. One directly in response to me saying it was $5 lol.
I do that with gas, but everybody knows the .9 cents are implied.
Its literally how we see prices which is why companies do this
The amount of times I’ve watched Youtubers say something like “35 dollars” while showing an image that shows the price as $35.96 happens too often for me to side with OP lol, sorry.
To be fair, in that specific case, they could have been rounding to the nearest $5. Unlike virtually all other instances of that behavior.
Honestly I just want tax included on the price tag.
That is honestly insane.
In NZ the sticker price is what you pay, if the price on the sticker doesn’t include tax, it is false advertising and you pay what is on the sticker.
It is entirely up to the retailer to ensure that the price is correct. The only exception to this, is if the price is obviously wrong e.g. $5.00 rather than $500.
It really is considering how easy it would be to implement.
That’s an American problem too
People suck at math and this is how they confuse people into not caring what the actual price becomes when they have to add multiple items together.
What’s 19.99 + 21.75 + 4.99 + 3.99 + 1.99? Can the common person do that math in their head while grocery shopping? What about adding the tax to that total? Not a chance.
Most people probably don’t even know what the sales tax is in their own state.
your price tags show the price before tax? that’s fucked up
The major reason given is that taxes vary so much in the US by location that it would be onerous for businesses with locations in different areas to print different price tags and advertise prices broadly.
It’s even an issue online because, until you enter your address, the online retailer has no clue what your tax rate will be, and they have to assess tax based on the purchaser’s location. Postal code isn’t always enough, as they can be shared by different cities with different tax rates.
Some areas also vary tax by date (tax free holidays), though I don’t think consumers would care if their total ended up being cheaper than they thought.
A national standard VAT would be the only way businesses might start including tax in price, but there’s no way to do that without a constitutional amendment. States have the power to tax, and they’re not going to stop now even if they receive VAT revenues.
It’s bullshit because every location prints their own price tags lol.
And then calculates tax right at the register. They have everything they need to do it, it’d hurt their bottom line and be consumer friendly so they don’t.
In some countries like India they have GST (Goods & service tax) which is applicable all over India. It was implemented in 2017 and has unified the indirect tax system across the country. This means that the same tax is levied on goods and services irrespective of the state or territory in India. Most items have 18% GST and the price tag always shows tax included, which is convenient for buyers.
Weirdly, my brain went through those numbers as “20, 22, 5, 3, 2.”
So they did get you at 3.99 -> 3!
Maybe because your brain wanted 5+3+2=10 instead of 5+4+2=11 ?
20+22+5+3=50 vs 20+22+5+4=51, since I was going left to right, but it works.
How is that “weird”? That’s just good numeracy.
I got through a bunch of them fine, then the $3.99 tripped me up.
Ha! That’s what they want.
Now add the sales tax. And don’t forget about bag fees and to tip Tippy.
We don’t have any of those things here.
Most people dont just round up after seeing the price?
Most people round down. Their brain locks on to the 1 of 19.99, and approximates it to 10.00. We need to actively counter this to see it as 20.00. It’s a skill most people don’t apply all the time, and a number can’t even do.
Once you can do it reliably, it’s mind-boggling that others can’t, but it’s still a learnt skill, that needs to be applied.
Most of the people i saw round down notice that and then round up
It’s a subconscious thing. It’s how our brain is wired. It’s a bit like advertising. Most people don’t like ads. However, when confronted my 2 similar products, we will go with the familiar one. The source of that familiarity is irrelevant, ads make it familiar, just the same as using it, or a recommendation.
It’s possible to override both of these effects, but that requires a level of conscious effort. I can almost guarantee you’ve been caught by both at different times. You just didn’t notice (since noticing would allow you to correct).
Basically, $19.99 is in the category “under $20”. $20.00 is in “over $20”. Without conscious correction, you act on this.
Most people round down
Source?
Some slight ramdom paper reading, back in my uni days. Though I’ve ran across it via other sources over the years since. Unfortunately I don’t have any links to hand though.
It might better be described as people put numbers into categories. Most people have a 10-20 category. 19.99 fits. 20.00 gets bumped up to the next box. It’s a sub/semi conscious thing. If we use our higher thought process, we can deal with the numbers. That takes effort however, by default, we chunk. The price just abuses a common rollover point most people share.
So, no source do the actual research backing your claims?
Where is your thesis with references?
You do realise that it is a claim which needs to be proven, not the other way around, right?
No, most people just give up after seeing the price.
All the people i saw either rounded up or rounded down by mistake and then rounding up
No. Most people round to the nearest whole number and often just pick a direction to round.
Since no one does math in their head anymore the total is always more than they expected. No calculators on shopping carts anymore either.
But it IS how we see prices. If there weren’t science behind it, they wouldn’t be doing it.
A lot of marketing strategies are pseudoscience. Just like a lot police investigation practices or body language assumptions.
JC Penny kinda showed that no. It isn’t pseudocience
What’s the story about JC Penny?
The CEO decided that clients were smart intelligent people and treated people as adults. Aka, no discounts, no 99 pricing, it just costs what it costs, as low as we can make it, plus our margin.
JC Penny was already not too well, this helped sink them
It was less about the .99 pricing and more about “Sale” pricing and ‘coupons’. Retailers will put a pair of pants on “Sale” for 50% off 51 weeks out of the year and people think they’re getting a great deal whereas when it’s not half off, they just don’t buy.
Poor guy. Tried to do some good in the world and paid the price for it. Nobody ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of the average person.
“Why would I pay $25 for these pair of pants at full price when I could pay $24.99 for those [identical] pants that are half off?! Clearly, that’s the better deal!”
Hell, could probably even make it $29.99 for the identical pants and people will still go with that because they think they’re paying five more bucks and getting a $60 pair of pants
Some marketing strategies are pseudoscience, but this one isn’t.
Does anyone in the thread have actual info to back this up?
This doesn’t meet the bar you want, but my marketing professor called the .99 idea the single greatest thing to come out of marketing in a century.
Sounds about right.
Marketing hasn’t done anything positive for humanity. It is all just to manipulate people into buying shit they don’t need. It is the main driver for the overconsumption.
You should be able to find various tests and studies of this phenomenon on Google
So, it’s a “no” than?
It’s a yes but find it yourself
I was watching a PBS documentary about the first humans in the Americas. All the scientists are super cool until you get to the American anthropologist who starts using phrenology to explain why Native American tribes shouldn’t be given repatriation rights, only for a Danish geneticist to say “yeah, this is absolutely a Native American and i am willing to testify to that in any court of law”
Pseudoscience is still all the rage if it can be used to push a political agenda.
But it IS how we see prices.
I don’t. Never did. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Same, I’ve always just rounded up. Even when it comes to things like .50¢ I still just round it up to the next dollar.
You do though
At some level you will favor the 19.99. You might justify it with some other rational but there will be the bias.
No, I dont though.
It really depends on the study you choose to believe into. (No, everyone does it, isn’t a pro argument. People always had strange beliefs which later changed. I think it’s called major consensus narrative or maybe consensus reality
I like this hill, I’ll stay here. Thank you.)
No, I really don’t.
dowsing for suckadrippas
$20 and $10 shipping: 😡
$30 and free shipping: 😄
Part of it is that there’s less hidden costs. I like it when it’s just “the total is $30” instead of “there’s $8 shipping and a $2 service fee and then $4 in taxes and…”
I’ve also seen some online stores lure in a customer with a really cheap initial price and then on the last page just slam them with insane shipping and handling fees hoping that the customer either doesn’t notice or feels too invested at this point to cancel their purchase.
But yes, part of it is also people are stupid when they see the word “free” as if the store wouldn’t move the cost somewhere else.
It is kind of a dick move when companies overcharge for shipping. I only charge calculated shipping on large or heavy items because those are the ones that vary a lot and I don’t want someone in zone 8 (like Southern California or even someone in HI buying it and shipping costing more than they paid. If it’s under 1 lb then I just give free shipping and bake it into the price.
This reminds me of my early shopping days using EBay, where it wasn’t uncommon for sellers to under-price their products so they show up near the top of the price (cheapest-most expensive) sort pile, and then charge an outrageous amount in shipping.
I’ve found that almost always (at the time), that the seller offering free or low cost shipping was usually cheaper.
That was because their fees were based on the sale price of the item minus the shipping. So they were only paying fees on 1 cent. They changed the fees so that the total sale including shipping is calculated.
That at least allows you to retrieve the full amount if you return the goods. Shipping costs you don’t get back.
I don’t understand people who won’t pay £5 for shipping, but will instead spend another £15 on something they don’t need so they get free shipping.
All you’ve done is lost money.
It depends. If it’s something I know I’ll use, especially a consumable, I’ll do it.
My husband is awful in that regard. He sees the first digit only and then rounds it down. “It’s just 30€” - it’s 39,99€. “It’s like 200€” - it’s 289,90€, “5000€” - 5999€. I love him to pieces but I don’t trust any of his numbers.
I love him to pieces
How many? About 200?
Best I can do is 199
A whole 100 pieces? What a deal!
0_0 I take it you do the lion’s share of the finances haha
At least I hope
My dad is the same with gas price. If gas is 156.9 cents a litre? Nah to him it’s 156 cents a litre
Also “
200100” is very different from “100”.This is one of those things that makes me feel the slightest bit more agitated and cynical towards people and society. We all know it’s manipulative, and that should be enough reason not to do it. So why does everyone who runs a business do it? Like yeah it does work, but is it really worth subtly eroding your own customer’s trust in you? There’s an invisible cost of goodwill here.
Are you choosing to go to the store that does $20 instead of $19.99?
Does that store exist?
It’s more that the customer refuses to buy the $20 item but at 19.99 it seems just a little more attainable.
That is a fair point. But then again, I don’t even remember the last time I was in a store that had honest prices.
I remember that for a time, JC Penney focused on honest pricing and abandoned common predatory prices. They came close to bankruptcy and went back to their old ways. The psychology of feeling like we got a good deal is so ingrained into most people that it becomes difficult to run a business without those things
But $999 is much lesser than a grand
I generally round up to nearest bigger number or close to that. $19.99 is $20. $23.99 would probably be $25. $180 would just be $200.
No real rhyme or reason, just the bigger the number the more I fudge the “real” price upwards thanks to sales tax and a “can I really afford this?” factor.
I just wished it was mandated to list prices to include all the taxes along with it. Whether it says $19.99 or $20 still isn’t the actual price.
Recently had the worst of this. Was craving chocolate milk, find a nice size bottle of it for $3. Get to register. $6.63 total price because the glass bottle had over a $3 deposit.
I just wished it was mandated to list prices to include all the taxes along with it.
It is, in the EU.
Hey everything on steam is the listed price if ya live in California. We dont have a digital sales tax, which is weird.
Right? Of all the states California is the one with no tax? Even Texas has that shit.
If I had to guess its probably because the stste was kinda in a weird place when digital products were first becoming a thing so it was never implemented, and now nobody cares enough to try.
Then let’s stop talking about it 👀
Unfortunately taxes aren’t uniform across a metro area or even within a city.
Yeah, and? That doesn’t stop the individual stores from already calculating the taxes you’re going to pay at that location and putting that price on the labels on their own shelves.
Because when they advertise, those advertisements cover a larger area.
Then leave the advertisement alone. They still print the prices on tags at each store location.
Let them send out flyers saying item A is $20 *plus local taxes but when you get to the store the pricetag on the shelf should say $23.50 or whatever the markup ends up being at that location.
I’d rather advisements list the highest price for the area they cover than have false advertising with the prices at the store.
It does work believe it or not. It is something that plays to your subconscious. You will favor the slightly cheaper option even if you aren’t aware of it.
not just cheaper though
even subconsciously $15.55 will not be that better than $15.56
but in a change from $20 to $19.99 the whole first number is smaller, and that gives our ape brains the feeling that it’s not as expensive
to reveal the vibes your brain operates on, think about bigger numbers. Imagine yourself to be in kind of a rush, you want to buy something, but family is waiting, or you need to walk your dog, or maybe you’re doing shopping before work, regular life stuff,
first scenario
an identical item is sold for $2920 in the first store you visit, and for $2970 in the second store you visit. The stores are an inconvenient travel time away from each other. Do you go back to the first store?
second scenario
now, an identical item is sold for $2975 in the first store you visit, and for $3025 in the second store you visit. The stores are still an inconvenient travel time away from each other. Do you go back to the first store?
though the difference is still $50, the jump from $2975 to $3025 feels more significant than $2920 to $2970. And obviously many of us will go back to get the cheaper option in both cases, but there’s a lot of people on this planet who have money to spare but not the time, and a lot of other circumstances too, marketing people know it and will do their damnest to sway you to buy their product
Horrible idea: plugin that rounds all numbers up
Recursively
that would explain the google fine in russia
Perfectly great idea!
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It is how it is, Americans are the dumbest
