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Why do all prices have to end with 99? Because it's the closest you can get to a dollar without being a dollar? Does that one penny really make a product seem that much cheaper? Are people really fooled into buying things because of that penny? Every store and every company uses this same trick of leaving a penny out of the price so the product looks cheaper. It's never $100 it's always $99.99 or "just three easy payments of $33.33". Almost everything you buy is priced to look cheap in a pathetic attempt to get you to spend more than you want.

Gas stations are the worst. They can't be like everyone else and leave a whole penny off their price, they must go to the next decimal place and put a 9 there too. They make that last nine of the price really small so maybe you won't notice it. Their prices are accurate to the tenth of a penny, which makes them more exact than the U.S. coinage system. This means they have to round the price off at the end, which I'm sure they don't mind. What is their reason for adding that extra nine onto the price? I don't think they have to trick people into buying gas, it's kind of a necessity. And, they can't be doing it to make it look like they are cheaper than their competitor because their competitor does the same damn thing.

What if stores did keep that penny in their price? Well, if it wasn't for taxes, you'd probably end up with a lot less pocket change. What stores should really do is add the tax into the price initially. Doesn't it exacerbate you (piss you off) when you're a couple cents short because of that tax you forgot to add in. Or maybe you spend 5 minutes trying to add the tax into the price, to make sure you have enough money, and you still get it wrong. Then you have to bum money off the guy behind you or maybe the store has one of those little dishes with pennies in it, for people who come up a little short. Perhaps stores want you to have pocket change so you can spend it in those candy machines they have cunningly placed near the exit. It's all a shrewd setup to get you and me to spend as much money as possible without realizing it.

Most people are aware of these little mundane tricks stores use to make things look cheaper, so I don't think it does the store much good. It would be a lot easier if stores just priced their products so that you could see how much you are actually going to spend. They try to hide the truth in every possible way and it's too bad they are always trying to cajole people.

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