Why don't gas stations round prices to the nearest penny?

[JC]

It's so archaic...the .9 cents on the prices. Mebbe when gas was 10 cents a gallon a few tenths might have mada a difference, but now? Besides, they all use .9 I don't think I've ever seen .8 or .7 or whatever.

But maybe by posting this here, the big oil companies will hear my rant, and abolish this outdated practice.

/rant

JC

 

[tweakmm]

i think that they do

 

[Colt45]

59.9 looks somewhat cheaper than 60.0

other than that.. tradition i guess. lol

 

[gar598]

perception is everything.............

I think NFS4 did a similar post to this a while ago

 

[PsychoAndy]

IIRC, it was formed when a station owner had gas pegged at 19.9 cents and advertised that his gas was cheaper than everyone elses (20 -21 cents) and the practice spread

 

[zimmie6576]

Originally posted by: Colt45
59.9 looks somewhat cheaper than 60.0

other than that.. tradition i guess. lol

Yeah, just like how stores sell things for "$19.99" or "$99.95". Most people are naive enough to think "wow, that's less than $20 (or $100)". It's just a business tactic to prey off of the naiveté of the consumer.

 

[XZeroII]

yea, it's just a trick. I'm sure that .9 cents per gallon comes in handy at the end of the year. assume 10,000 gallons a day = $90 extra per day = $32,400 per year. I don't know how much gas a station goes through in a day, but even 5,000 gallons a day would amount to a lot of money.

 

[etalns]

32,400 is the wage of more then one employee usually... nuff said!

 

[ViRGE]

XZeroII, he's reccomending they round up, not down. So they're actually losing $3650 a year.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
yea, it's just a trick.

marketing weasels suck :disgust:

 

[ChefJoe]

actually, the 0.9cents are a federally mandated highway tax. it's possible for them to set the price to make that invisible, but by leaving it out they're sending the message that "it's not me baby, it's the fedS".

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: Colt45
59.9 looks somewhat cheaper than 60.0

other than that.. tradition i guess. lol

Yawp. Silly but true

 

[JC]

Originally posted by: ChefJoe
actually, the 0.9cents are a federally mandated highway tax. it's possible for them to set the price to make that invisible, but by leaving it out they're sending the message that "it's not me baby, it's the fedS".

Oh, come on...there's like 40 or 50 cents of taxes on every gallon. That .9 has nothing to do with that

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: JC

Originally posted by: ChefJoe
actually, the 0.9cents are a federally mandated highway tax. it's possible for them to set the price to make that invisible, but by leaving it out they're sending the message that "it's not me baby, it's the fedS".

Oh, come on...there's like 40 or 50 cents of taxes on every gallon. That .9 has nothing to do with that

Yea, im not so sure about that either... Lemme see what i can find...

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: ChefJoe
actually, the 0.9cents are a federally mandated highway tax. it's possible for them to set the price to make that invisible, but by leaving it out they're sending the message that "it's not me baby, it's the fedS".

LMAO - Good one!!!

 

[CrazyDe1]

HEres my BS way of filling up...when I fill up I always overpump by 2 cents...then when I pay I go to the take a penny thing and take 2 cents...so after you've filled up 50 timse...you've saved a dollar

 

[FoBoT]

google search show 4.3 cent federal gas tax

i think the states get the rest, but that sounds kinda low

update, another article says the federal portion is 18.4 cents

i dunno

 

[JC]

Google again...

Taxes for gasoline in California are: 18.3 cents/gallon for federal excise taxes; 18 cents/gallon for state excise taxes; and local and state sales taxes. Sales taxes vary depending on the city and county you may be in...but on average the sales tax adds between 9 and 12 cents to a gallon of gasoline, depending on final price.

gougers :|

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
HEres my BS way of filling up...when I fill up I always overpump by 2 cents...then when I pay I go to the take a penny thing and take 2 cents...so after you've filled up 50 timse...you've saved a dollar

Are you Jewish, Asian, or a combination of both? This is on par with something me or RossMan would do.

 

[gogeeta13]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: CrazyDe1
HEres my BS way of filling up...when I fill up I always overpump by 2 cents...then when I pay I go to the take a penny thing and take 2 cents...so after you've filled up 50 timse...you've saved a dollar

Are you Jewish, Asian, or a combination of both? This is on par with something me or RossMan would do.

yeah, thats politically correct..lol

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: gar598
perception is everything.............

I think NFS4 did a similar post to this a while ago

Almost exactly a year ago

http://forums.anandtech.com/arcmessageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=443081

 

[ViperMagic]

What would happen if, say, gas is $1.29.9/gal, and you buy exactly ONE gallon? Someone should do it, and make a big fuss over the one tenth of a penny.

 

[JC]

Originally posted by: NFS4
almost exactly a year ago

http://forums.anandtech.com/arcmessageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=443081

...no wonder I didn't find it in a search...I only checked the first 500 threads