But it IS how we see prices. If there weren’t science behind it, they wouldn’t be doing it.
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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.
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.
The science is about how you initially react to the number. Your brain will see $19, and immediately you’ll think it’s $19. Only upon further inspection and processing through your cognition, you recognise that its $19.99, which is basically $20.
It’s that initial reaction they want, to grab your attention. Anyone who is going through life without leveraging their higher thinking will fall for this shit. Anyone who thinks, at all, won’t.
Unfortunately, there’s a nontrivial number of people who fall into that first category. People who were never taught to think. They just do.
$20 and $10 shipping: 😡
$30 and free shipping: 😄
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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.
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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.
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.
I’ll admit, this works on me sometimes.
I hate that it does, but it do.
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 do that with gas, but everybody knows the .9 cents are implied.
Funny, I might be the only person I know who automatically rounds up gas prices…
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!
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
0_0 I take it you do the lion’s share of the finances haha
At least I hope
Most people are idiots most of the time.
Some people are idiots some of the time.
No one is never an idiot.
Can confirm. I’m idiot most of the time
These dumbasses thinks this works on us smart people. Anyway, gotta go fight some people on black friday for shit i don’t even need nor afford
Which just so happens to have been the same price all month.
Regular price: $399.99
BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL:
$799.99$399.99It was also on sale yesterday for the same price.
Its literally how we see prices which is why companies do this
Worked in pricing for a big retailer, it 100% works and retailers don’t even like doing it, but it’s basically a necessity to get baseline sales. It’s WAY easier to have simple even number prices that calculate easily and get percent off sales and clearance prices that make sense. Really the only items you see it on are items competing with other retailers, so kraft mayo that every store has vs. A store brand soda you don’t care about volume on. The Mayo you better have $5.99 instead of $6.00 or it looks like you’re ripping them off. And even if they sell it got $4.99 it still keeps people thinking it’s a complex price difference rather than an even number they can compare more easily.
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 $200.
No real rhyme or reason, just the bigger the number the more I fudge the “real” price upwards thanks to sales tax and a “can I really afford this?” factor.
Honestly I just want tax included on the price tag.
That’s an American problem too
I’m not sure it works on me. Not because I’m some super human resistant to advertising (I’m not) but because I’m so bad at math that when they start asking me about anything involving small change I tune out and overestimate by 50% rounded into nice whole numbers.
“This is 19.99”
“Okay so it’s basically 30$.”
It gives me nice surprises sometimes when I get my receipt.
You have to be, like, better at math to do that though?
Decimals are the devil’s work.
You can remove the decimal then add it back at the end
15.50
Is
1500
Half would be 775
Or 7.75
yep, and figure out what 20% of your bill is by taking 10% and double it. saves my ass every time i gotta tip lol
You can take 1% of anything, then multiply as well.
Like 7% of 15.50
1% is .155 (10% is moving decimal to left once, 1% is twice)
.155 × 7 = 1.083
That’s a hard one to do in your head, but .155 × 7 is easier to do on paper than 15.50 × .07.
Say something is 49.99 and 7% off. 1% is .5. .5 ×7 = 3.5. You could probably do that in your head. Otherwise, good luck trying to do 7% of 50 in your head.
Edit: Hmm. So you could also do 3.5% of 100 instead of 7% of 50. That would have been the easiest way to do that one.
Bonus: I thought I’d mention 11s. They are my favorite thing in math because they are so easy and you seem like a math wizard to anyone.
Say you have 42 × 11. That’s 462.
You just split apart the 4 and 2, add 4 and 2, then stick it in the middle.
Something like 67 × 11. Where the digits add >10.
6…7, 6+7=13, 6+1…3…7. So 737.
Using whole numbers can be easier when estimating
xxx
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.
It never works on me. I was taught at a very early age that pricing down by one cent of one dollar is a psychological trick and that I should round up to the nearest whole number.
Funny thing is, it still works.
On people who are actively trying to compensate for it, or did you just mean the overall population?
same way placebo still works (to a degree) even when you know it’s placebo
your subconcious is not logical, and no amount of conscious logic will fully defeat its influence
to think yourself immune is foolish and dangerous, that’s when you allow it to work even better as you “logically” explain away every manipulation you were influenced by, and convince yourself you made a decision fully by yourself. The danger gets even hotter when it comes to political propaganda that uses the exact same tricks as marketing
Yes, for the general population. Otherwise, companies will stop the psychological pricing. Same with corporate snooping to see our shopping and grocery habits and then send us with targeted ads.
that’s the important caveat:
it does NOT work on everyone, but that’s irrelevant.
if it works on even 1% of people, but has zero effect on everyone else, companies would still use it everywhere anyways.
a 1% difference over even just a couple thousand customers adds up over time.
so, no, it doesn’t work on everyone, and it doesn’t have to.
it just has to work on some people, and not deter any more people than it works on.
if anyone wonders when it does and does not work: like most of these psych-tricks the effect mostly disappears when you point it out to people or otherwise make them actively think about what they’re buying.
same for the change-the-layout-of-the-store-all-the-time thing: doesn’t work on all people, doesn’t have to.
On idiots. So on probably around 40% of population.
It actually works on smart people too.
Not really.
I always round up the price when I see $X.99 but my grandmother always rounds it down and it pisses me off
They’re trying to fool you! Don’t be a sheep!!!
I always round way up because sales tax is so high here. 17.99 = $20. I’m usually within the $1 range when I check out.
Still boggles my mind that tax is not included in the price in the US.
It encourages more consumption
Hmm, this is the first time I get this argument, and I think you are on point.
The other argument I’ve heard is so that people will see how much the government is taking from them, and be angry about it. This would be particularly useful for politicians who campaign on smaller government.
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
