| red 928 |
01-28-2025 10:58 AM |
OK, huge pet peeve here that really needs to be fixed:
gas station prices of $x.xx AND 9/10THS
Do we really need to keep doing the "and 9/10ths thing?
It just perpetrates a tradition of oil companies trying to deceive their customers.
Everyone knows that $3.999 is $4
It's just a waste of time and money for the station owners.
If a marketing-monkey at an oil company had any brains (ya right) they'd start a new campaign of getting rid of the dumbness.
Quote:
Back in the 1930s, when gas was just 10 cents a gallon, adding a penny would seem like a huge increase by 10%, so they went with less than a cent.
Starting mid-century, it became the norm for gas stations to end prices in 9/10ths of a cent, and it's been that way ever since.
If 9/10ths of a cent is meaningless in today's economy, why continue doing it? WCCO asked Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
"Now every station engages in it, so if a station were to suddenly stop, they're gonna look more expensive and people aren't gonna fill up there as often," De Haan said.
He says nowadays, it's all about competitive pricing and marketing.
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"It's a psychological level, that is you're more likely to pull into a station at $3.799 than you would be at $3.80," he said.
Totals are always rounded, so you don't see tenths of a cent on your credit card bill.
"Nobody really wins," he said. "Consumers don't always win, gas stations don't always win, and that's why it's kind of held consistently."
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