Fri 3 Mar, 2006 01:50 am
Lets discuss something really important, something that would actually help and impact all of us out here. Something useful the politicians could do instead of arguing over nonsensical stuff all the time that nobody cares about. Get rid of tenth cent pricing on gas that go something like 2 dollars, 25 and 9/10 cents per gallon. Is this practice going to persist until gas is three thousand two hundred 29 dollars and 23 and 9/10 cents? Lets get rid of it now, for a number of reasons. One is look at all the energy we can save by eliminating the lighting behind the 9/10 cent signs. Another is we could actually calculate the price easier and see if the pump is cheating us. And we could quit believing gas was only $1.99 when it is really $2.00 or at least within 1/10 of a cent of 2 dollars.
Plus you can't cut a penny in pieces so how can they try to price something that way and be serious?
I can't think of anything else you buy every day that is priced like this. Is milk in the grocery store 2 dollars 69 and 9/10 cents per gallon? Obviously not. Are candy bars 79 and 9/10 cents each. Obviously not. I am not in favor of alot of laws, but I think we need one now for this travesty at the retail level. They can keep the fractional cent system for wholesaling and whatever, but at the retail level, lets start a movement to get rid of it.
Is it possible I've found an issue that Republicans and Democrats could actually agree on?
I found this kind of thing nonsensical over here in the UK too. You cannot seriously pay 0.9p. It's ridiculous. True, when you multiply it up, the 0.9p becomes something less ridiculous to pay, but it's still stupid.
Thing is, this isn't really a very important issue, is it? It's an issue that needs to be addressed, because it's completely stupid to continue to have these ridiculous prices, but... You know, is it really Politics-worthy material to be discussing?
I think not.
In North America, the '9' is used far too much in our daily lives. Instead of pricing articles in a normal manner, everything is $1.99 or $9.99. There are cars that sell for $ 29.999.
It show contempt for the customer. He is stupid in the eyes of the merchant.
Many countries don't have that problem. People buy things for 1 or ten or 60, without the .99 nonsense.
The 99 cents thing comes from the days of manual cash registers which did not tally up the day's receipts. Therefore it was easy to steal from the till, and many did. But those days are long gone, and the 99 cent thing mainly serves to (a) make us still use pennies and (b) give forth the illusion of thrift where there is none (e. g. $29.99 is under $30. Well, but so is $15, and I like that number a lot better).
Oh, and I think the poster intended for this topic to be a joke, folks.
It may not be a really big issue, but it's hard to imagine one with an easier solution.
The .99 deal is obviously a psychological ploy to make you think that you are paying less than you really are. There are some stores that price their sale items with another number, like .84, for instance. That is how you know that the item has been marked down.
Instigate wrote:are you serious?
Sure I'm serious. At least it is something tangible, real, and fixable. And it is something that virtually every single American would notice and appreciate, which is certainly more than you can say about a high percentage of legislative hyperbole.
P. S. I think 99 cents is fine, as in $3.99, but for crying out loud, why do we have to deal with 9 tenths of a cent? Try cutting a penny into tenths.
Re: Its Time. Get Rid of 1/10 Cent Gasoline Pricing!
okie wrote:Lets discuss something really important, something that would actually help and impact all of us out here. Something useful the politicians could do instead of arguing over nonsensical stuff all the time that nobody cares about. Get rid of tenth cent pricing on gas that go something like 2 dollars, 25 and 9/10 cents per gallon. Is this practice going to persist until gas is three thousand two hundred 29 dollars and 23 and 9/10 cents? Lets get rid of it now, for a number of reasons. One is look at all the energy we can save by eliminating the lighting behind the 9/10 cent signs. Another is we could actually calculate the price easier and see if the pump is cheating us. And we could quit believing gas was only $1.99 when it is really $2.00 or at least within 1/10 of a cent of 2 dollars.
Plus you can't cut a penny in pieces so how can they try to price something that way and be serious?
I can't think of anything else you buy every day that is priced like this. Is milk in the grocery store 2 dollars 69 and 9/10 cents per gallon? Obviously not. Are candy bars 79 and 9/10 cents each. Obviously not. I am not in favor of alot of laws, but I think we need one now for this travesty at the retail level. They can keep the fractional cent system for wholesaling and whatever, but at the retail level, lets start a movement to get rid of it.
Is it possible I've found an issue that Republicans and Democrats could actually agree on?
Its time to mention this again. And it is noteworthy that some posters that responded to my subject addressed the 99 cent phenomena. Thats fine, but that is not my point. My point is that pricing in fractions of a penny should be outlawed at the retail level. You should not be able to price something that cannot be paid with a coin or piece of money. If they made coins worth one tenth of a penny, then fine, but they don't. Gasoline prices should be in pennies, not fractions of a penny.
If they wish to price it at $3.99, fine, but $3.99 and 9/10 that is becoming ridiculous.
It seems some states are beginning to see the light, but I think it needs to be federal, to make it uniform across the country.
http://www.projo.com/generalassembly/GAS_BILL_04-24-08_0M9STVP_v18.373c098.html
And here is what this website says about it, that rounding of cents skews in favor of sellers, which may amount to important differences with large volumes.
http://www.users.qwest.net/~taaaz/AZgas.html
"All motorists are well aware that active price competition exists among the various service stations within a given area of the state. However, for at least the past 70 years, competition has been nonexistent when it comes to the 9/10 cent per gallon portion of the gasoline or diesel price, although fractional cents other than 9/10 are, and for many years have been, as easily programmable into the dispenser computer as changes in whole cents. The 9/10 cent pricing concept, accepted without question by Arizona motorists, creates a false sense of accuracy when applied to any gasoline or diesel purchase made at current prices. Also, 9/10 cent pricing of gasoline and diesel requires that almost all purchases be rounded to the nearest whole cent. Because traditional mathematical rules for rounding are not applied to certain gasoline and diesel purchases, a 15 to 10 bias exists toward rounding up (SOME NUMBERS TO THINK ABOUT.) Certainly, in the 21st century, the time has come to abandon the deceptive, anachronistic and collusive practice of 9/10 cent pricing of a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel."
I think we should eliminate the stupid penny altogether.
Re: Its Time. Get Rid of 1/10 Cent Gasoline Pricing!
okie wrote:Lets discuss something really important, something that would actually help and impact all of us out here. Something useful the politicians could do instead of arguing over nonsensical stuff all the time that nobody cares about. Get rid of tenth cent pricing on gas that go something like 2 dollars, 25 and 9/10 cents per gallon. Is this practice going to persist until gas is three thousand two hundred 29 dollars and 23 and 9/10 cents? Lets get rid of it now, for a number of reasons. One is look at all the energy we can save by eliminating the lighting behind the 9/10 cent signs.
The energy required to light the number is almost nothing. You could probably light that LCD for 1 year for the energy it takes the pump to put 10 gallons of gas in your car. Of course it probably is an IC package with the other numbers so you would have no energy savings at all
Quote: Another is we could actually calculate the price easier and see if the pump is cheating us. And we could quit believing gas was only $1.99 when it is really $2.00 or at least within 1/10 of a cent of 2 dollars.
Why is math easier if you don't use 1/100th of of dollar? The math is the same. In fact you have better precision using more decimal places. The real key is how accurate the pump is when it comes to measurement. Because of the pump measurement you will always be rounding the price up to the nearest penny.
Quote:
Plus you can't cut a penny in pieces so how can they try to price something that way and be serious?
I can't think of anything else you buy every day that is priced like this. Is milk in the grocery store 2 dollars 69 and 9/10 cents per gallon? Obviously not. Are candy bars 79 and 9/10 cents each. Obviously not. I am not in favor of alot of laws, but I think we need one now for this travesty at the retail level. They can keep the fractional cent system for wholesaling and whatever, but at the retail level, lets start a movement to get rid of it.
Gas is sold in bulk unlike any of the other items you mentioned. I often buy stock with a precision of 1/100ths of a penny per share. Sure you might only save 10 cents when buying 100 shares but it is still a savings.
Quote:
Is it possible I've found an issue that Republicans and Democrats could actually agree on?
I'm sure there are other meaningless issues you could find they agree on.
Maybe it isn't earth shattering, but it seems to me we could eliminate a silly phenomena that nobody would miss, and there would be some benefits, with no downside whatsoever. In fact, consumers would probably save, because $3.99 is less than $3.99 and 9/10ths. Retailers tend to stay under thresholds.
I for one am tired of the disrespect by selling gasoline at a ridiculous price of fractions of a penny. It is something ready for the trash heap of history. After all, decades from now, do you want to pay 123 dollars, 23 and 9/10 cents per gallon. It is beyond the accuracy of flow meters anyway, which can be as much as a penny a gallon from station to station, in terms of accuracy, based on my personal experience.
Flow meters don't measure by the penny. Nor do they measure by the inch. Nor do they measure by the day.
I understand that, but just an interesting experiment I conducted, using a calibrated container designed to test volumes received at the gas stations, I found that the volume could vary enough to make at least a penny per gallon difference. I did it a few years ago, when gasoline was in the 2 dollar range, so the same variance at $4 gas would amount to around 2 cents per gallon.
The point I am making here that at $4 per gallon, flow meters are not accurate enough to measure something that translates into a tenth of a penny, the price is exceeding the point of accuracy of measurement. The pricing scheme is antiquated, unnecessary, and misleading. The measurement device is not designed to measure quantities pertinent to a fraction of a penny, so pricing in fractions of a penny is superflous at best, and a scam at worst.
The whole point here is that pricing at the retail level at 9/10 of a penny is a sham, and has been for a very long time.
I have no problem with true bulk wholesale pricing in fractions of a penny, or if a discount of a price ends up in a fraction, and then is rounded off, fine. Gasoline is sold by the gallon, usually in lots of multiple gallons, but not really in bulk at the retail level in the same manner as wholesale pricing is done. We also buy multiple gallons of milk, usually, but it is at least priced in even cents per gallon. I don't see much difference.
I think this issue will eventually come onto the radar screen of politicians, it already is slightly, and my purpose here is to be ahead of the curve and perhaps generate some interest among a few people. It is not an earth shaking issue, but one that would do every American a favor with the simple stroke of a pen, and with absolutely no negative effects as far as I can tell.
okie wrote:I understand that, but just an interesting experiment I conducted, using a calibrated container designed to test volumes received at the gas stations, I found that the volume could vary enough to make at least a penny per gallon difference. I did it a few years ago, when gasoline was in the 2 dollar range, so the same variance at $4 gas would amount to around 2 cents per gallon.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with 1/10th of a cent pricing. Every state has a Bureau of Standards and Measures. If the gas station is shorting you gas then you should report them.
I think it does. If you can't measure the gasoline quantity to an accuracy of a penny or two, how can you justify pricing in tenths of a penny? You can't even measure what you are selling in terms of tenths of a penny. So essentially, the station is saying I will charge you tenths of a penny for a gallon of gas that I can only verify you are getting within a penny or two. They are charging me for something I may not be receiving.
This is all splitting hairs, Parados, but it is the gasoline retailers that are choosing to split hairs. It is a pricing practice that has long outlived its usefulness. Its time for endorsing a spirit of good will and fairness between merchants and consumers.
I think you are only demonstrating your partisanship, that if okie said the sun came up every morning, you would disagree, just for the sake of disagreement.
Would you agree if retailers began pricing gasoline at $3.99 and 99/100 cent or $3.99 and 999/1000 of a cent? Would the public get upset? I think so, and I think there would be an outcry of foul. I think we should cry foul over 9/10 of a penny now, and the only reason we aren't is because people have gotten used to the abuse.
I know one thing, if I owned a gasoline retail outlet, and if my supplier or franchise owner would allow me, I would price my gasoline in whole cents, with a huge sign that proclaims it that way. I am all for treating customers with more respect and straightforward pricing. Enough of the scams and shams in advertising and pricing.
You're more worked up over this than the situation deserves.
Move on with your life.
Its a free country, chai, I can express my opinion, not exactly worked up into a frenzy. I guess you don't have any pet peeves, none whatsoever? Silliness in gasoline pricing is a pet peeve of mine, and I venture to guess the majority of people in this country would agree, that the time has come to get rid of a silly, superfluous, misleading, and wasteful pricing practice.
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