99p

I don't mind the 10p at all but the "coppers" and 5p are annoying. I am reluctant even to put them in the charity box often found on the shop counter as they must be a pain to count and then find a bank to pay them in.
HelterSkelter I have a money box full of 1p, 2p and 5p coins.

When the DGC were younger, sometimes other Granny and I took them to the seaside for the day and they liked to use them in the slot machines on the pier. Teaching them bad habits but it was fun!

Tesco had one of the coin changing machines, but you got a voucher to use there not pound coins back. I am not even sure they still have the machine anymore I must check.

A local Tesco to me still has one of those HelterSkelter. I used it recently and took my voucher to customer services and they gave me cash.

I always tell them to put them in the charity box on the counter
Seems logical to me

£2:99 is cheaper than £3 . Look after the pennies, as they say .

kittylester

I understood that the reason for prices being just below around number was so that they had to be put through the till to allow the till drawer to open and change taken out.

Round amounts could just be pocketed by unscrupulous shop assistants.

They say you learn something new every day and this is my bit of knowledge for today.

Logical when you think about it - something I obviously hadn't thought about.

When I got my first Saturday job in the 60s I was told the 11d was so that you had to open the till to get the penny change out, so you didn't pocket the cash!!

kittylester

I understood that the reason for prices being just below around number was so that they had to be put through the till to allow the till drawer to open and change taken out.

Round amounts could just be pocketed by unscrupulous shop assistants.

Yes kittylester I'm sure I've read that somewhere.

It was never about the stupidity of people!!! Pretty bad to just assume that. It was so the till had to be opened to get change and the cashier could not just pocket the money. This is Britain so we don't change very quick and it has just carried on.

But it IS psychology, surely, when cars are offered at £4,999 rather than £5,000! Oh! I should say "used to be" rather than "are" ... just in case I am seen as living in the past !

I have always hated this practice of taking a penny off the price in the belief that people will only take notice of the number of pounds — although I dare say they do, at least when it comes to petrol prices? Accounting is so much easier in round figures! It goes way back to pre-decimal times, of course. Even in the pounds, shillings & pence era, a pair of women’s shoes would be priced at, say, “forty-nine and eleven” (49/11 or £2.9s.11d) instead of “two pounds ten” (£2.10s.0d).

kittylester

I understood that the reason for prices being just below around number was so that they had to be put through the till to allow the till drawer to open and change taken out.

Round amounts could just be pocketed by unscrupulous shop assistants.

Sorry, not sorry, but I really take that comment as an insult.

I work in retail and to insinuate that 'shop assistants' would pocket money is insulting and very closed minded. In case you haven't noticed 99.9% of cash registers are fitted with scanners, scan the product and it magically appears on the till screen and is recorded in the system. Until you record on the system that the payment is entered then the purchase will not clear. It doesn't matter if the purchase is 99p or £10. Therefore if a 'shop assistant' pockets money their till takings at the end of the day will be short and the 'shop assistant' is accountable.

The reason for prices to end in 99p or whatever IS purely to try and 'trick' the customer into thinking only of the £ number and not the 99p. Not ethical I know,but it happens in all shops.

What a patronising comment and also making assumptions about people. I think we all knowit's a marketing ploy...no one actually believes it. Most people round up

Allira I too wonder about the price per litre. Often challenge myself watching the dial whizz round trying to get it to stop at the price per litre but never happens.

watermeadow

I am old and find older people tend to cling to what’s familiar, I didn’t mean old people are stupider than others.

I got what you meant😃
Mum tells me that in ‘old money’ prices were kept just below the pound too, it sounds cheaper than it is, so 19/11d for instance or 29/11d and so on.

Mojack26

What a patronising comment and also making assumptions about people. I think we all knowit's a marketing ploy...no one actually believes it. Most people round up

Exactly.

The poster who said originally that it was to prevent money being pocketed by unscrupulous sales assistants is correct.

There is also an element of psychological pricing, particularly with larger amounts - it works apparently. As does pricing items with even numbers; people are more inclined to buy an item with an even number than an odd one.

kittylester

I understood that the reason for prices being just below around number was so that they had to be put through the till to allow the till drawer to open and change taken out.

Round amounts could just be pocketed by unscrupulous shop assistants.

Yes I believe this is correct.

I am old but still intelligent Thankyou . I find your comment quite insulting.

The only time I use cash, notes not coins, is in the bowl on the table for a different charity each month at our Quaker Meeting. But it is a nuisance for those who have to add it up and send it in. At Women's World Day of Prayer at our parish church recently they went round with a collection bag and I panicked as I had forgotten about this but luckily I did have some money in my handbag.

By the way, I am 79 and much less mentally able in many ways than I once was.

Presumably the people are not the unscrupulous shop assistants to which i referred. So stop getting indignant.

Wow - older people! That’s a bit hard

If you shop in sainsburys you can load up your coins when paying for your groceries.

Do you mind?! I'm 75 and I'm not stupid! Yes it is silly to have prices ending with 99p. A lot easier to add things up if it was rounded up to the pound.