99p

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That will teach me to RTFT that is, read the full thread!
I see lots of people have beaten me to it!

I believe the 99p (or19/11 in old money) was to make sure shop assistants opened the till, thereby registering the sale (cash register) in order to give change. A rounded up £ could just have been put to one side and possibly unobtrusively pocketed .

I think that a lot of charities would miss out if smaller denomination coins were abolished. There is often a charity box on the counter, where you can donate small change if you don't want it. I have a "Home Missions " box at home. My small change goes in there. I don't miss it, and it mounts up!

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.

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

Wow - older people! That’s a bit hard

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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).

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 !

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.

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.

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.

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.

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