by Matt Colman » Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:48 pm
Lines are now CLOSED
Congratulations to the winners!
Answer was:
Many of the old textbooks on business indicate that odd number pricing ($0.99) was developed as a way to keep cashiers honest. Odd number pricing forces the cashier to make change, and the arithmetic using odd numbers was thought to be suffieiently difficult enough to require careful attention from the cashier. The cashier has to carefully use the additive method in order minimize the chance of being short (cheating the company) or long (cheating the customers) by cashier mistakes. Additionally, if the cashier is going to cheat both, pocketing the money, even amounts, like whole dollars, would be preferred. Smaller amounts may not be worth the trouble (plus the bulging pockets problem that increases the likelihood of getting caught).