The reason many people feel this practice is unscrupulous is because it
is a manner of manipulation of the buyer. Let's take, for example, an
item that is $49.99. The average buyer will think this is a better deal
than $50 even though there is such a minimal difference that you could
say that the prices are pretty much the same. The reason why the buyer
will think it is a better deal is because when you look at it in an
abstract way the price is in the $40 range, as opposed to the $50. It
feels like there is a much greater difference than 1 penny. An impulse
buy, then, is much more easily justified to the buyer because it doesn't
feel as expensive as it really is.
Marketing people know this behaviour well and it is why the vast
majority of resellers sell goods at 1-5 cents less than a dollar. It
means they will be able to charge more for something and still have the
buyer feel that they are getting it for a substantially lower price.
Now, when I talk about an average buyer I don't mean people who watch
every penny, nor people who do their research before buying a product,
but just an average shmoe who is doing some light (likely impulse)
shopping.
> What logic leads someone to believe that charging $.05 less for a product
> make the seller unscrupulous?
>
In this example the person is making a direct substitution, and not a
mathematical calculation. By saying yy = xx + 1 they mean, for example
"Don't you feel guilty when you price your products like $44.95 instead
of $45.00?".
> BTW :
> > Don't you feel guilty when you price your products like $xx.95 instead of
> $yy.00 [yy = xx + 1]?
> wouldn't that be $yy.96 not $yy.00 ?
>
Sam
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