Dear Han, and All,
I fear that what you say is absolutely correct - but I suspect it is only
true when the trader is selling.
When the same trader is buying I am prepared to bet he requires contracts
written in units that are standardised (probably SI written to ISO
standards) and consistent.
I imagine its the same with price. The computer trader will negotiate a
price of (say) 402.26 guilders that they then sell to you for 999 guilders.
At the buying side they care about getting value for their money, but on the
selling side all they care about is maximising their profits.
Sadly, I have to agree that this process has the effect of making 'consumers
stupid, illiterate and innumerate.'
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin CAMS
Geelong, Australia
BTW Do metric martyrs buy their bananas in kilograms?
on 2001-03-27 18.56, Han Maenen at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> When I bought my first computer, a Commodore 64 with a tape recorder it cost
> 999 guilders, the same stupid practice. A 1541 disk drive cost also 999
> guilders, a few years later it cost 599 guilders!
> The Amiga, my second one, cost 1199 guilders.
>
> Although we abolished the cent as a coin several years ago (it will return
> next year) stupid pricing of 0.99 never stopped. Something costs 2.99
> guilders but you pay 3 guilders. If you make a remark about that nonsense,
> asking them why they won't price it as 3 guilders, they ask you: "Aren't you
> interested in the price?"
>
> Such things have convinced me that marketing is a clever way to make
> consumers stupid, illiterate and innumerate. That is also the reason why
> marketeers oppose rational reforms of measuring units and why they
> popularized the inch in metric countries when the personal computer made its
> debut. They want systems of measurement to be as difficult as possible,
> metric is too userfriendly, so metric countries must be corrupted by
> infecting them with ifp. They sabotaged the replacement of the horsepower by
> the kilowatt in continental Europe, they even dabbled in British horsepowers
> now and then.
> Renault marketeers did so with a Renault Fregate in 1957 of '67 chevaux
> BHP', Peugot did it in 1984 with a sign '110 HP' on one of its cars. Peugeot
> marketeers did not use the kilowatt at all in their ads, using the BWMA-type
> argument that consumers would be confused by it.
> They are the perpetrators of downsizing and inflating bags with air when
> they have been reduced from 16 to 14 ounces in the US and from 150 to 125 g
> in metric countries for the same price of 0.99 units.
>
> Han
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ma Be" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 7:53 PM
> Subject: [USMA:11856] Re: pennies
>
>
> On Mon, 26 Mar 2001 08:44:44
> Dennis Brownridge wrote:
> Louis, the irrational penny-prices in the U.S. stem largely from the
> infuriating, deceptive practice of retailers who end prices in .99 to make
> them seem smaller...
>
> And I couldn't agree more with Dennis on this one! :-)
>
> <snip>
>
