Seriously, there’s no way they didn’t choose that shit on purpose.

  • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    They do odd incremental pricing with a lot of things. I don’t know that it’s nefarious so much as it is nefarious. They know $14.99 is read by consumers as $15. $14.98 is a ratfucked $14.99. By the 0.80s we see it as $14.xx and it’s perceptibly cheaper.

    • Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      well the whole psychology of choosing 99 cents was to make you think it’s a dollar less than it actually is. Not sure what the utility of the 88 would be

        • Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          there we go. that makes sense. could also be a nazi dogwhistle. come to think of it, summing up purchases these days is mostly a matter of whether you have a phone on you and can use the calculator app. The smart thing to do though is look at unit prices and not prices. With food/drink at least. You can have something that looks cheaper but the package is just oversized and the price per gram or whatever is the same or higher.

          • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
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            10 months ago

            Yeah but I don’t think many people take their phone out and add up every individual item they’re buying as they buy them. I think it’s more common to guesstimate the total price based on how much things usually cost and then bite the bullet if it’s a bit higher.

  • thirstywizard [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Walmart’s had half the shit in store at that sus price since I was in highschool, rumor back then Walton himself or one of his heirs had neonazi ties of some sort.

  • SerLava [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    14.88 on pricing is actually a common discount on a normal original price. One possible one is 15% off 17.50 - there are some others. If it’s not some weirdo little chud store it’s probably just that.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      Could be some kind of algorithmic pricing, where some machine decides “We noticed people will pay $14.88 more than any other price in the $10-$20 range” and assigns that value by default. Just a self-reinforcing cycle of stupid consumerism.

      • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        Yea I can see this being an extension of some data driven bullshit more than a dog whistle.

        “People think 14.99 is less than 15. Wait now people recognize that as the same let’s go to 14.89 then people will see its not just a cent off. Wait the data says people reaction to the number 9 is an extension of the original trick better go down to 14.88.”

        Not saying it’s definitive but seems more likely than trying to appeal to the festive fascist demographic.

        • fox [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          I’ve worked with algorithms that are designed to undercut competitors’ pricing on Amazon and I’ll confirm this isn’t some dog whistle, it’s just a weird outcome of computers trying to undercut each other and maintain marketing tricks in the pricing number.

        • roux [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          10 months ago

          This is what I think it is. Another store is selling the same thing for 14.99 and Walmart has the overhead to undercut by a few cents. Alot of their stuff is priced at $xx.88.

  • SpiderFarmer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Someone’s order rang up as that today at work. I used to chuckle at people buying an item or tipping to avoid $6.66, but in an instance like this I’d also be buying a muffin.

    • GeorgeZBush [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      This reminds me of the time that a coworker of mine at the deli weighed something for a customer and it came out to 6.66 pounds.

      The customer was a priest.