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>
