And 99 Cents: Difference between revisions

[[File:billy-mays-nineteen-ninety-five-dollar-bill 6031.jpg|frame|[[Billy Mays]] would like to make you an offer.]]

 

 

When the screaming infomercial finally reaches the point of telling you the price you can be sure that price won't be a round number. Nothing will be sold for $10.00, $50.00 or $100.00. Every price will end with .95, .98 or .99.

 

This thinking is often carried over to large-ticket items, like cars, at least in the US—nobody cares about a few cents when they're buying a car and the price will have to be haggled to something reasonable in any case, but the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) in dollars will end in 7 or 5 far more often than it will end in 0.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Clerks]]'', Dante remarks that all prices end in 0.99.

** And yet in the background, all the prices end with the number five.

 

== Literature ==

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Look Around You]]'' shows a machine with a price tag of £999.99½p.

* An episode of ''The Antiques Roadshow'' featured an old Sindy doll from the 1960s. The original price was so-many shillings and 11 pence. There was 12 old pence in a shilling, making this the pre-decimal version of the trope.

** Further to this, there were twenty shillings in a pound, so something costing more than £1 would typically be priced at x pounds 19/11d - i.e. one (old) penny below the round number.

** "It's absolutely nothing!"

** {{spoiler|bucket not included}}

* A non-financial example appears in ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', where Wade, after [[Mattress Tag Gag|ripping the a tag off the bottom of a couch and learning that it's against the law]], imagines himself being sentenced to "9,999 years in prison". Wade is relieved: "At least I didn't get life."

 

== Real Life ==

=== Asia ===

* In Japan, most prices end with 80. As in, it's not 1,000 yen, it's 980. This is probably because the number 8 is considered lucky in Japanese culture, while 9 and [[Four Is Death|4]] are considered unlucky. The reason it's not 88 yen is that 1 yen coins seem to be considered an inconvenient hassle, and many vending machines won't even accept them.

* 99 Cents Only stores in Southern California and a few other places run on this trope. Every price(before tax) will end in a 9 and the most expensive items they sell will cost $99.99. The company also celebrates the 99th birthday of public figures and names 99 year old individuals as honorary spokespersons. Lastly, they say they're open 9 days a week, one store held a wedding on 09/09/2009 costing 99 cents, and their trucks say that, instead of no cash, the driver only has 99 cents.

* Doubly Subverted in Century Theatres. Concessions sell snacks that usually only have a multiple of 25 cents (and most people have a few extra quarters in their pockets). These prices however, already calculate sales tax. The real cost of a large popcorn isn't $6.50, but around $5.96 with 9% tax.

* 99 cent stores love this trope, of course. In fact, there's a common joke that goes "My family was really rich. We went to the dollar store."

** However, some dollar stores have mostly flat-dollar prices. When every item isn't a single dollar, that is.

* Political example: The 9-9-9 tax plan proposed by Herman Cain.

** Bunk now he's gone, 2012 primaries.

 

=== South America ===