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Comment by jstx1 | Hacker News Reader

I can't tell whether this is a joke or you've gone off the deep end.

While it does sound like a joke I agree to some degree. 3.99 is supposed to make me feel like its 3 bucks instead of 4 and my monkey brain probably can't override the initial emotional response. Knowing this I feel kind of insulted that they think I'm stupid enough to fall for it.

idea: browser extension that automatically rounds up any number ending in ".99" and includes a visual indicator/toggle that lets you flip back to the original.

Exists: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/price99/mmceepjonb...

There are others too, I just searched for "round prices up browser extension"

The .99 pricing feels like an American phenomenon to me. Not that it's never used in other places, but it seems far more prevalent in the United States. For me it immediately makes the business seem a little bit slimy.

I rarely see it in Europe, and I think I've never seen it in Scandinavia.

It's exceedingly common in the UK. Although admittedly we tend to be halfway between the US and the rest of Europe on most things.

Also common in France.

I wonder if Scandinavia could be due to 1/100 of a crown being even more ridiculously small than a penny. Wikipedia tells me that only Denmark still has sub-krone coins, and that's 50 ore.

When I was in the (US) military, none of the vendors like the base exchange or on-base bars or restaurants overseas used coins smaller than a nickel (5 cents). It just wasn't worth shipping pennies overseas. The one exception was the post office. This was ~2005, so people still used cash.

> The .99 pricing feels like an American phenomenon to me. Not that it's never used in other places, but it seems far more prevalent in the United States. For me it immediately makes the business seem a little bit slimy. > I rarely see it in Europe, and I think I've never seen it in Scandinavia.

I have no idea what part of Scandinavia you're talking about, but in Sweden this type of pricing is used all the time.

Right now I just opened a random page of prepared food for one of the big-3 supermarkets and I can see Tortellini for 35,90kr; Gnocchi for 28,90kr; Tikka chicken for 56,90kr.

If I go to another random page for kitchen appliances (Elon) I can see a whole range of items for 2995kr (fridge) 5995kr (dishwasher) and so on - infinitely.

These are exactly equivalent to the .99 price manipulation psychology.

So tired of the self-righteous "in Scandinavia we don't do this" crowd.

Would you feel the same with 3.75?

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