Quote:
Originally Posted by Burninator
What? I don't understand. Of course if they wanted an extra 4 cents they would charge more, but why stop there? Why not charge an extra 5, 10 dollars on everything? Because this is not the same thing. When IKEA charges $19.99 for a funky lamp that is how much money IKEA is getting, not more not less. This extra 4 cents is free money for them that they get with out changing the sticker price.
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Just to be clear I appreciate the conversation and am not trying to be a wise-ass. It's all good.
As you indicate, everything comes down to price-elasticity-of-demand. They charge $19.99 because that's how much they want to sell it for.
However, my point remains: does it really matter if the funky lamp ends up totaling $21.19 with tax (rounded up from $21.1894 to the nearest penny) or $21.20 (rounded to the nearest nickle)? I can't imagine you loose sleep over the current system where you're getting bilked out of $0.0006 here, or up to $0.004999999_ somewhere else.
Following the argument the other direction: What makes the penny the perfect place to stop the rounding. Would bringing in 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/10th penny coins make transactions more fair? In a sense, yes they would, except the modern world has decided that they aren't necessary to come to a fair & reasonable price for the goods and services we buy. Too much trouble for too little gain.
My point is only that the penny has moved into the same territory and in that regard, I don't care about the 4 cents IKEA might possibly gain even with advantageous rounding practices. That's all.