What’s up with the fractional gas prices?

chevron_gas_price.jpgWhere do those fractional gas prices comes from?

Look at the gas-price display on the right. Why do they have the 9/10 behind the dollars.cents price? Why is there no other business with prices that includes fractions of cents?

Let’s say I go to the gas station once a week and I fill up the car with 10 gallons. That equals almost 10 cents per visit. Not a lot, but if you add that up over the year, it adds up to almost $5 that the oil industry gets from the fractional prices.

Can anybody explain that?

2 Responses to “ What’s up with the fractional gas prices? ”

  1. Betty
    December 6th, 2007 | 8:24 pm

    Wikipedia has a take on this phenomenon…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing

  2. December 9th, 2007 | 4:07 pm

    Betty - thanks for the link. I know about “psychological pricing” and I’m aware of it when we are dealing with dollars and cents, but as far I know the oil industry is the only one that takes it the fractional cents place. No other place sells goods that are a fraction of a penny. That’s the part that I don’t understand (how they get away with it and how it all started).

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