I read The End of the 99 Cent Effect? a coupla days ago on Sully, but it turns out the article was an April Fool's joke. Which is funny, because the article made sense to me.
The problem with the ol' "wow, $4.99, that's UNDER $5!" is that we know that with tax, it's gonna slide over that $5 mark. Mentally, that just seems like a bigger jump than, say, $5.01 to $5.09 or whatever, since you've already committed to the five dollar bill, plus some change. That extra 8 cents is unnoticeable, unlike when it slides things over into a whole new number, and suddenly the "hey, under $5!" feels a bit tainted. Not that you've been "duped", but there's a tinge of that to it. There's been plenty of times I've said fuck it to buying something because of this, since there's something more annoying about having to dig through your pockets for change when it's kind of a surprise.
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