If gasoline is selling for $2.99 and 9/10 of a cent per gallon, and I give the cashier $3.00, how do I get my change of 1 tenth of a cent? Are there any gas stations that don't charge tenths of a cent in their prices?
One possible answer is to rethink what this price actually means.It doesn’t mean one gallon costs $2.999. It means one gallon costs $3 but once you buy 10 gallons, you get a one-cent discount.While I’m not sure how pricing laws work in America (because you still have pennies), in Australia we have specific rules around what prices mean.Note: Australia’s smallest cash denomination is $0.05, or five cents.So, $2.99 means $3. The retailer is allowed to charge you $3 and you are not entitled to any change. Weird perhaps, but because everyone (supposedly) knows this, when you see something labelled “$2.99” you know it’s going to cost you $3……unless you buy five of them, in which case it will only cost you $14.95, not $15.Brain curdled yet? How about this: FOUR items at $2.99 will cost you $11.95, and THREE items at $2.99 will cost you $8.95, but TWO items at $2.99 will cost you $6.Why? Because if the cents-cost is 96 or 97, the retailer must round-down to 95. If the cents cost is 98 or 99, they may round up to the next dollar.(Inclusive of all possible prices: 8, 9, 1, and 2 go to 0. And 3, 4, 6, and 7 go to 5.)Again, this is mostly because we no longer have a one or two cent piece. Our smallest coin is five cents. Of course, if you pay electronically, such as with a credit card, you will be debited $5.98, $8.97 or $11.96 exactly.In Australia, all “petrol” (gas) prices at major service stations, are listed one cent per litre less than what they actually cost, because a 1.57 price is really 1.579. Which will be rounded-up to 1.58 unless I buy an amount that ends up rounding in my favour: for instance, 46 litres ($1.58 * 46 = $72.68 rounds up to $72.70. $1.579 * 46 = $72.634 rounds up to $72.65).This whole business of pricing a $3 product at $2.99 because that actually helps it sell more is a bizarre aspect of human psychology.It’s also probably a significant part of why America insists on keeping its ridiculous pennies.