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Weekend


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March 7, 2003

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Looking at the restaurant menu, you note many prices ending in "99." Where are you? Next place you stop, the prices more often end in "00." Later -- maybe a lot later -- you see menu prices ending with an "8," never a "9" or a "4." That's odd. Where in the world are you now?

    A. Price endings of "99" are called "odd-pricing," or "just below pricing," commonly used in North America to connote price-discounting or bargain items, says Ohio State University hospitality management professor H. G. Parsa.


     
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