Dr. Carolyn Lee reflects on a different cliché each week. Recently, in her blog, Easy as Pie, Carolyn dives in to the world of baking pies and how difficult you can make it. This week Carolyn explores the cliché, A Penny Saved. 

Learn more about Dr. Carolyn Lee on her biography page or investigate 29 more clichés in her latest book, Keep Your Eye on the Ball And other Clichès to Live by. 

A Penny Saved

I put gas in my car this morning. It cost $2.89.9. That is two dollars eighty-nine and nine-tenths cents. I am curious about gas prices. Not about their being so high, but that they always deal in tenths of a cent. Would people refuse to buy gas if it were listed as $2.90? Do those people not know that $2.89.9 IS, in fact, $2.90? 

Go to Amazon.com. The latest best-selling paperback is on sale for $13.99. A men’s leather wallet costs $19.99. For $24.99 you can have a Fire TV Stick. And get this: a Rolex watch costs $19,999. Apparently, someone thinks that a guy who can afford a $19,999 watch would think twice before laying out 20,000 bucks! 

I read recently that over 60 per cent of prices end in the number 9. And that’s because of something called the “left digit effect.” Because we read from left to right, we tend to judge prices by the left digit. We look at a price like $19.99 and see it as $19, instead of a penny shy of $20. This doesn’t make any sense, of course, but retailers have done lots of research on the subject of pricing, and they have determined that consumers are far more likely to buy a product when the price on the tag ends in .99. We are conditioned to think 99 cents is a bargain, no matter how small the saving. People might not perceive much difference in value between items priced at $20 and $25. But drop the price by one penny, and they perceive a big difference between $19.99 and $24.99. 

When you realize that you’ve fallen for this hokum, you have to wonder what other merchandising maneuvers you’ve allowed to influence your purchasing behavior. I’ve willingly participated in a lot of them, even when I’ve suspected that some duping was going on. For instance, there’s the policy of “vanity sizing.” When I lost almost fifty pounds a few years ago, I discovered I could comfortably fit into a pair of size six jeans. Size Six?! Even though I felt certain that a size six was definitely a size or two larger than it had once been, I bought about a dozen pair of pants, just because they were not tens or twelves. Clothing manufacturers realize that fitting into a smaller size makes shoppers feel good, and shoppers who feel good are more likely to buy. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll fit into a four—and, boy, will that feel good! 

I’m a sucker for subscriptions. I pay for Netflix and Audible and HBO-Plus in spite of the fact that I rarely use them. Why not just cancel all of them? Well, I might use them in the future. And, besides, canceling the subscription seems like such a hassle. Netflix and Audible and HBO-Plus are counting on my being lazy and passive. The same principle applies to rebates. We are attracted to rebate offers. We intend to take advantage of them; we mean to apply for that rebate; it’s on our to-do list. BUT it doesn’t get done, and the seller wins. 

Have you noticed lately that, although a chicken nugget meal at Burger King costs the same as it used to, you now get eight nuggets instead of ten? Although the price on a box of cereal hasn’t changed, the size of the box has? Companies realize that consumers might be a bit sensitive to prices these days, so they keep the prices the same and change the product itself. 

Ever wonder why free samples are such a big deal at Costco? Is our favorite warehouse club just feeling generous and altruistic? No, the idea, of course, is that you might be so grateful for the free sample that you’ll buy the product. Or that you might even feel guilty if you don’t repay the club’s kindness by purchasing the Cauliflower Crust Pizza or the Strawberry Mango Yogurt. 

Recently, at my local grocery store, both fresh pineapples and cantaloupes were on sale—“Buy two get three free.” What? Who in the world wants five pineapples? Who needs five cantaloupes? There’s nothing wrong with the BOGO (Buy One Get One) offers—except that one often ends up with far more of the product than she actually needs. That “free” thing is just so attractive it’s very hard to pass up. Just ask my sister, who now has a storage closet full of toilet paper and a lifetime supply of Diet Coke. 

Here’s one I never even thought of until I read about it recently. Marketing experts say that a customer who pushes around a large grocery cart buys as much as 40% more than she would if she chose a smaller cart. Apparently, it embarrasses us to approach the checkout counter with only a couple of items in our large cart. I hate to admit it, but I think I’ve picked up a few more items for that very reason.  

I doubt that my purchasing behavior is going to change all that much now that I have become savvier about the tricks of the selling trade. I know I wouldn’t hesitate to lay out $99.99 for a pair of size four jeans if I could just squeeze into them. 

Want to Read More?

Check out Dr. Carolyn Lee’s blogs on her website, she features a new cliché each week or you can order her new book, Keep Your Eye on the Ball And Other Clichès to Live By. Want to know more about the woman behind the words? Read more about Carolyn here. We hope you enjoyed this article learning more about the cliché, A Penny Saved.