[Jianghong94]

> Probability of a transaction resulting in value v is uniform from [0,99].

in reality, most of the transactions that use coins end up conforming to common existing coin combinations e.g. laundromats in US mostly price as multiples of quarters ($0.25)

[crazygringo]

The article isn't about transactions that use coins but transactions that return coins.

If you go to the grocery store and buy 8 or 12 items then the distribution of change will actually be pretty uniform.

Just a single item sold by weight will do it. But also so many prices like $3.19 or $2.59 will mix up the second-to-last digit of your total, and your total item count mixes up the last digit.

Not to mention the items which get sales tax applied further scramble any pattern that might have existed previously.

Laundromats seem like more of the exception then the rule. Besides vending machines, I can't think of any other service priced evenly in coins -- especially after sales tax.

[hgomersall]

This makes the rest of analysis irrelevant. Kind of like most mainstream economics, where they start from some convenient but wrong assumptions, then build an edifice on top of those and make strong statements inferred from said edifice.

[throwuxiytayq]

The $X.99 price thing should be forbidden and I'm deeply disappointed in humanity/customerity that we don't shun them and refuse to deal with them

[ThinkingGuy]

I'd rather we outlaw the ridiculous "and 9/10 cents" that is appended to every single gasoline price in the US, and that everyone ignores when reading.

[brg]

Funny enough it is there because of the tax law, not in lieu of it.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/06/14/energy/why-gas-prices-fra...

[kijin]

It's even uglier in jurisdictions where sales tax is not included in the $X.99 price tag. The total amount you need to pay becomes something like $X+1.07 and you end up with a lot of of unexpected change.

Edit: In the example, I meant X+1 dollars and 7 cents. Apologies for the ambiguous formula, it felt awkward to use parentheses inside of an amount.

[_hl_]

This certainly contributed to people preferring card over cash, making merchants loose ~3% per transaction.

That ship has long sailed, but it does male you wonder: if everything was priced at increments of, say, quarters, would enough people still use cash to offset the lost sales from the allegedly less appealing pricing?

[NeoTar]

> making merchants lose ~3% per transaction

Cash also has costs - mistakes in making change, forgeries, time to count/cash up, time to visit banks for cash deposit and/or getting change, theft - it’s been estimated that these can easily exceed any costs of handling credit/debit cards.

[TrueSlacker0]

I run a business with lots of daily transactions. The cost of balancing cash drawers, getting change, making deposits and balancing those activities in accounting, all totalled, is still cheaper than to pay the credit card fees. Also it's kind of a fixed set of time regardless of how much cash it is. So more cash is more savings but there is definitely a point where if the cash amount gets to low it would be cheaper to go all card.

I think that cheaper propaganda is probably from theft in mostly places that hire minimum wage workers and treat them like slaves.

[brg]

Could you elaborate? I have many years experience running a gas station. For five daily’s employees, handlung cash is about 4 hours labor a day. This is counting the till prior and after shift, validating voids and receipts, handling checks, cashiers checks, and bagging and dropping the cash. With cash there is always slippage, and it is never in the ledgers favor. So cash increases labor costs by 10% and incurs about 1% direct loss a day, prior to bank fees. Where as credit cards end up being about a 2.5% overhead.

[Two4]

Cash indeed has a high handling cost. In my country and many others, withdrawing cash at the supermarket teller with your card is free (as in no ATM fees) because it reduces the amount of cash handled and transported by branches. They'd rather eat the cost of a card transaction than pay cash handling costs.

[ta1243]

It's been estimated by card companies that these are higher.

[arrowsmith]

Card companies say that cards are better? Who'd have guessed.

[mitthrowaway2]

I don't know, but I find I use cash much more readily when the price includes tax, because I can confirm ahead of time that the cash in my wallet is enough without breaking a 20 for a pile of coins.

[jagged-chisel]

$X * 1.07, or $X + 7% (of $X)

[tshaddox]

I mean, the x.99 prices make more sense in places like the U.S. where state and local sales tax cause the final prices to be somewhat unpredictable anyway. It would be weird to advertise $9.99 when you know that that’s going to be the final price.

[NeoTar]

It happens in Europe where we have inclusive pricing in almost all, if not every nation.

(apart from very rare circumstances like bottle deposit costs (which are refundable) not being included)

[sigio]

At least the bottle deposits (€0.15 or €0.25) are listed with tax included and can be payed with 2 coins (10+5 or 20+5)

[janalsncm]

That would be a reasonable argument if sales tax fluctuated more often than the prices of goods. In reality, it’s the other way around.

[copperx]

At the very least there should be a browser extension that round up all prices ending in .99.

[grecy]

Humanity did shun it and get rid of it in nearly every country.

The US must be one of the last that still has the stupid penny

[blitzar]

I'm deeply disappointed in humanity/customerity that it works.

It doesn't even cost $X+1 - it must be a bargain.