[cyode]

What do you mean by “the decimal value of the price can even determine if the item is being phased out” ?

[ewoodrich]

Costco uses a convention for their retail (doesn’t work for by-weight) products where e.g .97 typically means it’s a limited run or to be discontinued.

There are others as well, they have more precise meaning for their internal procurement processes but that’s the customer facing rule of thumb.