Who's the idiot that came up with having to price gasoline with the /tenth of a penny added? And WHY?

Answer 1

Great question -- my guess is taxes imposed by government.

Answer 2

Well ... sorry, I can't tell WHO that idiot was, but I can sure tell you WHY:
Even if you run a small car, you never really buy only one gallon of gasoline, right? With the tenth gallon, there you go paying that extra penny; with 100 gallons (trucks, for example, have BIG tanks!), that remote didgit adds up to 10p per customer! Not a big deal? Now think how many customers there are at "your" gas station each and every day, then keep in mind it's most likely not the only gas station of this brand in your country ... or this world! So, all these digits add up to a pretty impressive amount! The advantage of this 1/10 of a penny for us, the customer, is that if we keep in mind that we never really buy just one gallon of the precious stuff, and we compare prices true to the digit, we can save QUITE some money, after all!
Hope this may bring some light into the issue; have a nice weekend!

Answer 3

Exactly when and where the tenth cent pricing practice was first used to set the cost of a gallon of gasoline has been difficult to determine. Requests for information on this subject addressed to the major oil companies and to the many petroleum marketing associations, with one exception, were not helpful. A response from the Customer Relations Department of Mobil Oil Corporation suggested that tenth cent pricing probably started no earlier than the late 1920s and early 1930s.

An Iowa law, effective June of 1985 (Omaha World-Herald, 1985), mandated whole-cent prices for gasoline sold in that state, thus eliminating the long-standing practice of adding 9/10 cent to the price of a gallon of gasoline. The new law was well received by Iowa motorists; however, four years later in May of 1989 (Omaha World-Herald, 1989) through some legislative sleight of hand, an amendment reinstating the 9/10 cent gasoline pricing practice was attached to a bill making wording changes in state law. The amendment was not debated in the Senate before attachment to the code-change bill and neither the Iowa Attorney General's office nor the Iowa Department of Weights & Measures was involved in the law change. One lawmaker said that the change had been 'sneaked' through the Legislature and that he would work to repeal it; however, whole-cent pricing of gasoline was never again enacted into law in the state of Iowa.

The addition of 9/10 cent to the price of a gallon of gasoline makes impossible the purchase of one gallon of gasoline at the advertised price.

Answer 4

The only thing I can think of is that when the convention started a tenth of a cent per gallon was a significant percent of the price, but with today's prices jumping up and down by 30 to 50 cents from week to week that tenth of a cent thing seems kind of silly.

I do notice that the gas stations play the psychological pricing game though. For some reason 2.90 feels like more than 2.899 and 3.00 feels like more than 2.999.

Answer 5

Think about millions of pennies and how it adds up. It's like pricing something at $x.99. We only look at the larger whole # when looking for the lowest price. Kind of like that movie Office Space where they divert all that money by diverting the pennies.They have to round up the price to nearest whole cent when you pay, so someone gets to line their pockets.

Answer 6

I believe it is part of the Federal Tax, the idea is that you read that gas is what 2.899 now and say it is 2.89 as oppose to it just saying 2.90. See Americans are stupid and ignore that last number when they read it so it looks a cent cheaper by making it a 9/10 cent as oppose to a whole cent.

Answer 7

The person who needs to make a living to feed his family.

Answer 8

sales marketing. get you to pay an extra penny and making you think your not paying it.