They have no cents
Last weekend we were shopping in Curry’s electical goods store in Limerick and we bought a packet of printer paper priced at 4.99 . When we went to pay we handed over a 5 euro note and were informed by the cashier that she had no 1 cent coins in the till.
That’s what you get when you round down the price of everything in your store to the nearest 99 cents.
This rounding down technique is supposed to be a psychological tool to make customers think that they are getting something for a lot cheaper then it really is e.g. 4.99 is supposed to sound alot cheaper than 5 euro .
In Ireland we’ve taken it one step further. Now it seems that 4.99 is equal to 5 euro, at least as far as Curry’s is concerned. The cashier made no attempt to compensate us for our loss, she just shrugged her shoulders and looked at us until we walked off, two more compliant suckers to add to the pile of post-Celtic Tiger Irish consumers.
Mark Waters marked time at 1:01 am on October 6th, 2004 .
