Derek Carver wrote:
> I have just received details of latest games from a major British
> stockist.  On it was a Rio Grande game that interested me.  Whilst the
> fact that the price for this US game was just about 50% higher than the
> game was being offered at in Germany didn't surprise me (we've all
> discussed this before on this site) what also struck me that every game
> on the list was so many pounds and 99p!
> 
> Who is it that sets these UK prices all ending in 99p?.  Is it Esdevium
> (or whoever is the main importer)?

It's hardly limited to games!

> Do other countries do the same thing?  

A quick look at Funagain suggests it's 95c rather than 99p, but the same
principle appears to apply.

> Or is there somebody somewhere
> who thinks that we Brits are so dim we won't realise that 99p is just
> 1p short of yet another £1!

While I assumed for many years it was just to make it sound smaller,
sort of, I've heard it suggested that the practice is a hangover from
those distant days when people bought things in bricks and mortar shops
and paid for them using cash.  The point of having a £10 item at £9.99
was to ensure that the sale went through the till to generate the 1p
change, rather than get pocketed by an underpaid sales assistant.

These days, I imagine it's easier to have one single SRP so there
wouldn't be a different "round" rate for mail order and credit cards etc.

> I don't know about anybody else but I somehow find this offensive.

It's so endemic in UK retail that you must end up taking a lot of
offence! ;-/

Pete.
-- 
Peter Clinch                    Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637   Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177              Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk     http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/