Enough with the 9's
Yesterday, I was checking out at one of the self-checkout stations at the local Giant Eagle. Their self-checkout stations announce the price of each item as you scan each one: “one, ninety-nine”, “two fifty-nine”, “three ninety-nine”, “one nineteen”, “three, o’nine”, and so on, until the computer-voiced “nine” almost lost its meaning in my head. Is that even English?
Anyway, I really think we can dispense with the nines. I’d bet that not many people are fooled by this not-really-so-clever-anymore marketing device. Please just round up. I’ll pay “four” instead of “three ninety-nine” without complaining, and I’ll probably make it through the self-checkout a little faster with my sanity intact.
While we’re on the subject, gas stations seem to me to be doubly preposterous. “Two eighty-nine and nine tenths” for a gallon of gas (as of the time of this post, probably higher by the time you read it!). Nine-tenths. I don’t think it’s fooling anyone, anymore. I don’t really feel like I’m paying anything less than $2.90. Please just round up. Really, keep my extra tenth. Heck, you can even keep the extra fifteen hundredths I usually, uh, save when I fully fill the tank in my car.
1 comment:
That article is pretty funny. Both sides basically use the argument "who cares". Who cares if it's $3.999 or $4.00? If no one cares on either side, why not just make it $4.00? That's probably too logical for politics.
The retort of "no one buys just one gallon of gas" is pretty entertaining too, since not only can't you buy one gallon, you also can't buy two, or three, or four, or five, etc. etc. In fact, by their own logic, the only amounts of gas you can actually buy without getting scammed out of some tenths are multiples of 10! Silliness.
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