商品價格以 .99結尾，讓你覺得價格更低
The Reason So Many Prices End in .99
爲什麼商品價格都以”.99”結尾
With chip readers, auto-reload apps, and one-click online purchasing, it's only too easy to buy something without fully registering how much it costs. That said, even if you're not counting out nickels and dimes for the cashier these days, you've probably still noticed how often prices end in .99.
隨着芯片閱讀器、自動加載APP和一鍵在線購買的誕生，人們很容易就能買到東西，而不需要完全記錄到它的價格。也就是說，即使如今你不用數五分和一角的硬幣給收銀員，你可能仍會注意到價格經常以”.99”結尾。
Maybe you assumed it had something to do with tax laws, or else it was a leftover practice from decades ago, when things cost less and pennies mattered more. In fact, it's actually a clever psychological tool that tricks your brain into thinking the price of an item is lower.
也許你認爲這與稅法有關，或者這是幾十年前留下的傳統，那時東西更便宜，幾分錢也顯得很重要。事實上，它是一種巧妙的心理工具，讓你的大腦認爲一件商品的價格更低。
“Because we read from left to right, we pay less attention to the end of the number versus the beginning,” consumer analyst Julie Ramhold told Reader's Digest. So, for example, your mind will interpret $9.99 as $9, though it's obviously much closer to $10.
的消費者分析師Julie Ramhold在接受《讀者文摘》採訪時說：“因爲我們習慣從左往右閱讀，所以我們對數字結尾的關注要少於數字開頭。”例如，你會把9.99美元理解爲9美元，儘管它顯然更接近10美元。
Just one dollar's difference might not seem like enough to drastically affect your decision on whether to buy something, but it can push an item into a lower price range—and that's enough to make your mind think it costs significantly less. To your subconscious brain, a one-digit price like $9 seems a lot cheaper than a two-digit price like $10.
僅僅一美元的區別似乎不足以徹底影響你決定是否購買某樣東西，但它可以把一件商品歸於一個更低的價格區間——這足以讓你認爲它的成本明顯更低。在你的潛意識裏，9美元這樣的一位數價格似乎比10美元這樣的兩位數價格便宜得多。
Though ending prices in 9 might be the norm, there is a fair amount of variation when it comes to retailers' pricing tactics. Live Science reports that because we often perceive a price ending in 9 as a cheap deal, some stores—like and Ralph Lauren—save the nines for their sale items, and use numbers ending in 0 for their full-priced items, giving the impression that those items are high-quality. Thrift stores, on the other hand, often use whole numbers for all their products.
雖然以9結尾的價格可能是一種常態，但在零售商的定價策略上存在相當大的差異。Live Science報道說，因爲我們經常認爲以9結尾的價格是便宜貨，一些商店如和Ralph Lauren常把以9結尾的價格留作特價商品，全價商品的價格以0結尾，給人以高質量的印象。另外，二手商店的所有商品的價格通常都是整數。
翻譯：MS小冰晶
