The shrewdest and longest advertising ploy in world history. Plays off the fact that the human brain interprets 99 cents as being significantly less than one dollar, and it's been proven that vendors can lower their prices by that one penny and show a statistically significant increase in demand.

Gas stations take this to a high new level, as that "9" in the corner of the price on the billboard that no one seems to know the meaning of actually means nine-tenths of a penny.

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