$999.99

Why must prices end in fractions ? Some prices from the newspaper:
jeans 21.99,earrings 95.99, cookware 199.99, luggage 229.99, blazer 297.50, Sony 40 inch TV 1299.99, Armstrong flooring 2.49 per square foot, Malibu 14,998.09. Ever since I can remember, the price of gasoline has ended up with nine-tenths. Why not 1.82 instead of 181 9/10 ? I guess the thinking has been: $1.99 sounds less than $2, and it appears that the price has been cut to the lowest possible figure. But how much easier to calculate if prices were evened out to $10, $100 and $1,000 instead of $9.99, $99.99 and $999.99. And I suspect a lot of merchants would like to change.