• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: If You Think 9-Ending Prices Are Low, Think Again
  • Contributor: Snir, Avichai [Author]; Levy, Daniel [Author]
  • Published: Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Kiel, Hamburg: ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, 2021
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2378-1823
  • Keywords: L81 ; Behavioral Pricing ; Image Effect ; Price Points ; L11 ; E31 ; Psychological Prices ; D22 ; M31 ; D91 ; D90 ; D40 ; 9-Ending Prices ; Price Perception ; L16 ; D12 ; Regular Prices ; Sale Prices ; M30
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  • Description: 9-ending prices, which comprise between 40%–95% of retail prices, are popular because shoppers perceive them as being low. We study whether this belief is justified using scanner price-data with over 98-million observations from a large US grocery-chain. We find that 9-ending prices are higher than non 9-ending prices, by as much as 18%. Two factors explain why shoppers believe, mistakenly, that 9-ending prices are low. First, we find that among sale-prices, 9-ending prices are indeed lower than non 9-ending prices, giving 9-ending prices an aura of being low. Second, at first, 9-ending prices were indeed lower than other prices. Shoppers, therefore, learned to associate 9-endings with low prices. Over time, however, 9-ending prices rose substantially, which shoppers failed to notice, because the continuous use of 9-ending prices for promoting deep price cuts draws shoppers’ attention to them, and helps to maintain-and-preserve the image of 9-ending prices as bargain prices. ; Special Issue on Behavioral Pricing
  • Access State: Open Access