Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/25/why-gas-prices-are-always-fractions-of-a-cent.html
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There are few industry sectors that show as much contempt for consumers as that related to automobiles. From end to end, they’re always finding ways to nickel-and-dime (and fraction-of-a-penny) their customers.
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Isn’t this implying that there are gas stations that don’t have the fractional system? Or that there are ones that use some different fraction other than 9/10?
From a consumer perspective, does it really matter? If I put in 15 gallons with a difference of 1/10 of a cent, or even 1 cent, that’s costing me 1.5 to 15 cents more. When gas is averaging $3.60 a gallon, that’s only saving/costing me about 5 ounces of gas, which at 28mpg is a little over 1 mile (that is based on the 1 cent difference, at a fractional point it is costing less than one mile of driving per tank).
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It’s a case of spreading a minor harm across a hundreds million people, and consolidating the benefits into a few dozen hands. You’re down $0.15 each. They’re collectively up $14,900,000.
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That’s up to the person pumping. If the cost is 3 cents cheaper at one station versus another, then it is up to the person getting gas to decide. If the difference is 3/10 of a cent and the stations are side by side then it is basically a race to the bottom. Eventually they both become 9/10 of a cent on the penny because of the whole psychological aspect of it, so you still end up where it is now.
Point being, 9/10 fractional gas prices are rooted in historical context when gas was super cheap and a penny was worth far more than the copper it was made out of. The human aspect is exactly the same as $0.99, $99, or even $9,999 - it’s not that next scary number I don’t want to spend.
Personally I think prices should be whole or easy fractions and taxes should be simple. That or go VAT style and include it all in the price. NC has a sales tax that varies by county from 6.75% to 7.5%, which makes calculating a final price a royal pain in the rear.
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Yeah well, I just avoid all those maths by going to the one where quarts are still a buck two eighty. 
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That’s working from the assumption that the real price is the one without the 0.009. (also that none of it goes to the thousands of gas station owners) Why should that price be the real one and not the one 0.001 higher? Why should there be one real price at all and not just something like supply/demand curves having weird little discontinuities around round numbers?
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This. The 9/10 is mildly annoying, but in reality it’s likely saving us money. If a law were passed that made the practice illegal, it’s almost certain that the price would go up 1/10 of a cent, not down 9/10 of a cent.
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[ from Here's How Much Gasoline the Average American Consumes Annually | The Motley Fool ]
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Americans consumed 140.43 billion gallons of gasoline in 2015, or about 384.74 million gallons each day.
I’m not talking about individual decisions, whether to fill up with gas that costs $3.199 or $3.19. I’m talking about the bonus $1.2B generated annually by that 9⁄10 symbol.
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This makes no sense to me. How is money generated or stolen by having a fractional cent? Are we making some assumptions about what happens when the price is rounded? Is it always rounded up? If that’s the case then the stolen funds are some fraction of a cent (average of 0.5c) per transaction. This is bad but not nearly as bad as some seem to be implying.
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Another assumption seems to be that 349.9 should actually be 349 instead of 350. Consider instead that you are getting a 0.1c discount instead of being overcharged by 0.9c.
In my mind it’s just the same BS marketing ploy that results in other prices ending in 99 and is manipulative but not theft. Do you buy different amounts of fuel based on this fraction or is it just a way for different vendors to try to maneuver around each other? The edge for a seller is to get your business instead of another seller rather than sell you more fuel.
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This! I don’t see how it’s ripping consumers off, at all. You’re still getting what you pay for. Comparison shopping based on price is the only thing this affects, and because every single station does this it has essentially no effect.
This doesn’t seem… accurate. There is no discount for knowing the exact amount you’re paying per gallon vs an approximate amount per gallon (the one in your head that doesn’t include the extra .9, whether you rounded up or down). You’re still getting the amount you pay for at the agreed upon price. Whether you are the sort to plunk down a set amount of money or ask for a set amount of gas, the only possible way to save money is… find a cheaper gas station.
Now I am curious what happens to the actual fractions of cents, i.e. if I pump 5.9428348 gallons and the math comes out to $20.436854387 cents, do I get charged 20.43 or 20.44 and if I’m charged 20.44 who is pocketing the extra gas I paid for but didn’t take.
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Why gas prices are always fractions of a cent
I’m sorry, but …well, DUH!
Canadian gas stations seem to subscribe to a different rule. Last night I checked the Gas Buddy app and it showed me local prices of 171.2, 171.5 and 171.8 per litre.
So still doing the fractional thing but not following the rule of nines.
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So in this example, your gas costs $3.438906696/gal or 0.290790094 gal/$ = 0.00290790094 gal/cent = 0.37221132 oz/cent.
Mr. DOUGLAS: No, we’re talking about on a five gallon test that we run, and this is standard within the weights and measures community., we do a five gallon test measure. They’re allowed an error of six cubic inches, and that translates into something just under a half a cup of gasoline on five gallons. So we’re not talking about a whole lot.
So it’s below the tolerance on the pump’s mechanism.
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