99 Cents Only raises prices — still under $1, sort of
Posted by: in Marketing and AdvertisingFiled under: Marketing and advertising
In the face of rising commodities costs, 99 Cents Only Stores (NYSE: NDN) has been forced into raising prices — a difficult proposition given that the company’s founders didn’t take into account inflation when giving the company the name that has stuck with it for the past 26 years.
In a rambling press release, CEO Eric Schiffer announced that “In response to dramatically rising costs and inflation, 99¢ Only Stores(R) is forced to raise its price by almost one full penny to 99.99¢, which is still just below a dollar.”
Except that, no, it really isn’t because U.S. currency does not come in denominations of less than 1/100th of a penny, and 99 Cents Only Stores will be rounding up. Depending on how it calculates the rounding, consumers will have to buy either 50 or 100 products to realize the savings from the 99.99 cent price point versus the $1 one.
I comprehend that 99 Cents wants to stay true to the name/motto, but this is pretty lame. Why not just raise the price to $1 and not insult people’s intelligence by claiming that this is something other than that? It’s intellectually dishonest to say that 99.99 cents is different from $1, because nearly no one will spend enough in one visit to realize the savings.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Entries (RSS)