Menus dropping the currency symbol

[srhcb]

It's like some sort of IQ test of the lowest order, and yet I run across people who fail it on a regular basis.

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I'm sure every occupation has stories about clueless customers/clients.

Often, in several completely different businesses, I've become so frustrated trying to decipher a customer's intent that I've resorted to; "Let's go back to the very beginning. The sun comes up in the morning ...."

When I'm still met with that "deer in ther headlights" stare , I add, "The sun is that big, round yellow thing, and up is ^ that way?"

SB (Then again, when my computer malfunctions, the shoe is on the other foot. )

Edited May 29, 2006 by srhcb (log)

[Shalmanese]

My completely WAG is the whole .95/.99 phenomena has been associated with down market and "bargain" places. To me, things priced in nice solid numbers just have a more high quality, no-nonsense feel about them to me, but also a sense that your paying a premium for the quality. Think about something priced at $24.99 vs $25. One feels like your buying it from an infomercial, the other feels like your buying a solid piece of hardware which you could pick up almost the equivilant for at Walmart for $10.99.

Thus, lopping the ends of numbers gives your menu a slightly upmarket "if you need to look at the prices you shouldn't be eating here but we'll give them to you anyway" sort of feel.

[srhcb]

My completely WAG is the whole .95/.99 phenomena has been associated with down market and "bargain" places. .... Thus, lopping the ends of numbers gives your menu a slightly upmarket "if you need to look at the prices you shouldn't be eating here but we'll give them to you anyway" sort of feel.

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We can apply the theory of menu item "down market" prices being displayed in odd amounts to "trick" consumers, with "upmarket" products being rounded off in a more forthright fashion to another well known product. For this product, which in it's various forms costs approximately 5,000 times a good menu entree, the break point appears to be right around $130,000.

2007 Mercedes Benz MSRP, (including destination charges):

2007 SL550 RWD 2-Dr Roadster V8 $94,800

2007 SL55 AMG RWD 2-Dr Roadster V8 $128,800

2007 SL600 RWD 2-Dr Roadster V12 $132,000

2007 SL65 AMG RWD 2-Dr Roadster V12 $186,000

$130,000/5,000 = $26 (decimal eliminated by me)

This seems surprisingly close to being conguous with the menu item pricing theory?

SB (included the "$" because Mercedes Benz does)

[Shalmanese]

btw: some newspaper listings here take it a step further and list houses with only their thousands.

eg: 3br 1 bath, 123 Fake St - 561

[MarketStEl]

btw: some newspaper listings here take it a step further and list houses with only their thousands.

eg: 3br 1 bath, 123 Fake St - 561

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I would be confused by this. I understand why this is done--classified advertising is priced by the line, and any shorthand that gets the line count down saves the advertiser money--but I would at least put a K after the number to clue the reader in that he wasn't getting a ramshackle shack (which even then would probably fetch a price higher than $561).

Yes, maybe people ought to be smart enough to infer by its mere placement at the end of a menu description that an unadorned number is a price, but I see no reason not to add the visual cue of the dollar sign, at least for the first entry in the list.

Now if a restaurant had menu copy where the price was printed as "$25 dollars"--which I have seen in print--that would drive me up a wall.

[tryska]

Doesn't Houstons do this?

I could have sworn they did, but maybe i'm wrong.

This isn't the first i've seen it on menus tho.

[Lan4Dawg]

I was dining w/ a small group at a restaurant w/ the $0.99 syndrome. I mentioned a menu item that looked interesting and some one said, "that sounds good; how much is it?" I responded, "Six dollars" to which the waitress replied, "No! it is five ninety-nine!" much to the amusement of every one at the table.

(btw, SuzySushi was correct. It was actually James Cash Penny who first developed the idea of forcing cashiers to go in to the register to get the penny. That is also why registers have bells)