The way they cover this is once you are in the store, some signs have the fine print where it’s not really 99 cents, it’s 99.99 cents. When you get to the cash register however the screen indicates that they are rounding the 99.99 cents up to a dollar, so it’s not really even 99.99 cents. It is actually $1.00.
When a store uses 99 cents as it’s identity stating that you will never pay more and 99 cents for anything and then you end up paying a dollar, that’s more than just a 1 cent fib. It makes the whole premise of your business model a lie. It makes your identity a lie. It makes your brand a lie. That’s a big lie. It takes the magic out of the 99 cent name. And once the magic is gone then you realize that you probably could get the same item at Walmart or Costco for even less.
So Dvorak/blog readers – How do you feel about paying a buck at the 99 cent store? Do you think they are being smart about this by milking the customer for that extra penny at the expense of their very identity?
I agree with conrack. If I gave a flying flip about Pickelboy, I’d find his blog. From now on I’m bookmarking the URL below and screw the rest of those assholes whom Dvorak syndicates on here.
http://dvorak.org/blog/author/site-admin/
If you visited the local Dollar stores here you’d probably explode on the spot. Here in Israel there are so called “Dollar stores” but the prices are in Shekels and they use an exchange rate of five Shekels to a Dollar. This was about right six or seven years ago, but now it’s 3.7 shekels to a dollar so a Dollar store item costs about 1.35 Dollars.
To top it all off they introduced $2 and $3 items, again with the bogus exchange rate, so they pretty much threw the entire concept out the window.
There are a lot of things like that!
Round Table Pizza? WTF is the round table?
United States of America? United?
Clean Coal? clean?
Renewable Power?
Global Warming?
World Series?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Its a god damn penny. Didn’t anyone ever tell you life is not fair? Get over it.
Oh Maaaan!!! Your post is vexing my brain Maaaan!
Could we please have something a little less high-brow and intellectual? Your doing my head in Maaaan!
http://tinyurl.com/6efmnk
Er, uh, scratch that last post, corrected:
and theose .99 cent items are made with 100% toxic waste, from china!
hhhmmmm cant get anymore american than that1
oh and all of you who dont want those pennies, i’LL TAKE THEM!!
just sent them to me care of this station.
Soupy Sales
I don’t know what all the fuss is about? I got a “Million Dollar Bar” at the local AmPm and only paid $1.25. With discounts like that, why should we quibble about a extra penny?
David Gold, the Chairman and founder of the store, is as big a lib/leftist as they come. So when you see you are getting ripped off, let it be known it’s by a company that embraces far left ideas and supports the Democrat Party.
#37 : Great find!
Right on George- #31
This business of having all these nobodies posting makes the whole premise of the **DVORAK** UNCENSORED model a lie. It makes your identity a lie. It makes your brand a lie. That’s just a big god damn lie. It REALLY takes the magic out of the **DVORAK** name. And once the magic is gone then you realize that you probably could get the same items at Walt Mossberg or Howard Stern for even less hypocrisy.
I fixed the logo to match the contents of this “Dvorak” blog,
The store founders political ideals say what exactly about liberals in general?
# 32, Michael,
The urge to say something anti-semitic for the sake of trolling is so alluring…
You live on a planet where men get breast cancer,
Hawaii has in interstate highway and Allstate
insurance isn’t in all states.
Deal.
When I was your age, I didn’t shop at 99cent stores – I lived. So, move out of your parent’s basements, get your own apartments. And grow the hell up!
Marc grow the f**K UP. sTOP BITCHING AND PAY THE DAMNED PENNY. lIFE IS NOT THAT BAD THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT!!!!!!!!! Do you bitch at well nevr mind this is Perkel I am taling about of course he is going to bitch.
I fixed the logo to match the contents of this “Dvorak” blog,
There goes my idea of a 99 cent coin.
I feel Marc is right on the money! BTW what ever happened to your new phone and your squirrel? Marc is clearly the best at posting original thoughts, and the only poster willing to post articles found on this site already!
The squirrel either ran off or became cat food. Not sure which but he vanished months ago. I still love my Droid. And it just keeps getting better.
Everyone know its a buck. All the dollar store names were taken.
My pet irritation is our local ” Dollar Store +”. All the prices are outrageous but the owner says, “Hey, the sign says “+”
RBG
Not only are they retaining the cent, they are avoiding the costs associated with handling all those pennies. I call double-dipping: class action, anyone?
It’s my theory that the human brain can’t process the number or quantity 9. Instead we perceive it’s zero or a null value. So “$2.99” appears to be just a two dollar price, rather than three. The curly nines almost look like zeros too. If they passed a law that said the number 9 couldn’t be used as a “placeholder” in prices, the merchants would have a fit! They never quote lottery winnings in anything but ones and zeros. But price a car or RV, and there you’ll see a string of nines.
Most of what is sold at “dollar” stores, is either discontinued or unsaleable goods, from other chains. Or is goods especially “sized” down to the dollar price. I’ve seen Baby Ruth packs go from ten bite size bars, to only eight now. And other brand name candy bars disappeared completely from the shelves, in the past two years. No more Hersey bars at the Dollar Tree. In fact a four ounce size of any candy, seems to be today’s limit for a Dollar.
But occasionally a true bargain does show up. Like a movie DVD, I got for a buck, that still sells for seven bucks online. It had to be a mistake. Some video store’s stock, that got dumped when it closed down, I’m guessing.
In case you were wondering. The DVD was “Thunderbird 6”, in perfect unopened condition. I wish I could find another one for my nephew. Supermarionation for a buck? Hell yes!
This isn’t the only deceit in advertising, I’ve noticed. Our local Fox Tv affiliate has taken to reporting my county’s weather, by dividing it in two. A northern and southern half. But they have yet to report any storm warnings that apply to only one and not both. And it’s the only county in my state they’ve divided. My theory is that they didn’t like it being listed almost first, in the list of counties. Causing us to “tune out”, the second it appears. So by making it into a “Northern” and “Southern” half, it appears well after most of the other counties get mentioned.
Thus, one is forced to watch the damn weather warning marquee longer than necessary. It’s no more populous or larger a county as any of the others. So I can see no other reason to chop it in two. And which half gets the City (in the middle)? I think they forgot about that. They basically “99 cent”d my county, as some lame anti-channel surfing strategy. So much for news reporting integrity. It’s always the damn “bottom line” they worry about.
I agree with you Marc.Why do they advertise their company as the .99 cent store and charge a whole dollar?When you go to the supermarket and the item is priced at .99 cents unless it is a taxable item you pay only .99 cents.If you purchase 5 items for .99 cents you only pay $4.95 not five whole bucks.If this happened at the supermarket people would complain so what makes it ok for the .99 cent store to charge their customers a whole dollar instead of .99 cents after all its only a penny per dollar but hey it is my penny that I get up every morning and work for.I guess the best thing to do is stop shopping at the .99 cent store huh.You can always find good sales at the regular stores.
I think they need a name change and come clean with the dollar charge on items. How about 1 Dollar Only.