Just had to throw in something about a truly excellent pricing structure, for FlexPDE software by PDESolutions. This is software for solving partial differential equations for field variables by the finite element method, and it’s used mostly by scientists and engineers. Their price for n licenses is Kn^(3/4). You just gotta love that!
Recently at Checkers or Rallys they had something like a chili cheeseburger for 99 cents. I asked for it without the chili (in essence, a cheesburger). They said no, without the chili it is a cheeseburger, and would cost the cheeseburger price, 1.29 or so. But you are coming out ahead, becasue the chili costs money, and I am saving you that few cents of chili, I said, but my logic was ignored.
Does iTunes charge 99cents per song, regardless of length? The Russian Mafia charges per size. So with iTunes, downloading the Beatles “Yesterday” costs the same as the album version of “Autobahn”?
Yep, i can’t understand h2O pricing. from the City, it costs about $0.02/gallon (this inldes the sewage charge). If you buy a barnded water, its about $0.25/liter. If you buy some imp[orted stuff 9like Perrier) you can pay $1.25/liter. and really fancy water (from melted Norwegian glacier ice0 will set you back $3.99/liter. And its all the same stuff-cept some of the insanely expensive european stuff also tastes TERRIBLE (like san pellegrino). all of it winds up in your toilet, within 2 hours of drinking it.
Gasoline ($2.11/gallon0 is a bargain by comparison.
I sure I would love that…if I understood it! 
Earlier this year, I went to a Jeep dealership to pick up some parts for my father. Some kids had busted out the tail-light on the passenger side, so that needed the little cover replaced, and he wanted a couple other things. I asked the guy at the counter for a cover for the tail-light, and he showed me in the book to be sure he knew what I wanted. It was exactly what I wanted, and he said it would be $80 (or some other outrageous price) - I showed him on the next page that they sold the whole tail-light (not just the little cover) for $50 some, but he said I couldn’t order that, because I’d asked for a cover.
I got mad. There were no other employees there, so I left. The next day, we got the cover at another dealership for less than $40, and that guy made it very clear to us that we had no reason to come back to that first dealership no matter what.
Brendon
Sexism in the pricing of dry cleaning…actually, I’m fine with it, but it drives my wife insane…
Men’s dress shirt - $0.99
Women’s dress shirt - $1.97
Men’s slacks - $2.49
Women’s slacks - $3.99
Pricing is my current professional expertise. I understand why pricing is the way it is, even if it doesn’t make sense to the customer/consumer, usually. But this one I can’t figure out.
The price of hair cuts, also oddly gender skewed.
If it were a style thing, I could understand it. But I have very long, one length hair. I brush it, you spray it, make three to five cuts across the bottom in the back, and it’s done. Literally takes less than 10 minutes. Yet I’m asked to pay $30 or more because I have a vagina, while Mr. Layered-on-the-top-number-2-clippers-in-the-back-and-leave-a-little-more-length-on-the-sides is there three times as long and charged $10. WTF?
Ah, welcome to the wonderful world of price discrimination. Businesses know that women are willing to spend more on haircuts and dry cleaning, so they charge women more. This is also the reason for student discounts – students aren’t willing to pay as much, so businesses charge them less to get more business.
Ugh, dry cleaning is the worst. I hardly ever get things dry cleaned or professionally laundered, but it always strikes me as blatant opportunistic pricing in the worst way.
My wedding dress was a custom made gorgeous thing made out of dark blue satin–not your traditional wedding dress, but definitely an intricate formal gown. I wanted to have it pressed the day before the wedding, so I called around to a couple shops. The conversation(s) went something like this:
Me: Hi, what’s your price for steaming or pressing a wedding gown?
Dry Cleaning Lady: $120
Me: !
Me: Okay, thanks.
<hang up, consider this, wait a few seconds>
Me: Hi, what’s your price for steaming or pressing a formal gown?
DCL: $10.50
Me: I’ll be right over
This is true for almost everything connected with weddings, by the way. Slap “wedding” on the label and up the price by 550%. I had invitations custom printed for a few cents apiece, had I purchased “wedding invitations” out of their catalog that were far less elaborate they would have charged me a dollar or more apiece.
Pet stuff, too. Blacklight bulb for listening to Pink Floyd: $1.20. Identical blacklight bulb for heating a snake tank: $8.
I always make sure to mention that I have a student I.D. card, an AARP card*, and a penis to see if I get any discounts. Never hurts to ask.
*I don’t really have an AARP card, but I have called ahead for hotel reservations and gotten the senior citizen discount. No, they did not ask for proof when I checked in or paid for the room. They just quoted me the price on the screen.