[patrickthebold]

Is gas sold as a whole penny amounts in those locations? Where I am it's always something and 9/10ths of a cent.

[ryandrake]

Allowing gas stations to denominate their prices by the 10th of a cent has always struck me as a just an underhanded and extreme way to practice the "9.99" retail psychological trick. Why not allow retailers to price things 9.99999? Ridiculous.

[cwmma]

It's because technically the dollar is divided into Dimes, Cents, and Mil. (this is why dimes say 'One Dime' on them instead of 'Ten Cents'.

So while the mil isn't really used anywhere else that regular people see any more due to inflation, it is a valid division of the dollar and that's why they are able to get away with it.

[AnimalMuppet]

Turns out the station charges you a round number of cents per gallon. Then there are federal taxes, which are, IIRC, 24.5 cents per gallon. And then there's state tax, which varies from state to state but seems to always be x.4 cents per gallon.

So I don't think it's just "evil retailer tricks".

[Wowfunhappy]

Actually, I'd say by all means, allow them to price things $9.99̅ so we can all agree it's equal to $10 and be done with it.

[patrickthebold]

of course 9.99...(repeating) is mathematically 10, so I have a hard time being against allowing that.

[Ferret7446]

The amount is only rounded at the end of the transaction. Those fractions make a difference if you're buying more than a few gallons

[what]

Is the amount rounded before or after taxes? Must be after or you have to round again. So who eats or gains the rounding? The merchant or the tax collector?