Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a reason everything is priced at some variety of .99, 99.99, 999.99, etc: it sells better than 1.08, 108, 1080, etc. My point is getting the consumer to eat the sales tax on top is just a wise trick by US businesses, and nothing to do with complexity.
That's been debunked. Every consumer just auto-rounds in their head. Companies keep doing it because of tradition more than anything else. It is a wise trick, and exactly the job of government -- to prevent the public from getting tricked by businesses.
Has it?
I'm searching around and not coming up with much that says that's the case.
On the other hand, here are some recent-ish links that suggest it still works:
- https://www.rd.com/article/why-prices-end-in-99/
- https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/pricing-psychology-s...
This one suggests it depends on the consumer, with "highly numerate" consumers being less likely to think the price is lower (but presumably also less common in the customer pool):
- https://business.missouri.edu/about/news/99-ending-prices-ar...
Edit: searching for "charm pricing" specifically suggests it does work, but I suppose maybe there's some bias on the context in which people use that term.