[ThinkDifferent]

Why do I think this is nothing more than a scam to increase sales tax revenue by forcing all prices to end in a 5 or 0. As we know, prices would always be rounded UP and not down

I'm not sure about that. Most prices today end in .98 or .99 to make the dollar amount appear smaller. I'd expect an item that costs $9.99 to be rounded down to $9.95 rather than up to $10.

[Phantom Lord]

And when the after tax price is $10.33 which way do you think it will be rounded? Up or down?

[discostu]

Actually while part of that pricing is to make the price look $1 cheaper another part is to take advantage of sales tax break points. When a business pays it's sales tax it pays based on gross sales, not based on the rounded math they charge customers. So while 100 $.99 sales = $99.00 on which the company has to pay sales tax they garnered sales tax from the customer as if it were $100 in sales (thanks to rounding error). It's only an extra penny here or there but it adds up when your store is doing hundreds of transactions a day (and it always adds, they never lose a penny on this gig).