Hi Everyone,
Please excuse my "amatuerness", but this was a question that has disturbed me for such a long time.
Why are fuel prices on the LED boards displayed in cents? Example 139.2 Why not simply show 1.392? It's just a matter of shifting that decimal, or is there more to it than I can see?
Your insights are much appreciated.
when 60 cents was the peak in the price cycle, and Anna Bligh still subsidised petrol prices
I remember when my parents were paying 22cpl. And then how we all panicked when the Gulf war was on and petrol shot up over 80cpl.
It wasn’t that long ago that servos were using hand drawn 1 at the front of the price because the sign didn’t have enough digits.
Yeh, I remember those days. Anything above 56c feels like a rip-off.
Queensland used to get a 9 cent subsidy in tax, but in reality the refiners pocketed most of it. So it was removed in 2009.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/fuel-su…
For the reason why;
https://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/documents/2008/aug/qld%20fuel…
The real reason was more complex. Read more about John Bjelke-Petersen if you're interested. If you ever wondered how close somewhere in Australia came to a corrupt, authoritarian, union-bashing police state, that was Queensland in the 70s and 80s. You had to be here to believe it.
Made cents 😜.
So how come once prices did rise over $1.00 they didn't start displaying price in dollars?
For eg, a made up store charges 50c/kg for their (hella cheap) deli ham. But now pig feed is more expensive, so the deli ham price sky rockets. Do they charge 130c/kg or $1.30/kg?
Seems illogical right?
1.392 is more difficult to parse imo…
It made sense when $18 filled the car up
Probably to reduce bowser shock and talking about cents per litre not dollars…
The difference between expressing the price in cents or dollars is literally an inconspicuous decimal point. How does this even affect you?
Guess you can’t see them at 4000rpm.
Please excuse my "amatuerness" but why don't you quote that as 4krpm. It's just a matter of shifting that units, or is there more to it than I can see? Your insights are much appreciated.
Why Are Fuel Prices Shown in Cents?
Back in the days, fuel use to be under 20c a litre, so it was 18.9c/l, when it went past 99.9c/l, a lot of places had 'issues' as the signs hadn't been ready for that jump!
So the answer is, because it always has been.
because it always has been.
I have spoken….
As others have said, historical carry over but part of me suspects also psychological as clearly cents have less value than dollars. I wouldn't be surprised if market research was done at some point asking people what they think of fuel prices at 110c/l vs fuel prices at $1.10/l and probably enough people said 110c for them to justify keeping it that way.
If it was in dollars there would also be two decimal places..
Eg 133.9c v 1.33.9
Can't keep those .9c numbers if they moved to dollars
Yeah, that's not the way it works.
So, your saying that 133.9 and a half isn’t really 1.33.9.5? :D
Because it's priced/advertised/displayed as cents per litre
What do you dream of at night…. why don't you put your brain power to more creative pursuits like benefiting mankind, saving the planet, and such.
Did a headache come on the moment you pondered this decimal point….
It's a valid thought. Just you wait when the $2 stores turn into 200c stores!
I had a bet with a mate in 1968, that petrol would never go over $2 a gallon, (four and a half litres).
Was there a time limit to this bet?
That’s like 45cpl. When did it crack that?
Back, way back, way, way, way, back (before a number of you were probably born), petrol was 20c/gallon (4.54l, for the current generations). When we swapped to the metric system in 1974, only the units changed. It went to 20c/litre.
Mid 1980's it was around 80 - 90c/litre.
Source: I was there.
OK Boomer <3
Sometimes common-sense isn't that common.
If this was reddit, i'd give you a gold.
Back in the good old days when petrol was under $1 per litre it made sense.