It is a marketing ploy to make products look cheaper - $1.999 a litre looks cheaper than $2 a litre, for example; $29,999.99 for a car looks cheaper than $30,000.
Fuel and grocery retailers can do this because people are often making a large purchase so it gets rounded, or they are likely to pay by credit card or eftpos which can transact decimal values less than 10c.
A spokeswoman for fuel company Z, Christine Langdon, agrees, saying it's not likely a customer would buy just a litre of fuel, so every cent, or 0.9 of a cent, adds up over the full purchase.
Can you please tell me why workers doing excavation works in the Te Atatu/Rosebank Rd area by the Northwestern Motorway are wearing asbestos suits with face masks and gloves and loading material into plastic lined trucks? It's concerning when I have to cycle past them and see it all. Is it safe to cycle or walk past? Brendon Smith, West Auckland.
The Transport Agency discovered low levels of asbestos near Rosebank Park Domain during its work to upgrade the Northwestern Motorway between Great North Rd and Te Atatu.
Safety measures are in place to ensure the material is removed securely, and the removal process and the site are being monitored carefully, and the Transport Agency has been able to keep the motorway and adjoining cycleway open.
It's understood that the material was included in fill taken from a building site in central Auckland about 20 years ago, and the Transport Agency plans to have it removed by the end of this month.
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