Dodgy neighborhoods in the US are crowded with the retail equivalent of potholes, the $.99 store. Everything in the store is only $.99 and looks it. They're filled with sundries available widely, punctuated by bizarre products apparently purchased from liquidations of developing nations' flea market purveyors.

Up market neighborhoods could support $99.00 stores where everything in the store is $99.00. At that price, products could be sold that had a modicum of quality and uniqueness. It's frankly the perfect dollar amount for customers to find "a nice gift" for someone.

The novelty would aid marketing, and the gift certificates / gift cards (likely torpedoed by being valued devilishly in increments of $104.00 instead of the expected $99.00) would be gifts of appropriate generosity for most occasions.
-- Arcana, Jan 05 2008

(?) $99 Furniture Store http://the99dollarfurniturestore.com/
[pyggy potamus, Jan 05 2008]

Arguably redundant 93_20dollar_20store
For if you're just a little bit short. [hidden truths, Jan 07 2008]

The 99 cent store. http://www.99only.com/
Where you get name brand products like "Krest Toothpate" and "Head on Shoulders" shampoo. (When you can't afford real poo.) [doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008]

Wouldn't "$99 Dollar Store" be pronounced "99 dollar dollar store"?

Over here we have depressing places called "Pound shops", where everything is (coincidentally) a pound. At the present exchange rate, this would be roughly the equivalent of your $99 stores.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 05 2008


// At the present exchange rate //

Shhhhhh... they don't go outside much and look around, this will scare them...... remember, their country is ony 230 years old, just toddlers really....
-- 8th of 7, Jan 05 2008


Oops. And here was I trying to avoid international tension.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 05 2008


careful or we might decide to invade your country and destroy your economy and infrastructure then the exchange rate wont be so bad.
-- jhomrighaus, Jan 05 2008


I would have made it the $999. Store, but my wife would bun me to the poor house.
-- Arcana, Jan 05 2008


// we might decide to invade your country //

If you can find it ....
-- 8th of 7, Jan 05 2008


"And today, as UN peacekeeping troops entered the northern quarter of the halfbakery, tension was still high following skirmishes between rival fractions. UK Minister for the Inferior, Maxwell Buchanan, said the 'bakery was a tinderbox of wild cats waiting to happen.

Meanwhile, in the southern quarter, reconaissance photographs from the Midlothian and Halfarse Hullaballoon Platoon report that heavy industrial activity around Fellatio may be a sign that the insurgents are attempting to produce enriched custard. Speculation that this could be part of a weapons program is rife, though the government insists it is part of a peaceful civilian traffic-control programme."
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 05 2008


"careful or we might decide to invade your country and destroy your economy and infrastructure then the exchange rate wont be so bad."
...and hide your capital letters and punctuation marks except periods.
-- phoenix, Jan 05 2008


I was typing in the heat of passion.
-- jhomrighaus, Jan 05 2008


//attempting to produce enriched custard//

Damn right - I can deploy custard in less than 45 minutes.

Although I've got to wash up first.
-- DenholmRicshaw, Jan 05 2008


"In economic terms, the pricing strategy of dollar stores is inefficient as some items may actually be sold elsewhere for less than a dollar. However, this is balanced by the marketing efficiencies of a single price structure and consumers accept potentially overpriced items.

The pricing inefficiency becomes unacceptable at higher price points. Thus there are no "100 dollar stores" where all items sell for $100; consumers expect to pay the correct amount as inaccuracies result in significant dollar amounts." [from Wikipedia]

when i was younger, churches and schools usually had 99 cent raffle tickets for fund raising projects as a method of tax avoidance, once you sell something over the amount of Php1.00, taxes are collected automatically, i haven't seen this in a while now (probably due to inflation).
-- pyggy potamus, Jan 05 2008


most $.99 stores only sell a few items that are actually 99 cents. They also sell lots of things that are 99 cents a quart, but the come in gallon bottles, or rugs that are only 99 cents a half square foot. Then they charge tax. The whole concept is a total fallacy.
-- jhomrighaus, Jan 05 2008


A "$49.50 Store" would make much more sense here.
-- ed, Jan 07 2008


Well it's always nice not to be taken too literally.
-- Arcana, Jan 07 2008


I used to work for a $10 store and nicely everything was priced at $9.34 ($10 after tax). One of the great things was how fast the check outlines went and how unskilled workers could still be cashiers. Two items, $20, go. We sold a lot of irregular clothes or stuff that other stores couldn't move. I don't know how well this would work as the price raises. The main problem is inflexibility. You can't respond to price changes. The place I used to work as now sells everything for $13, but suddenly had to train people to use the registers and accept singles. I would think the inflexibility would be a deal breaker at high price points. People are lazy and may pay $1 for a a $.50 item, but few will pay $100 for a $50 item.
-- MisterQED, Jan 07 2008


Ok, I think this *might* work *somewhere*. Where I am, aka. the heart of Illinois (nowhere), no way.

But how about a "$23.76 Store"? Make it really handy for people...Nice, even amounts o' money. Or maybe a "$99,000.00 Store"?

Or a "$99,000,000,000 Store"? Oh wait. Wal-mart.
-- TahuNuva, Jan 08 2008


There are a few "magic" price points that might work. I think $99.95 is too high, but $9.95, $14.95, $19.95, and $29.95 are all pretty common prices for infomercial products. If a product would sell for, say, $16.00, they throw in a few extra cheap screwdrivers or something to make it seem like a good deal at $19.95.
-- supercat, Jan 08 2008


// we might decide to invade your country . . . If you can find it //

<que Chief Wigham voice> Oh that's easy, now let's see whaddid Shakespear say "this precious stone set in a silver sea". OK boys start looking for a 'Silver Sea', a Silver Sea anyone . . . damn.
-- Brett-Blob, Jan 08 2008


// I was typing in the heat of passion // Why yet another great tagline, huzzah.
-- Brett-Blob, Jan 08 2008


This wouldn't be very popular. 99¢ stores are popular because of the promise of cheapness and not having to worry about the pricing of things. In a $99 store, there would probably be limitations of the types of things being sold and the tediousness of noticing the prices wouldn't matter as much at such prices as $99, because they are rare and are thought about more anyway.
-- apocalyps956, Jan 08 2008



random, halfbakery