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Show ORIGIN OF ODD FRICES. We are so accustomed to articles in stores priced at 98 cents, $1.49, and other odd-penny amounts that few persons give any thought to what once was considered a freakish idea of price-making. But G. H. Cilley, a well known store advertising manager, tells in a recent article that the custom arose from the solution of a very practical problem prob-lem by a shrewd merchant. When Captain Roland H. Macy got! tired of sailing the briny deep as a! sea captain and started a store in New I York, there were no cash registers or other means for checking up his clerks. Money received for purchases was put in an old-fashioned cash drawer which made no records, and the practice of "knocking down," a euphemism for plain stealing by clerks, was quite prevalent. Macy changed all prices to odd-cent amounts, established cashiers to make the .required change, and kept a close, watch on the cashiers. His advertise- J ments of these odd prices seemed to strike the public eye favorably, and he ' got a great response. What was at first only an expedient to keep from being robbed developed into a potent! psychological appeal to his customers. ! Thus the odd-price has survived many years after the original reason for its adoption ceased to exist. j |