it is to avoid the tax

i go along with ashfaq

The bill can be manipulated or by mistake , when only one number is present followed by zero's as a price

I go along with both reasons.

Keep the change....

nine is a lucky number to chinese, its a chinese shop

when the shop was opened, they did not have enough zeros to post an even dollar amount.

to get rid of all their spare change...

i agree with the first person

May be to keep count of how many material are saled.

I thought it was to keep the penny in circulation.

...I thought it was because before DOllars there was some other kind of money which had a very slightly different value so when they first changed everything to dollars it was all slightly off a round number...

I think it is to save tax + to attract customers. So that they can say its under 10, 100 or 200 or any other round number

What I want to know is, why do gas prices always have that little nine at the end? Like 3.99 and then a little 9 (meaning 9/10). Why not just round it up. It's not like one-tenth is gonna make much of a difference.

it is so that the cash register has to be opened and the transaction is on record (sales receipt).

My dad who was born 1935 told me many years ago that the reason stores stopped using round numbers like $10.00 and started using $9.99 was because change was not be circulated enough.