Notabilia

Numbers

Price Rounding And Overcharging

Introduction

During the last years of the drachma, the smallest denomination in circulation was the five drachma coin. One and two drachma coins had been withdrawn and were no longer in circulation. As a result, a product with a market price of 123 drachmas could be purchased at either 120, or 125 drachmas; usually 125. Since it was impossible for the consumer to pay the exact amount, such a price rounding, could be considered as permissible.

On the contrary, the euro coins allow any amount to be paid exactly. Consequently, any price rounding practices simply serve other causes.

Rounding prices downwards, unless accompanied by a growth in productivity and a decrease in operational expenditure, will lead with mathematical accuracy in the future, to a disproportional increase in the price of a product.

Prices are being rounded upwards soleley for profiteering, unless sound evidence is brought forward in order to substantiate this kind of rounding. Any thoughts on holding prices at certain levels, let alone any efforts to control prices (i.e. setting a ceiling on prices and/or profits, regulation of prices, third-world practices etc.), should be considered as utterly preposterous in a free market environment.

Needless to say that in such environments, all of the necessary auditorial investigative mechanisms must have been established by the governing bodies, in order to "smash" whoever decides to "break" the rules of the game. Strong consciousness consumers are such a mechanism and they can in fact "smash" without even imposing administrative or penal sanctions. The problem is that in Greece, the vast majority of consumers unfortunately lack this merit. Moreover, the Greek governments don't seem to lend a helping hand since the social insurance/taxation laws that have been passed since 1975, are well over 100.

In addition, because of the fact that the one, two and five eurocent coins are no longer being used in most of the transactions, we can safely assume that the prices will be increased by 10% each time there is an increase in the prices.

Finally, an extremely interesting phenomenon with prices in Greece, is that once they go up for a certain reason, they rarely go down when this reason ceases to exist. The same goes for taxation.

Having all the above in mind, we invite you to have a look at the tables below which show the market price of certain products, before and after the euro. In order to make the comparison easier, the prices are shown only in euro.

We remind you that the euro is the only official Greek currency since March 1st, 2002 and that the exchange rate has been set to 340.75 drachmas. The exchange rate between the euro and the U.S. dollar ranges from 1.00 to 1.30 euro per dollar.

Giros
{Γύρος}
(Greek Food)

Hamburger

Bottled Water

French Fries

Souvlaki
{Σουβλάκι}
(Greek Food)

Souvlaki Kalamaki
{Σουβλάκι Καλαμάκι}
(Greek Food)

Fresh Vegetables

On August 13th, 2003, "Naftemboriki" {Ναυτεμπορική}, a Greek financial newspaper, published an article and a bar-graph here , that were based on an official announcement made on August 12th, 2003, by the Greek Ministry of Development. In the announcement it was mentioned that the auditorial mechanisms of the Ministry confirmed that in just one day, the percent increase in the prices of fresh vegetables started from 21.62% and was as high as 63.10%. It was said that bad weather conditions were the main cause for the increased prices but this is just a plausible explanation since, oddly enough, the weather conditions seem to be pretty unpredictable in Greece after the introduction of the euro, compared to the drachma era.

Restaurant

After comparing the prices per person in various European cities' restaurants, we come to the conclusion that Athens is the most expensive city in Europe.

Coffee

Let's take a look at the price of coffee around Europe. Athens and Paris are the most expensive cities.

Cinema

The cost of cinema tickets varies from city to city. Athens is one of the most expensive cites, however it is not the most expensive one.

Beer

The cost of beer is not the same everywhere. If you believe that beer prices bite in Athens, you can consider ordering shampagne instead. Surely shampagne is more expensive but after all it's shampagne!

Super Market

Let's say we are shopping for coca cola, milk, sugar, coffee, fresh peas, rice, butter, jam and toothpaste. The acquisition cost of these goods varies, depending on the country. The most expensive country is... you guessed right... Greece.

Average Monthly Salary In The Private And Public Sectors

State-run Athens Urban Transport Organization Travel Card Monthly Coupon For Buses And Trolley Buses
[Contents]

State-run National Lottery Ticket
{Ethniko Lahio ~ Εθνικό Λαχείο}

State-run State Lottery Ticket
{Kratiko Lahio ~ Κρατικό Λαχείο}

Let's repeat this once more in order to have a good grasp of the subject. While the entry cost of the State-run State Lottery Ticket has increased by 70.65%, the payoff has increased by just 13.58%.

State-run Popular Lottery Ticket
{Laiko Lahio ~ Λαϊκό Λαχείο}

Let's repeat this once more in order to have a good grasp of the subject. While the entry cost of the State-run Popular Lottery Ticket has increased by 33.33%, the payoff remained the same.

State-run LOTTO Ticket
{ΛΟΤΤΟ}
[The Ticket]

Since you will probably be at a loss after looking at the following table, we will explain what happens but please have in mind that this approach is used only in this table, simply because the entry cost of the State-run LOTTO Ticket helps us in presenting this special kind of approach.

Each ticket used to cost 50 drachmas.

The equivalence between the drachma and the euro has been set to 340.75 drachmas.

This means that 50 / 340.75 = 0.1467351, that is 15 eurocents.

However, 15 x 340.75 = 51.1125, that is 51 drachmas.

Well now, don't you agree that the entry cost of the State-run LOTTO Ticket has increased by 2.00%?

State-run PROPO
{ΠΡΟ.ΠΟ.}
(State-run Soccer Pools)
[Contents]

State-run PROTO
{ΠΡΟΤΟ}
(State-run LOTTO Variation)
[The Ticket]

State-run DJOKER
{ΤΖΟΚΕΡ}
(State-run LOTTO Variation)
[The Ticket]

9V TOSHIBA ALKALINE BATTERY

February 8th, 2002

Between February 1st and Feburary 8th, 2002, we had recorded the acquisition cost of the products below. Have a look at it and compare the cost to date. The brand names and the names of the products are exact copies of the names mentioned on the payment receipts.

01-26-2005