Once there will be no more digits to use for displaying price per gallon they will be forced to display price per liter as it still could fit

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    they need to make a “exchange your blood plasma for the same amount of gasoline” station at every gas stand.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Many US gas stations switched to liters for a while during the original “gas crisis” in the 70s. One crooked station near my house switched to liters without saying so - they simply covered or removed “gal” on the price signs, so they said like $0.85 with no units, so the price for a gallon was over $4. To further hide it, when customers asked to fill the tank the attendants only put in about a quarter tank, so the price would be realistic for a fillup measured in gallons. It pissed off one guy so much he stood in front of the place for about a month with a ginormous sign that said “BUYER BEWARE! REG OVER $4/GAL”.

  • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    In the 70’s when gas broke $1.00 per gallon and most pumps couldn’t handle it, they just set the pumps to half the price and charged double that when you went in to pay. Pump would say $5 and you paid $10. That would be a lot harder today since rarely are people paying inside.

    • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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      5 hours ago

      They will change the advertised price to quarts, it’s much easier for the and it will mess with people because prices will look 4 times lower but it is 4 times less liquid.

  • Tiral@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Is this gonna be like that time Americans didn’t buy the 1/3lb burger from Burger King because they thought the 1/4lber from McDonald’s was bigger. As an American myself, and a teacher for over a decade, people are legitimately retarded. I’m surprised shoes with laces is still the norm TBH.

  • ivanvector@piefed.ca
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    20 hours ago

    This would literally work. If one station has $9.49 (/gal) on its sign and the station across the street is $3.79 (/L), there are absolutely enough dumb Americans who will line up for the more expensive gas with the lower number.

    A&W nearly went bankrupt because Americans couldn’t figure out that 1/3lb is more than 1/4lb. This is a good idea.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      18 hours ago

      A&W nearly went bankrupt because Americans couldn’t figure out that 1/3lb is more than 1/4lb.

      Myth.

      Anyone who had their 1/3lb burger knows why A&W nearly went bankrupt, and it had nothing to do with the size of the patty.

      It was easily the worst burger I’ve ever experienced.

      “Americans don’t understand fractions” is the marketing they used to save face. The reality is that they didn’t have any repeat customers.

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          4 hours ago

          Oh, I’m sorry. Are you one of the people who thought fractions were confusing? I’ve never met someone over the age of 8 who couldn’t figure them out.

      • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Who went to A&W for anything other than root beer floats and why were they allowed in public while being so wrong?

      • [deleted]@piefed.world
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        18 hours ago

        The firm eventually conducted a focus group to discover the truth: participants were concerned about the price of the burger. “Why should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat?” they asked.

        It turns out the majority of participants incorrectly believed one-third of a pound was actually smaller than a quarter of a pound.

        https://awrestaurants.com/blog/memories-history/the-truth-about-aws-third-pound-burger-and-the-major-math-mix-up/

        They didn’t almost go bankrupt, but yes they did have a focus group where the majority of people did not understand fractions.

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          That literally only comes from A&W themselves, and the first mention of it was in the memoir of the former CEO at the time.

          After he released his memoir trying to rehabilitate his image after being released from prison for fraud.

          Not exactly a reliable account. There are zero other sources for the myth than the chain itself.

        • teslekova@lemmy.ml
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          5 hours ago

          Focus groups commissioned by the company get the results that the company wants. That is the entire point.

          • [deleted]@piefed.world
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            3 hours ago

            Are you saying the company wanted results saying people didn’t understand 1/3 is more than 1/4?

            That would be stupid.

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          12 hours ago

          When you order one turd sandwich from my restaurant and never come back for another, the problem isn’t that you think my 1/3 lb turds are smaller than BKs 1/4lb patties.

          The focus group did not capture the reason why the people who did buy it didn’t become repeat customers. It was a fucking awful burger.

          • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            Are you serious dude? If i went to a restaurant, and thought I was paying MORE money for LESS food i would never go back. But go on your rant about how much you hate A&W or whatever.

            • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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              11 hours ago

              And I’m betting if you went to a restaurant and the food was absolutely terrible, you wouldn’t go back either, or at least wouldn’t order that same, terrible meal.

              A&W is great. They’re one of the last drive-in restaurants in my area. I have coney dogs and root beer floats every time I go. But their 1/3lb burgers were so complete shit that I won’t even try their burgers now. Their burgers were worse than DQ’s. Worse than cafeteria burgers. They could have made them twice as large, and they still wouldn’t have sold, because they were utter shit.

        • spankysalmon@fedinsfw.app
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          12 hours ago

          Focus group is the same group as those that do phone surveys.

          Not representative of the norm, who like to do either about as much as jury duty.

          • Sharkticon@lemmy.zip
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            12 hours ago

            Exactly. To have been confused about the price they’d actually have to have gone there. Which I don’t believe ever happens.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Exactly! It’s the same thing they did after gas went over a dollar per gallon.

  • criticon@lemmy.ca
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    18 hours ago

    I thought about this too while I was filling up my tank yesterday, but I think they would just switch to quarts since that is just 1/4 of a gallon

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      15 hours ago

      That’s right. Europe uses liters because that’s their biggest liquid measurement. Ours is gallons, so we’ll just split that by 4. You think MAGAs are going to go along with switching to a foreign commie system for our beautiful American gas?

      • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        We tried the metric thing in the 1970s - people hated it. Some things stuck like alcohol measurement in ml. Most didn’t .

        • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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          9 hours ago

          Anyone who thought changing the measurement system wasn’t going to be met with resistance was delusional. People hate change. Sometimes, change is better. As someone who went through it in Canada, there was a lot of disgruntlement from the previous generation, but the rest of us just moved on (mostly), and being able to just use decimals everywhere instead of base 2 fractions here, decimals there, multiples of 12 over there was absolutely refreshing. Now my kids barely even use imperial and just shake their heads when the oldsters talk about it.

          And I’d still rather measure people’s weight in pounds than in stone like a monster.

          • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            That’s a really great perspective I never had. I only see it as a kid growing up in the 70s usa. But you folks got through it and we didn’t. That’s telling on our stubbornness at the very least. Btw I never had more trouble with alcohol than the time I visited … asked for a pint. Do you mean a Mickey? Chuckles.

            • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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              8 hours ago

              I can switch between metric and imperial with ease. Like many Canadians, I still do oven temperatures in F, height in feet and inches, and body weight in pounds. But I have a number of coworkers who use metric only, mostly immigrants and young people, and I will tailor my units for the people I’m talking to.