ASDA (subsidiary of Wal-Mart) fuel stations in the UK always have the fuel price ending in .8 (e.g. 175.8p per litre) while pretty much EVERY other fuel station always has prices ending in .9.

It gives a feeling that they're slightly cheaper than the competition, I think. Even if the more significant digit is more expensive sometimes, people don't remember that part as much because it varies from day to day.

...until someone else comes along and offers .7 : ) so the race to the bottom begins

And, once the race to the bottom reaches .0, the petrol station operator that stuck to .9 is back in the lead, again regardless of the significant digits! It would be a bit of a retail version of the Shepard tone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone

It’s not a race to the bottom because what Asda is doing is pricing it 175.8 when others price it 174.9

I assumed they meant a race to the bottom in terms of decimal digits only. Another petrol station could price it at 175.7, or maybe even 176.7 if the illusion of being cheaper than ASDA still works.

Asda in Arbroath was .7 when I went past the other day.

The problem at the moment is that '175'... I don't think people bother too much about .8 vs .9

Well, maybe because it's one of the lowest forms of making stuff look cheaper

I'd wish Apple cut the crap on that, it makes them look like you're buying stuff from a used car lot.

Which is strange because you’d think the $1000 would make it look like a higher class item.

You’ll never see decimals in a fancy restaurant for example.

That may have been true at one time but nowadays there is a lot of .99 in Walmart.