They've ignored their math lessons

Receipts from Safeway and Real Canadian Superstore

My grocery shopping habits are driven by convenience. If I'm close to Safeway, I shop at Safeway, but I happen to be near a Real Canadian Superstore, I'll shop there.

Real Canadian Superstore tends to be a bit cheaper, but the service is better at Safeway. But regardless of the store's model, people at both companies have decided to ignore the lessons they learned in math class.

50% discount at Safeway

50% discount at Real Canadian Superstore

The rules of rounding say that when the figure is 5 of above you round up, and when it is 4 or below you found down. But when  the amount is 5, both of these stores are rounding down.

When you give a 50% discount on a product with a price that ends in an odd number ($3.99) there is a 1/2 cent left over. (Half of $3.99 is $1.995) Who does that 1/2 cent belong to? It should belong to the customer. This means that the customer should pay $1.99, not $2:00. While it may seem trivial, those 1/2 cents add up.

There are 107 Superstores across Canada. If each store sells 200 50% items each day those 1/2 cents could add up to 100 cents. So, $107 per day for the 107 stores. If the stores are open 360 days a year that is close to $40,000 per year. For a firm with sales in the billions, that is not much of a price to pay to keep the Competition Bureau happy, and avoid pissing off customers who actually pay attention to their receipts.