Why does the sentence use go instead of goes? [duplicate]

Question

I saw this sentence in the lid of a jar:

I keep thinking it's misspelled. Why does it use "go" instead of "goes"?

Answer 1

In the sense "gross receipts", sales is plural. Therefore "1% of sales" is also plural, since it is a proportion of the total sales. It's the same as if you said "1% of men like Pistachio ice cream."

People don't split hairs about whether it's 1% or 2% to decide whether it's singular or plural. It's just a fraction.

Answer 2

It uses go so that it can agree with its subject, which is sales. Your percentage is acting as a predeterminer, just like of a lot of or some of the. These do not affect the grammatical number of the subject.

• A lot of the people are late.
• A lot of the air is nitrogen.
• Lots of people are late.
• Lots of the air is nitrogen.
• Some of the people are late.
• Some of the air is nitrogen.
• Some people are late.
• Some air is polluted.
• 39% of the people are late.
• 1% of the people are early.
• 20% of the air is oxygen.
• 1% of the air is neither oxygen nor nitrogen.

As you see, none of these affect the grammatical number of the verb, because the subject is still either singular or plural. That does not change

But this does:

• Two people are missing.
• One person is missing.
• Not one person is missing.
• More than one person is missing.
• Fewer than two people are missing.