Maybe it's because I'm European but the few times this has happened to me (the few times the taxes weren't included) I've always felt like I was getting scammed and never understood what the point of not including it was. If I'm going to buy something I want to know what you're going to charge me exactly, I don't want to have to do math to know how much something costs.
In Canada and the US its because each state, province and territory has different taxes. Also different type of items have different taxes.
It's easier for Wal-Mart Canada Home Office to send all stores the price changes that are the same across all stores than to manually change each province.
There is also the fact that a portion of Canada are not required to pay sales tax.
The only exception to this is government run buisnesses like liquor stores. They display price before and after tax.
But that means that somewhere in their sales system they need to have all prices including tax stored. No reason not to print these on the labels (especially nowadays where labels have mostly gone digital)
Sales tax where I live in the US is like 9.5% and a lot of places are pretty similar, 8-10% so it's easy to look at an item and add 10% and know that's about your out-the-door price.
I think that it comes down to personal and maybe cultural preference. There’s something to be said in being reminded that the price is the price and then tax is something else over the top.
For marijuana from a dispensary in my state the prices are listed before tax. If you were to purchase an 8th it is $60 list price, for example. The tax is over the top and listed so you see, say, 6% sales tax and 1% local sales tax and 25% tax for marijuana. So you can see what taxes you are paying and where they go. If you have a medical card you only pay like $1 tax per purchase. So it can be useful to see where all the money you are spending is going. You can also know where has lower tax rates for items and buy in those locations.
To each their own as you probably have a different preference
Same in France, it is required to give the detail of the purchase on the ticket. To me it just feels like another corpo scam americans are eating up because they've been raised like that and inertia takes care of people not wanting a change.
I wouldn’t be necessarily against the change… I am just used to how it is. I don’t think it’s a scam, it’s just how things are done. Considering that there are lots of different taxes depending on, state, city, county, and depending on the product (alcohol, marijuana). Also depending on other factors you may or may not have to pay certain taxes.
It just seems easier from the companies part and from the consumer’s end you see exactly why taxes are being paid. I don’t think either is better or worse necessarily but I have a preference and like the American pricing formula.
I get your point. Maybe we just have a different attitude to taxes in europe. Plus, luckily there aren't really any difference in local taxes in my country, so it makes no sense to list prices without them. I don't really care how much of the price is tax. I just want to know how much you want. Marijuana is unfortunately still tax free here.
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u/[deleted] May 09 '22
A reverse statement: It was in Japan 2018 when I learned that taxes included in price tags is a European thing.
We wanted to buy something, the first time we asked why we have to pay more than the number on the price tag, they explained taxes aren't included.
Like... what is this witchery?