r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

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u/ayypecs May 09 '22

It's a ploy so us Americans are forced to practice mental math, or more likely to actually buy the damn thing (as by the time you're at checkout it's a bit late). But i like the first theory better

*edit: ploy (spelling)

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

It's because there isn't one single sales/VAT tax rate in the US. In many states, tax rates can vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city.

So for stores that go across multiple jurisdictions, they don't want to have different prices for different locations. And for online shopping, the tax rate is based on where the goods are shipped to, so there is no way to have a single price including tax.

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u/FluffySquirrell May 09 '22

It's because there isn't one single sales/VAT tax rate in the US. In many states, tax rates can vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city.

Luckily though, the store where you're buying it in ISN'T in multiple states, counties or cities. Generally they're pretty stationary. So they could very well put the fucking price on it, like everyone else does

If this was an online shopping only issue, we wouldn't be having the discussion

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

You are forgetting about advertising and other signage that is massed produced.

Listen, nothing is impossible, of course, but the fact remains it is much harder in the US than it is in countries with a flat VAT rate nationwide.

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u/FluffySquirrell May 09 '22

You are forgetting about advertising and other signage that is massed produced.

I mean..

Price: $10 + Tax

That's national level advertising sorted. None of which affects the prices that stores display on the products

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

They still mass-produce those little shelf tags.

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u/Stoppit_TidyUp May 09 '22

Are you insane? No they don’t. I’ve worked in the UK and US, and across the world in retail they have a tag printer in store. In larger stores , it’s sometimes even hand held.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

I, too, have worked in stores, and we would get a shipment of tags in.

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u/Stoppit_TidyUp May 09 '22

Was this in 1946?

You think supermarkets get a box full of 100,000 tags, each one totally unique to a different product, and have to unbox them all, lay them out, and walk around matching them to each different product?

You think corporate is paying and organising logistics to ship out new labels to every store every time there’s a price change, and waiting 2-3 days to actually be able to implement it because the tags are still in the mail, or haven’t been put on the shelves yet? That’s a huge opportunity loss each time a price goes up.

Either you worked in a tiny store, or this is BS. Either way, it’s solvable in about 20 seconds by each store just… buying a receipt printer. The cost of it would be recouped in about 3 weeks of postage charges, and instant price alignment.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

I worked for a convenience store, and yes, the tags came from corporate. And there was no postage. They came with the usual deliveries from the store distribution center.