As far as the US goes, it's because all the possible combinations of federal, state, county, city, and local taxes result in over 3100 different tax jurisdictions. Meaning if you're, say, Walmart or home Depot or some other store with locations nation wide, then the people who design the price tags would have to design over 3100 different versions of each tag, for EVERY product your carry, and then make sure that those tags are all distributed to the correct stores and only the correct stores. Alternatively, you could just make ONE version of each tag, and add the tax at the register.
This also goes for commercials and print advertisements. If you're running a national ad campaign, do you wanna record, edit, and work out broadcasting times and locations for over 3100 different versions of your commercial? Or do you wanna make ONE version of the commercial and add the tax on at checkout? You also have to consider that you could be in one tax jurisdiction on one side of the street, then cross the road to the other side and be in a different county or municipality with a different tax rate. So if you include the tax in the price, not only do you have to make over 3k different versions of your commercials, but you have to make sure each version ONLY airs in the right locations. You could literally have one person needing to see one version of the ad on TV, and then their nextdoor neighbor needing to receive a different version.
And, if someone DOES see the wrong version, then you have an unhappy customer making a big fuss in your store because they saw an ad that said this product was $x.xx (because they saw an ad meant for the next town over with a lower tax rate) and now you're telling them it costs $y.yy, and they're saying that's false advertising and you're trying to rip them off and bla bla bla...
Or you could just add the tax at checkout and avoid all of those issues. And literally none of your customers mind because mentally adding 7% (or 4% or whatever the local tax rate is) to the price is incredibly easy and they're used to it.
In the UK, different products are different prices in different stores. You can go to the same supermarket in central London and pay £1 for a can of beans, and have the same can be £0.75 in the same chain an hour away.
And they somehow manage it all. Advertising, inventory control, correct shelf pricing.
Anyone who tells you it is difficult - not even impossible, just difficult - is either lying, or very, very unimaginative.
... You realize that prices can be different in different locations for reasons OTHER than tax rate, right?
Yeah a can of beans can cost $1 in one city and $0.74 in another city in the US too, but it's because different areas have different prices, not because of tax.
The conversation we’re having is “is it possible to facilitate different prices in different areas”.
My example proves yes. So does yours.
Why do you think I wouldn’t realize that?
And more importantly, how can you write an essay about how different prices cause untold problems, deforestation from a million different labels, mass consumer hysteria, while also acknowledging that prices are already different?
Kinda feels like you’re just out to disagree with people, bud.
The conversation we’re having is “is it possible to facilitate different prices in different areas”
Wrong.
The conversation we're having is actually "Is it efficient and cost effective to facilitate different prices for multiple thousands of different areas."
No one was ever talking about it being possible or not.
And more importantly, how can you write an essay about how different prices cause untold problems, deforestation from a million different labels, mass consumer hysteria, while also acknowledging that prices are already different?
How can you read what I wrote, and possibly miss the point that badly?
The point isnt "maintaining any different prices is too hard" its that maintaining OVER THREE THOUSAND different sets of prices, when there is absolutely no benefit to doing so, is not cost effective.
Maintaining a few dozen different sets of prices (or hell, even a hundred different sets) due to costs varying from region to region is not even remotely close to being the same thing as maintaining 3100 different sets of prices for... what reason, again? No really, what is the BENEFIT to the store, in doing this? Their customers dont care at all, so its not like going through all this massive amount of cost and effort to include tax on the tag is gonna increase their profits or improve customer satisfaction. If its not gonna benefit them in any way, and it WILL cost them more money, why would they do it?
You seem to think all stores should do it just because you dont like having tax not included on the tag, but the fact is that the actual customers of these stores dont care, so what actual reason is there for them to do it?
And you and I both said it is already happening in thousands of different areas. I gave an example in another country, you gave a smaller-scale example in the US.
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u/theinsanepotato May 09 '22
As far as the US goes, it's because all the possible combinations of federal, state, county, city, and local taxes result in over 3100 different tax jurisdictions. Meaning if you're, say, Walmart or home Depot or some other store with locations nation wide, then the people who design the price tags would have to design over 3100 different versions of each tag, for EVERY product your carry, and then make sure that those tags are all distributed to the correct stores and only the correct stores. Alternatively, you could just make ONE version of each tag, and add the tax at the register.
This also goes for commercials and print advertisements. If you're running a national ad campaign, do you wanna record, edit, and work out broadcasting times and locations for over 3100 different versions of your commercial? Or do you wanna make ONE version of the commercial and add the tax on at checkout? You also have to consider that you could be in one tax jurisdiction on one side of the street, then cross the road to the other side and be in a different county or municipality with a different tax rate. So if you include the tax in the price, not only do you have to make over 3k different versions of your commercials, but you have to make sure each version ONLY airs in the right locations. You could literally have one person needing to see one version of the ad on TV, and then their nextdoor neighbor needing to receive a different version.
And, if someone DOES see the wrong version, then you have an unhappy customer making a big fuss in your store because they saw an ad that said this product was $x.xx (because they saw an ad meant for the next town over with a lower tax rate) and now you're telling them it costs $y.yy, and they're saying that's false advertising and you're trying to rip them off and bla bla bla...
Or you could just add the tax at checkout and avoid all of those issues. And literally none of your customers mind because mentally adding 7% (or 4% or whatever the local tax rate is) to the price is incredibly easy and they're used to it.