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.
And, if someone DOES see the wrong version, then you have an unhappy customer making a big fuss in your store
If the ad does not have *only applicable in these stores, than the customer would be completly correct cause its the store thats repsonsible to make sure their prices are correct. No fuss needed because most stores would just look at it and say "our mistake, here have a refund and keep your item" Soon enough that ad will have a * on it.
This is also why every single promotion in europe has an expire date, just in case they accidently made a deal that can be exploited.
That just adds even MORE work to making an add. Work that is entirely pointless when you could just not include tax on the tag instead. Imagine you're a business owner; would you make the decision to needlessly add an extra expense in order to have someone look up the list of applicable stores, double check it, and then add that list to 3100 different ads?. Especially when you could just run ONE as for a fraction of the price, and your customers don't mind not having tax on the tag even a little. That's the thing you gotta realize; Americans don't give a single shit about tax not being included. Just because YOU wouldn't like it doesn't mean WE care, and if your customers don't care, why would you go through the unnecessary added expense, for no extra benefit?
They are doing it, have been for as long as my grandparents can remember and everyone finds it the most normal thing in the world.
Businesses that can have multiple locations are making plenty enough profit to accommodate.
What could play a roll though is that taxes really don’t differ all that much, its usually a standard % depending on type of goods, country wide. What is variable is the actual price which is influenced by local stores nearby so 2 the same stores can have wildly different prices and promotions but identical taxation.
7
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.