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Does the average american, when naming a price of any given item, takes into account taxes or disregards it? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 2 days ago by qyron@sopuli.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Watching a documentary, there was aremark from the journalist on how, due to how wildly taxation on goods may vary, from area to area, in the US, most retailers do not put the full prices on the shelves and instead just tally it at checkout.

This made no sense to me, a european, as when I go to any regular shop, prices already include all taxes applicable to the product.

There are specialty stores where VAT and other taxes may not be applied on the price on the shelf but those are usually wholesellers, selling for professionals, that already know what additional taxes will be added and at which rates, at checkout.

Not having the full price you'll be paying, on display, seems very underhanded and a bad practice. The client should know how much they are going to pay from the moment they pick an item.

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[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 42 points 2 days ago (8 children)

The average American does not include taxes in prices. This is also true in Canada.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 26 points 2 days ago (7 children)

That is so bizarre.

[–] LilB0kChoy@piefed.social 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Many of us are in the habit of mentally calculating it wherever we live though.

For example, my state sales tax is 6.88%, my county has a .25% tax on top of that, and then there’s a metro area tax of 1% on top of that, my city does not impose a separate tax of their own, so total sales tax in my city is 8.13%.

When shopping we’ll do the mental math (roughly) and factor that in so it might say $39.99 + tax but I know that it’ll be a little under $44 with tax.

It’s inconvenient but, like most things, we get used to it and adapt. Also, while tax varies a lot by state, most of us don’t venture too far out of our home area so tax is roughly the same all the places we regularly go.

It would be nice to have the price listed as the price you pay but it doesn’t work as well with our current system.

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