One thing that I always forget when I go shopping in the States is that - at least here in Michigan - price labels are a notable exception to the rule "what you see is what you get".
Time and again I have counted out my money while waiting in line, only to get to the checkout and discover that the price shown on the label does not include sales tax (i.e. VAT). Since I don't know what the percentage is anyway, and it's probably some round figure like 3.872%, I now don't even attempt to pay by cash anymore, and simply hand over my credit card instead.
Apart from the obvious inconvenience of not knowing how much you are going to spend, I am at a loss to understand why price tags can't simply show the total amount - unless of course it's a cunning plan to prevent having to handle cash or miscalculating change. The only other place I ever recall seeing this was at an office supplies store in France whose customers were mainly companies and therefore didn't have to pay VAT (or rather, they claimed it back). That clearly can't be the case at every store in the US, and yet all products - from sardines to sofas - are marked in this way.
Time and again I have counted out my money while waiting in line, only to get to the checkout and discover that the price shown on the label does not include sales tax (i.e. VAT). Since I don't know what the percentage is anyway, and it's probably some round figure like 3.872%, I now don't even attempt to pay by cash anymore, and simply hand over my credit card instead.
Apart from the obvious inconvenience of not knowing how much you are going to spend, I am at a loss to understand why price tags can't simply show the total amount - unless of course it's a cunning plan to prevent having to handle cash or miscalculating change. The only other place I ever recall seeing this was at an office supplies store in France whose customers were mainly companies and therefore didn't have to pay VAT (or rather, they claimed it back). That clearly can't be the case at every store in the US, and yet all products - from sardines to sofas - are marked in this way.
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