I like rainbows and prices... after tax.

[cerealjoe]

First, as always, I went to visit a supermarket in this foreign land. Alas it seems that the number of strange and amazing things decreases when one knows the language of the country. I did find some rainbow Twizzlers though! Rainbow ones! They still have no taste like regular Twizzlers but at least they're rainbow coloured.

And second, please some explain to me the stupid concept of indicating the price before taxes? Really what's the point? "Oh the price is 3.99 CAD, that's great, I'll be able to get rid of some of my 2 CAD coins! Oh wait, it's actually 4.XX CAD because of the stupid tax... great, here's a 5 CAD bill and more coins go in my wallet, awesome." Yes, that's me on a daily basis. Probably the argument is that since the taxes are different in each region, indicating the "real" sale price (what the store is getting) without the taxes lets you know if the store is cheating you out of money or not. Still, it's not helping! Heck, why not indicate both prices before and after tax? A bit like two prices were indicated everywhere during the euro transition. Honestly I'm already having a hard time thinking of tips (don't get me started on that!) so trying to remember that the real price of what I'm buying is actually 20% or so higher is horrible. Just how many years does one need to live around here to get used to this?

Comments

[cazzicles.livejournal.com]

Yes! Like you, I'm not used to tax on top of a price or mandatory tipping, so it's a real nightmare trying to get used to it when you have to. I can't even begin to remember how many times, when travelling, I'd take what I thought was the total out of my purse only to be corrected that of course the number on the ticket is not the same as what is expected!

[cerealjoe.livejournal.com]

It really is a silly system. I don't really understand who thinks it's a good idea in the end but someone must because that's the only thing that would explain why it's still around.