They're added when the stuff is being rung up. Some stores price things accordingly such that when the tax is added up, the total ends up being a round number. However, most national chains don't.Originally Posted by Theblazeuk
They're added when the stuff is being rung up. Some stores price things accordingly such that when the tax is added up, the total ends up being a round number. However, most national chains don't.
So....any reason why a local ad or an in-store item shouldn't just be priced at its actual price, sales tax included? I get the radio/national/etc broadcast/internet (nvm geolocating for now) but seems odd that it only goes on once its rung up.
Sorry not to keep on at this I'm just having a hard time working out what the opposition is beyond the obvious suckering you in appeal for the stores.
Let's just say those americans are a bit weird and leave it at that. ;)
Another interesting topic I'm curious about is the different perception of tattoos or more accuratedly, tattooed people in different cultures. I know it's still somewhat of a stigma in Japan because of the yakuza tradition, but at least in western europe it's becoming more and more mainstream, to the point that today, about one fourth of all Germans (26% males, 25,5% females) between 25 and 34 are tattooed. Explicit and extensive visible tattoos are still a no-go in a lot of professions of course, but my uncle who's a tattoo artist has customers from pretty much every walk of life from judges to lawyers to teachers to construction workers.
Define a local ad that doesn't use radio, TV or the internet.
Newspapers, then? The top dailies in New York City - the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, New York Newsday and the Wall Street Journal - all have catchment areas that exceed city limits (and thus tax laws).
Billboards? Great. Either you alter your prices to make a nice round number (and thus run the risk of some asshat immediately taking a picture and posting it online to take advantage of "price matching" that a lot of competing companies do) or you mess up your commonplace $29.99 price with an $34.73, which just looks ugly and - I hate to point this out to you - is a larger number.
In-store ads? Some stores do. Most stores don't for the same reason as the billboards.
Cool, so basically no good reason to not have billboards, posters or (particularly) the shelf stickers include sales tax. Other than it being a larger or unaesthetic number, which is a bit inane.
Subatomic - interesting! Any links on the stats? Be curious to know about the UK
Right, because prices don't affect people's willingness to purchase products.
Jeez, man. What's it like in upside-down land?
The numbers are from a study done in 2009 from the university of Leipzig (here's a link, though it's in German of course). According to wikipedia, the numbers are similar in Australia and even a bit higher in the United States (nothing about the UK there).
So do you or do you not have to pay that higher price anyway?
Depending on the jurisdiction, yes. But the whole point is to get you to get to the cash register anyway. If every company in the country is still listing its goods as $29.99 and not $30, as an obvious psychological trick, why would they tack on the tax?
What's snow like?
My only experience with it was when I was 5 at the Antarctic centre at Christchurch NZ. Friends have said it's really a pain in the ass because it's cold* and wet rather than the white and fluffy version that is in every Christmas movie, ever.
* bear in mind that 'cold' here is about 12 degrees Celsius. Apparently the top temp today was 27 degrees and it's supposed to be bloody Winter!
Snow is awesome if you don't have anywhere to be. Driving or walking in a snow storm is horrible, especially when there are several inches+ on the ground.
So basically, snow is cool when you are a kid and they cancel school because of a snow storm and you can go outside and play in the snow. Snow sucks when you are an adult and have to go to work and drive through a foot of snow going 5 mph the entire way.
Snow is only 'fluffy' while it's falling, once there's a lot on the ground it's suprisingly heavy and sometimes very dangerous, and not only in the mountain wilderness. Lots of people are killed each year because of collapsed roofs that couldn't support the weight of the snow or from being crushed by so called 'roof avalanches'. As Hypernetic said, it also screws up traffic when there's been a lot of snow in a short period of time, especially when you can't use major roads.
Funny anecdote on that, apparently London is unable to cope with about 5 to 10 centimeters of snow. When my parents were on an England trip a few years back, they had to stay almost a day at the airport because shuttle buses and flights were cancled left and right because of (at least by our standards) a laughable amount of snow.
Bah, poppycock. Few inches of snow when walking is nothing. Ten inches would start to be problematic, because it can get inside your shoe. Well, during snowstorm walking and driving sucks (except maybe driving, depending on the amount of snow coming). Snow is generally pretty awesome, especially since it makes otherwise so dark winters a bit more light-y by reflecting light. Also, snow walking is awesome.
Did I already mention I love snow?
Snow is awesome, believe the hype. I'm also totally biased since I like skiing on the stuff.
Says the Finn.
Snow is shit. I was going to say snow is white shit, but it doesn't stay white for more than half a second on the streets here. It gets impacted by traffic and plows into a slick layer cake of ice and shit and piled up into huge banks on the sidewalk by same, gets on everything and makes you wet.
I agree with Hyper: It's fun to look at... if you have nothing to do that day. Otherwise it's a nuisance.
Yea, we can't justify spending any money preparing for snow any more than stockpiling salt because by and large snowfall here is a couple of cm that gets washed away by rain a couple of hours later.
mickygor, Battlefield 3
Otmer, League of Legends EUW
Bastiat, Planetside 2, Miller NC
This isn't so much of a international difference, so much as a difference from most people I know. A lot of people hate driving in bad weather but I enjoy and even thrive on it. I feel a lot more engaged and attentive to driving when unfavorable weather conditions persist than when they do not.
And snow is disappointing. You have one blizzard during your childhood and then you believe that every Christmas will be white and have snow up to your shoulders. Then you grow up and realize that it was a one off and that it only seemed like so much snow because you were so stunted
Last edited by Bhagan; 23-08-2012 at 03:29 PM.
It doesn't matter how attentive or engaged you are on ice.
Well duh. When you have snow on the ground for 6-7 months of the year you either love it or hate it with burning passion. Skiing and slalom and all the other possibilities snow opens makes me love it.
Snow makes you wet? Here's a tip: get proper clothing. Now, I don't obviously know how much it snows in the NYC but I expect that it snows enough that a small investment for proper clothing isn't that much.Snow is shit. I was going to say snow is white shit, but it doesn't stay white for more than half a second on the streets here. It gets impacted by traffic and plows into a slick layer cake of ice and shit and piled up into huge banks on the sidewalk by same, gets on everything and makes you wet.
Proper clothing is not the issue. It's the fact that everything is slick shit. It's like rain, except sticky.
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