Just a coupla questions for the Americans in the Lounge......

Why do you guys so often have such odd pricing on stuff ($15.17 or $0.98 for example). Much of the rest of the world seems to round to the nearest dollar, or one cent / five cents off - going for the "It's just below $X" market (i.e. It's less than $100 - ONLY $99.95), but in America things are all over the place!

Quite a few countries don't even have one cent pieces (or equivalent) any more...

My other question was regarding tax on goods in America. What is with pricing an item excluding tax??

I mean you go to buy a T-shirt that is labelled $9.98 then when you go to pay at the check out, it's $13.17... That sure makes things confusing!

I guess there's a lot about America I'll never understand though :)

Originally posted by HostIt
Why do you guys so often have such odd pricing on stuff ($15.17 or $0.98 for example).

That I don't really know ...

Quite a few countries don't even have one cent pieces (or equivalent) any more...

This I know, e.g. Taiwan ... the lowest currency is NT$ 1.

My other question was regarding tax on goods in America. What is with pricing an item excluding tax?? I mean you go to buy a T-shirt that is labelled $9.98 then when you go to pay at the check out, it's $13.17...

This I also know ... Sales taxes in different among many states in US. It ranges from 0% (for Delaware) to .... (less than 10% I believe). Some states do not impose any sales taxes for clothes, shoes, etc ... So it won't be the case that you will get a surprise when you pay your merchandise (well, not by about 40% like your example).

cheers,
:beer:

My first time in the US...I get off the plane. I buy some tic-tac's (12 hrs on the plane and you can use some minty breath)
The price said $ 0.49
I walk up to the counter and pay. They try to rip me off by charging me $ 0.53 !!

What do they take me for? Some stupid tourist? It says $ 0.49!
10 Minutes in the US and I had my first fight :rolleyes:

Never, ever in my life had I been in a country where the prices listed did not include taxes.

Let me add another question: why do you build such huge, wide highways and impose speedlimits that would even make my grandma fall asleep? When you just arrive from Europe it almost looks like you are driving in a traffic jam. I did try to explain this to the state police while they were writing me a $ 250.- speeding ticket, but I guess he wasn't in the mood for a chat :(

As was discussed in another thread, some stores use the odd change in the price as a code to signify different things. For example, $x.98 may be a specially priced item (sale, etc.), $x.97 may signify a closeout item, etc.........

Ok there are several interesting issues here:

(i.e. It's less than $100 - ONLY $99.95)
It is not just here but there are businesses in other countries which do this too. It was probably started here in the USA. It is pschological. A good example is $17.95 - most people for the immediate moment the price is mentioned do not think of it as $18 but they do think of it as $17. It only hits you when you are ready to pay but then you would have had made your decision in most cases. Technically, this works in merchant's favor to make the sale (sort of impulse buying) and squeeze as much profit as could be from the sale and pschologically this works in the consumers' favor.

Quite a few countries don't even have one cent pieces (or equivalent) any more...
As a business it is harder and harder to squeeze in profits especially in low margin businesses like retail and groceries (where you mostly see the 99 cent deals). Do you know larger grocery businesses in the USA operate on margins as low as 1/2 a percent?

Look at the big picture and think of billions it can save to both consumers and businesses. As a business if I am buying say millions of pieces I certainly do not want to pay $1.00 for something that would cost $0.99c. Say my order was for 100 million pieces where I could save one penny per piece, do the math and see how it works out in my favor.

My other question was regarding tax on goods in America. What is with pricing an item excluding tax?
Because America is a big country. Each county (a small town or district) has different tax levels and so the tax is calculated at the checkout register. If I drive 2 miles and buy the same item that I can buy in the store next block, my tax will be different.

Let me add another question: why do you build such huge, wide highways and impose speedlimits that would even make my grandma fall asleep?
Because like any other country there are a lot of idiots here too. Otherwise, idiots wouldn't have any commonsense (oxymoron) or follow the laws, and it will be bad for all.

I guess there's a lot about America I'll never understand though
Yep! that's why they say - "only in America".... ever heard that song?:D

Originally posted by Pilgrim
... It says $ 0.49! 10 Minutes in the US and I had my first fight ...

... I did try to explain this to the state police while they were writing me a $ 250.- speeding ticket ...

:D You don't travel very well do you. j/k

Greg Moore

Originally posted by akashik

:D You don't travel very well do you. j/k

Greg Moore

Well, there was this first time when I was in a country where they drive on the left. After I arrived at the airport I picked up my rental and...

Uhm...never mind. Some stories are better left alone :D It might scare the minors reading these boards.

I'm pretty sure guardian angels exist though!

Originally posted by Pilgrim
My first time in the US...I get off the plane. I buy some tic-tac's (12 hrs on the plane and you can use some minty breath)
The price said $ 0.49
I walk up to the counter and pay. They try to rip me off by charging me $ 0.53 !!

What do they take me for? Some stupid tourist? It says $ 0.49!
10 Minutes in the US and I had my first fight :rolleyes:

Never, ever in my life had I been in a country where the prices listed did not include taxes.

Let me add another question: why do you build such huge, wide highways and impose speedlimits that would even make my grandma fall asleep? When you just arrive from Europe it almost looks like you are driving in a traffic jam. I did try to explain this to the state police while they were writing me a $ 250.- speeding ticket, but I guess he wasn't in the mood for a chat :(

Be grateful it's not 17.5% tax like you'll find here in the UK :)

Actually I am from The Netherlands and I pay 19% salestax on all goods. ;)

But at least they actually INCLUDE it in the price that is put on the articles. And somehow they still manage to get the price at x.99 or x.95

It was probably started here in the USA.

No comments...:D

Originally posted by Pilgrim
Actually I am from The Netherlands and I pay 19% salestax on all goods. ;)

But at least they actually INCLUDE it in the price that is put on the articles. And somehow they still manage to get the price at x.99 or x.95



No comments...:D

I think there's already a thread about this somewhere on WHT, but believe me: something that would drive you crazy is the rule of the "2 out of 3" that is used for telephone billing. I mean, when you live here, it makes perfect sense. Basically it's a way of deciding what state tax will apply to your calls, based on where you're calling from, your call destination and your billing address.
I'm sure you'd not enjoy this :D :D :D

I think most of us would be glad to raise our prices by 19% and include taxes if you would pay it....

I sure do believe I prefer 6-9% than 19% regardless of how you get there. And there are still a few states with no sales tax.

Thank you for your kind offer, but I'm already paying it. ;)

I remember when I was little kid and my parents had never thought to tell me about sales tax.

So I'm like 7 years old and we have a school field trip to the museum of natural history and my parents had given me $2.00 to buy something from the gift shop.

I pick out a toy triceratops that is only $1.99 and the lady rang it up at $2.07. I didn't have seven more cents. She had to try to explain sales tax to me. I didn't believe her, and I didn't have seven more cents. I started crying.

She ended up paying my sales tax out of her pocket.

It definitely feels deceptive if you don't know about it. IMHO.

heh that reminds me of when I went to Washington with my school (Which was like 4 years ago) and we stopped in Pennslyvania. So ya know we all went out and checked out the gift shop, and back then Laser Pointers were cool. So ya know I told one of my friends to buy one, but he only had $15 (This was on the trip back, and I was broke),which was how much they cost. (hah I almost put "Costed") So seeing that we thought Pennslyvania didn't have a sales tax he bought it. Well, turns out there isn't a sales, but that's only on clothes (or something like that) so we got someone to fork up $.50 for us.


Speaking of Washington, I found funny how there were all these Black-market guys there trying to sell us fake Rolex's and Oakley's. The Oakleys look like someone stopped at Convenient and bought some $.99 sun glasses and then took a paint brush and put Oakley on them.

I knew someone from Guam(not Guam itself, but an outer island of it) and he had the same problem when he came here. As for the highways, im sure if you meet up with rush hour you will understand the importance of huge highways.

Yeah when I was in Cali we got caught in traffic for like 3 hours going to Las Vegas. I tell ya, pain in the butt to get out of San Fran. Here in Cleveland there are some backups, but nothing like it was out there.