r/comics • u/tinyviewcomics tinyviewcomics • Aug 11 '26

OC "Americentricity" by Itchy Feet

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94

u/mr_doms_porn Aug 11 '26

It enables companies to advertise one price across many tax jurisdictions. You can run nationwide ads that display price. If you do it the european way you'd need to make different ads for each tax jurisdiction.

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u/Xtr0 Aug 12 '26

That doesn't stop stores from putting the final price on the shelf.

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u/Quaytsar Aug 12 '26

People are morons and would be mad if the price on the shelf didn't match the ad.

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u/MagicBlaster Aug 11 '26

I don't know why you would think that...

Stores don't even have the same prices for the same items in two locations in the same city let alone jurisdictions.

It's even more nonsense when you know that Safeway has digital tags so they could trivially update them even in different regions if that was the problem.

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u/unidentifiedfish55 Aug 12 '26

Ah yes. We all remember the "PRICE VARIES BY JURISDICTION!! dollar foot loooooooong" Subway commercials back in the day.

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u/MagicBlaster Aug 14 '26

I mean it always was, it was always $5 (plus tax), so why do they care if the sign in the store now says 5.40 or whatever instead, that was always the amount of money you would give them in the end...

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u/unidentifiedfish55 Aug 14 '26

so why do they care if the sign in the store now says 5.40

I know it was 2 full days ago, but read the original comment you responded to. If it's $5.40, you can't do a nation-wide advertisement for $5. That was the argument here.

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u/MagicBlaster Aug 15 '26

The $5 dollars was always a lie though, it was always 5 dollars plus tax. Adding the actual number that you will actually pay to the sign changes nothing.

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u/unidentifiedfish55 Aug 15 '26

I disagree. Having to make changes to your commercial for every single jurisdiction so it has the right price, with tax included, would be a giant hassle and change things quite a bit

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u/Banaantje04 Aug 11 '26

European countries just have the same tax across the country. Also, can't the company just have different pricing before tax such that the eventual price after tax is the same in each place? Not adding tax in the price because those poor poor companies and whatever will they do now that they have to add tax in their marketing, insane argument imo. 

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u/fuzzylm308 Aug 11 '26

But the US doesn't have the same tax across the whole country. Sales tax varies not only by state, but also by county. And within counties, cities and special purpose districts can also introduce their own additional sales taxes. There are 11,000 distinct sales tax jurisdictions in the US, which range from 0% all the way up to 11-12%. So no it's not really feasible for a company to price its products differently in 11,000 different places so that the final cost works out the same everywhere.

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u/Ilesa_ Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

The price varies from region to region in Europe too (at least in some countries, idk about all of them), and from city to city. Because we also have local taxes.

Doesn't prevent us from indicating the full price, tho.

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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 11 '26

do they not teach percentages in europe or is it just too hard for them to do math in their head?

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u/Ilesa_ Aug 11 '26

Do they not teach basic courtesy in the US or is it just too hard to talk normaly ?

Not displaying the full price is stupid. Have absolutely nothing to do with maths.

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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 11 '26

truncating “maths” doesn’t really work because the word is not “mathsamatics”. If you take out the middle letters, you need an apostrophe.

cannot->can’t
mathematics->math’s

Abbreviations in English can be tough if it’s not your first language

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u/BesottedScot Aug 11 '26

Maths is correct in English everywhere except America and Canada just about.

We use maths as it matches words such as statistics and heuristics. So no need for an apostrophe. Also because it tends to be considered a collective noun encompassing algebra, calculus etc.

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u/Ilesa_ Aug 11 '26

Tyvm for your insight 🙏

I did hope to learn something new tho, but we learn British english in France so I'm cool with keeping maths. Feels more natural, as it is the same in french.

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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 11 '26

Seems short sighted to limit yourself like that. There’s way more native speakers for English (American) than there is for“British English”, which just sounds like an oxymoron.

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u/Ilesa_ Aug 11 '26

Isn't maths correctly used in British, though ? I think math's is a very USan thing

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u/Drow_Femboy Aug 11 '26

That person is just trolling and anyone replying to them is being very silly

"Math's" is not a thing anywhere. In America we say math.

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u/Ilesa_ Aug 11 '26

and anyone replying to them is being very silly

Not sure that was necessary to add lmao

Math's" is not a thing anywhere. In America we say math.

That's good to know, thanks :)

0

u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 11 '26

It just isn’t proper English according to the rules, is all. FYI, the correct demonym is: “American” — now you don’t have to make up a word for it! :)

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u/Ilesa_ Aug 11 '26

"Proper" english in France would be British english, FYI. As it is in most european countries.

USan is a perfectly valid way to nominate US citizens, as it clears out any confusion with americans (as in inhabitants of the American continents). Proof is that you understood perfectly who I was talking about ! Language is truly amazing 🙏

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u/CunningLinguist8198 Aug 11 '26

I think it's more that European legislators care (more) about customers while American legislators care more about business owners. Hiding the tax makes products seem cheaper, even if you do the math

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u/PassiveTheme Aug 11 '26

It's not about percentages being too difficult. It's about the price listed being the price you pay. It never occurred to them to do it any differently.

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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 11 '26

mental math, like most skills, is “use it or lose it”. You can still use your fingers until you get the hang of it!

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u/Charming-Clock-3651 Aug 11 '26

What are you trying to say? That customers should have to calculate sales tax because it's better for their brains....?

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u/callmeacow Aug 11 '26

It's unnecessary friction

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u/PassiveTheme Aug 11 '26

I can do the percentages easily. I just don't need to.

3

u/MacPooPum Aug 12 '26

What a really low IQ take. Why walk down the stairs slowly if you can just jump down immediately? Why chew food if you can swallow it hole?

Why do I need to do math in my head in America only, when the rest of the world doesn't have this problem? Because it is a problem. It's a maths problem. One that even third world countries have sorted out.

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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 12 '26

I do envy their special education, it appears to be working exceptionally well here ;P

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u/Stuck_Revolver Aug 11 '26

Mostly onboard, but isn’t this the legit perfect thing to do with the horror show that is AI and the digital sales tags at stores? Instead of being a terrible chatbot and surge pricing, they could categorize each of those sales tax zones in their system to automatically add the sales tax to items on the tags.

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u/SwampOfDownvotes Aug 11 '26

It's less about them not being able to do, and more like why would the company want to do it? Say you advertise its $20 after tax across the entire country, well to make that work, you would have to discount the cost in places with higher sales tax so that's less revenue/profit for the company. Why would they want to give some people a 12% discount? They don't keep the sales tax.

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u/Nymethny Aug 12 '26

No need to rely on AI for that, it's a fairly simple algorithm that could be implemented very easily. But unless the government forces companies to do that (i.e. pass consumer protection laws), companies have no reason to do it.

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u/Stuck_Revolver Aug 12 '26

It really has gotten strange hasn’t it? Asking why a company would do what their customers want? To make it easier to buy their products comfortably? I’m sure there’s an Econ principle here, but I don’t know the name. I want to know how much companies are making from stocks and manipulation vs just plain selling a product or service. It feels like no one just says “here, it’s a good thing at a decent price.”

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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy Aug 11 '26

I think you underestimate the margins on some products.

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u/account312 Aug 12 '26

I think you mean overestimate.

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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy Aug 12 '26

Typical brick and mortar stores have a margin of 3% to 5%

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u/Chicken2nite Aug 11 '26

Considering interstate commerce is a thing, it would be difficult to market to out-of-state customers at the same time as in-state customers while competing on price with both in-state and out-of-state competitors.

In Canada, the store charges the sales taxes applicable to where the customer is. Each province sets their own PST, while everywhere has the federal GST. Since Alberta doesn’t have a PST, this means that storefronts in other provinces can compete for Alberta’s customers on an even playing field and vice versa.

Since the location of the customer is only really determined when they enter a delivery/billing address at checkout, there wouldn’t be much of a practicable method to advertise an accurate price on their website if it including however many different PST/HST tax rates in the listed price.

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u/account312 Aug 12 '26

it would be difficult to market to out-of-state customers at the same time as in-state customers while competing on price with both in-state and out-of-state competitors.

So what? Advertisements don't have to be broadcast to large regions. They don't even have to include prices.

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u/Chicken2nite Aug 12 '26

Who broadcasts prices in advertisements? By marketing, I wasn’t speaking to actively advertising to them but to engaging in commerce with them.

I guess pizza places and other fast food restaurants, in which case the ads are paid for by corporate and the franchisees are expected to have that advertised price.. Manufacturers also have their suggested retail price (MSRP) as well as a minimum sale price (selling below which can get you in trouble with your supplier) which would make it tricky to implement.

If i’m searching the internet for a widget, I might comparison shop or use a metasearch website like Board Game Oracle which compares the price and availability across many stores.

You might think that having the taxes included in the price would lower the level of obfuscation, but that’s not necessarily the case.

So long as states, provinces, and US cities are able to set their own sales tax, it would make it difficult to have a national storefront on your website with the tax included in the listed price.

Google and other search engines will include the price on the search results of a store selling an item, and if the price is conditional on what state or city you’re in, then what price do you think should be displayed?

How much do you want to be tracked by both the search engine and the website to find the best real price?

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u/FreeDarkChocolate Aug 12 '26

So long as states, provinces, and US cities are able to set their own sales tax, it would make it difficult to have a national storefront on your website with the tax included in the listed price.

There are businesses that operate across various EU countries with different VAT already, that already have websites set up for the different jurisdictions they operate in, and already tailor ads to the market they've ordered the web ads for. They already do this.

How much do you want to be tracked by both the search engine and the website to find the best real price?

By this logic it must be impossible to shop online anonymously in the EU, but that is not the case. They can do it and they already do. Advertised prices can include taxes. Somehow entities as small as individual creators up to multinational conglomerates are able to deal with it over there and, while that's a bit more overhead for the business, all the consumers (so, every single person) gets the benefit of all-in pricing. Some edge case exceptions, sure, but irrelevant in scale.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/CanadianODST2 Aug 12 '26

You could have one.

It’d just be a federal sales tax. That wouldn’t stop states or counties from having their own

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u/TheDimmadome Aug 12 '26

"Insane argument imo"

I don't think you really get the size difference between these countries. There are 12,000+ regions with different sales tax needs, Texas alone has more than 1600.

What do you think is the easier option, marketing one price or researching price points for every state, county, city, or districts tax points in the country?

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u/Banaantje04 Aug 12 '26

I think it's insane that the companies are put in front of consumers. If you want to put a price in your ads, go research, consumers should see the price they will pay. 

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u/DogBarf00 Aug 12 '26

But not all buyers of goods pay sales tax.

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u/Banaantje04 Aug 12 '26

All consumers do. Companies can just deduct it from their tax; that's what they do in countries that include sales tax in the price. I assume that in the US companies still have to pay the tax but get it back as well right? I wouldn't think anyone selling things would have the responsibility to check who is and is not eligible for sales tax exemption?

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u/DogBarf00 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Nope, they don't pay sales tax at all. Sales tax is intended to tax the sale of a good to its final end-user, otherwise the tax would compound at every transaction, greatly inflating the price of the final good. Because taxes are always passed on. Not everyone buying stuff is the final end user. Costco and Sam's Club has business member hours to process these sales tax free transactions. Home Depot, Lowe's, and other home improvement stores have Pro checkouts for this reason. There are entire businesses where you need to be a business owner, with some sort of state issued resale certificate or business tax ID, to even be allowed to shop there. Such as restaurant supply stores, salon supply stores, cleaning supply stores, building material suppliers that only sell to contractors.

Then they are non-profits that don't pay sales tax either. Could be an old lady buying coffee and tea for bible study at the church or could be your social club for your hobby buying food and drinks for your annual bbq.

As for charging a business the sales tax then refunding it. That just sounds like a nightmare for the government to manage and a nightmare for the business owner to plan for in their cash flows. It is much better to have that cash free and moving in the economy instead of moving form the business to the government back to the business for no reason.

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u/Banaantje04 Aug 12 '26

I know how sales tax works. Are you saying that if a company is buying stuff at, let's say Walmart, the cashier has to verify that the person at checkout is buying for a company and thus does not have to pay sales tax? Feels like this is asking for mistakes. 

Of course B2B doesn't have VAT and  has verification that you're a company before you can buy something there. It works like that where I live as well (somewhere in Europe) but not all shopping is done from B2B companies. 

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u/DogBarf00 Aug 12 '26

Yes, at Walmart it would be generally a manager because they don't do very many sales tax free transactions compared to store like Home Depot. It is on the customer to inform the business if they are sales tax exempt and to proved proper documentation for it.

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u/Banaantje04 Aug 12 '26

I still think it's easier for everyone involved if companies just saved their receipts and used the paid VAT as a tax write-off. Same thing in the end, no paid sales tax, without the hassle every time a company buys something, and consumers get listed a price that they do not have to do headmath over to know how much they actually have to pay. 

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u/BTechUnited Aug 12 '26

Ok then, how about Australia which has a universal GST across the entire continent, multiple states and territories, as opposed to the insanity of different taxation per county.

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u/Mrwhale33 Aug 12 '26

I mean you’re agreeing lol. Australia has the GST across the country. America has more individualized rates depending on the needs of the county/state/region. Rural counties without public transportation don’t need a portion of the sales tax to go towards it for example.

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u/CanadianODST2 Aug 12 '26

That’d just be federal sales tax.

Which wouldn’t impact local sales taxes

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u/NoAngel815 Aug 12 '26

The difference is the US doesn't have a national sales tax, it's done by the individual states. We also have some states that don't have any sales tax. You need to think of it less like Germany or Australia and more like the European Union. We're 50 different little countries in a trench coat.

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u/FreeDarkChocolate Aug 12 '26

The difference is the US doesn't have a national sales tax, it's done by the individual states.

If the Czech Republic can have all-in pricing, then so can NC. If Denmark can, then so can MD. If there are city or county taxes, then any business so lucky to be big enough to have multiple locations can just deal with it and it's a convenience benefit for small businesses. Different business locations within the same tax jurisdiction can already vary in pretax pricing (shipping goods to a store in one part of a state can be much cheaper than to another) so it's not like this is stopping them.

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u/TheDimmadome Aug 12 '26

Okay then, the entire continent with 1/20th the size of urban development and 1/12th the population density has different tax needs then the us? How much is the population spread over that "entire continent" compared to the US?

Counties have the ability to impose specific taxes because theres such a difference in income levels, average ages, consumer spending, local/state government spending, infrastructure, etc. There's so many over so much more space that they have more individual budgets and financial needs.

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u/FreeDarkChocolate Aug 12 '26

Okay then, the entire continent with 1/20th the size of urban development and 1/12th the population density has different tax needs then the us? How much is the population spread over that "entire continent" compared to the US?

This is bizarre. Consider a single state that has similar population and size as some particular European country. If it is possible for the European country to have price-displayed-is-price-paid, then so it is for that US state (Czech Republic and NC, Denmark and MD...). By extension, then anywhere in the US.

The annoyance to the business for having to divy up advertising specific by market if they are so lucky and privileged to have multiple locations spanning multiple tax jurisdictions is to simply be part of their cost of doing business. As other comments have said, pricing can already vary even without taxes from place to place so it's not like they don't already have to deal with it.

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u/Victernus Aug 11 '26

But the advertised price is a lie, so who does that actually benefit?

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u/account312 Aug 12 '26

Not consumers, that's for sure.

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u/moralglove Aug 12 '26

Prices are generally listed as ’$XX.XX +tax’

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u/Victernus Aug 12 '26

And... who does that benefit?

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u/moralglove Aug 12 '26

Someone else already replied to that.

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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy Aug 11 '26

Which can be unique depending on different areas of a single city.

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u/CunningLinguist8198 Aug 12 '26

I'd be fine with forcing that cost onto companies. First, because fuck 'em. Second, because small businesses are a good thing, but large businesses often become cancerous. And third, because consumers should be more important than somebody's bottom line.
Swallow that extra cost. Make your manager work an extra twenty minutes to make sure the right flyer is going to the right district. Not like that manager was actually doing anything in that time anyways.

1

u/Kasawery24 Aug 12 '26

Hmmm. So they make law to make it easier for companies to sell more, not to make it easier for people. So American.

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u/GuyASmith Aug 12 '26

In the US, we often have ads say, “Starting at $X.99,” as a way to say local prices vary. It’s expected just based on logistics and the store because some have different upcharge schemes for different goods, even for the same chain just shipping can add $0.50 easily.

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u/AtlasNL Aug 12 '26

Do your stores stand up and walk across state lines frequently or something? A la Baba Yaga’s house?

1

u/Val_kyria Aug 11 '26

what companies actually do this? and there's a hundred workarounds that'd still allow this

stop making excuses for corporate laziness, demand better for yourselves