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Comment by stronglikedan | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure the items have posted prices, so it would really be simple math that could be done in one's head.

I don't think it's a lot to ask that I'm informed how much I'm going to be charged before I pay for something, which is the process for every sale I make currently works.

What if the item is marked as on sale but the database hasn't been updated so I don't get the sale price?

What if the price on the item is correct but someone fat fingered the price in the database?

What if a different customer moved an item from one shelf to another so the price on the shelf is for a different product?

What if I want to know the total with tax?

What if a camera sees me pick up a $500 item to look at but doesn't see me put it back on the shelf?

I don't want to go home, wait an hour+, see I've been mischarged, and then have to spend a week waiting for a refund to process.

I have to imagine that all of those will be rare enough situations that you don't really need to worry about it.

Many of them happen when you're checking out in person too. You can simply go to the receipt kiosk every time if you're worried about being charged incorrectly.

I bet people said the same thing about credit cards — “how do I know there won’t be an error that causes my credit card bill to be wrong at the end of the month? I’ll stick with cash thank you very much”

I mean, until the technology had been proven, I think that's a valid question to ask.

Plus, when credit cards were introduced, you were still given the opportunity to agree upon the total on which you'd be charged, before you were charged. That's all I'm asking for with this.

In the United States taxes are not included on the sticker price. As a result adding up the total price of a purchase can be tricky.

However, I don't think this technology will be used extensively by people who purchase a large quantity of products at a time. Instead, this will be catered to the times when someone needs to pick up 5 or less things at a store. In this instance, these customers are not typically price-sensitive about what they need.

In certain places, tax is not added for certain goods. For example, in Seattle food is not taxed, unless it is prepared, like fast food or deli counters.

This is also routine in Europe where tax is included in the advertised price. Here for example the price shown for your hilarious Xmas sweater is inclusive of tax, the price shown for your toddler's equally hilarious sweater is not, because it's tax exempt (clothing for kids isn't taxed) and so in both cases the displayed price is the price you'll pay.

We added a sugar tax, so the sticker price for beverages like original Coke went up, but similar zero sugar products (Coke Zero, Pepsi Max) did not. Of course some stores just raised the before-tax price to capture the difference as profit, and others just eliminated sugary drinks. So... a mixed result.

The EU's focus is that consumers always pay what the sticker price says. So, no "plus tax", no "shipping fees not included" on items that unavoidably have to be shipped to you, no "service fees" no "card fees" nothing like that. I think even if you don't actively like this, you can see the point of this approach.

Would it be easier to get consumers angry about taxes if the tax wasn't "baked in" ? Maybe. But it's not as though it has proved impossible to campaign against, for example, tax on tampons or even toilet paper.

$2.99 at 6.5% tax is $3.18 (after rounding). Buy two and your total cost is $3.37. The government don't not want to be cheated out of that penny. (it adds up over all the people buying stuff)

I genuinely can't tell if you are being serious. If you are being serious, then how do you account for the behaviour of the customer possibly changing based on how the price is displayed (i.e including or excluding taxes etc.)

Since in the US tax is traditionally never included in any state (exception: gasoline is always advertised with all tax), consumers are not changing behavior. I suspect there are a few who split purchases knowing the above, but for the most part few people do.

Also, you seem to be putting more thought into this than our government has.

The cash registers at a normal store has to calculate the tax on items, so I don't see why this would be very hard for other computer systems to do. It will know where you are.

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