I've lived under GST and I've lived under VAT. As a consumer, VAT is a million times better.

Firstly, GST was added at the till. So something is marked as $5 on the shelf, ends up costing more than $5 at the till. Bonkers.

VAT is included in the delivery price. Says $5.99 on the shelf? You get a penny back from $6.

From a shop owner point of view, VAT is also a lot easier to administer. You don't care if the customer is VAT registered or not. That's their problem, not yours. GST was a headache. Some stuff goes yo end users (so collect tax) others goes to resellers (so dont). Here's a shocking outcome - rampant tax fraud... (fraud with VAT is still possible, but the tax loss is only on the vendors markup.)

Obviously different jurisdictions do VAT and GST differently, but when I travel to the US it feels like the stone age.