> For a big corp, they want to advertise nationally. "$1 hamburgers!" or "$799 refrigerator!". You can't make a national ad if you have to have precise pricing.

> For a big corp, they want to advertise nationally. "$1 hamburgers!" or "$799 refrigerator!". You can't make a national ad if you have to have precise pricing. If we zoom out of the “uniquely American issue” mindset for a second and look at how this is solved elsewhere, then it becomes clear that it doesn’t have to be an issue. In this day and age plenty of multinational corporations advertise a euro price that applies for all the countries in Europe that carry the euro. This is a situation where companies have to account for varying VAT rates. The solution? Companies take this into account w/r/t their margins when advertising a euro price that applies to all euro countries. In the US however it’s even less of an issue. I’ve noticed as a European that when you watch TV here in the US many ads are hyper localized, mentioning the closest local store. If they can do that then they can list the price the item has at that store. The real reason the full price including taxes isn’t used is because companies can make it look cheaper without hurting their margins, thus draw in more customers.