I need to know if I am stupid or crazy or what here…
As far as I am aware, non-prepared food items no longer have sales tax or a snack tax like they did when I was a kid. The only taxes I know I would be paying for a canned soda would be the CRV/California Redemption Tax, which is a flat $0.10 per aluminum can ($0.15 for glass bottle).
If the can of NOS is priced at $1.98, I expect the total price to be $2.08. However, the price ends up coming out to $2.21. Where the fucking hell is the other goddam $0.13 coming from? Are they charging me the fucking bag fee even when I don’t get bags?
I know it is classified as a tax and not just the price being mislabeled because when I pay for it using foodstamps, I am only actually charged $1.98 period since the system automatically removes taxes from the payment (I only see this reflected by the SNAP balance, not the POS system at the store, BTW). It’s still disconcerting to clearly see a discrepancy in what is attempting to be charged, tho.
Is there some other tax I am not aware of or something? Everywhere I encounter this happening does not have itemized receipts (which I find pretty scummy), so I can’t just find out by looking at that.
Is there sweetened drink tax?
Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if a ready-to-drink beverage counted as prepared food.
Not afaik. There used to be both regular sales tax and a “snack tax” on things like soda, candy and chips but that was nixed when I was still in school and not that far after sales tax on packaged food items was dropped.
And these taxes I am being charged on the soda are not being added everywhere I shop. Which is what makes me suspicious.
Ah! IDK if it’s legal in CA but here in Chicago many small businesses used to charge the credit card fees to the customer. That was made illegal a year or so ago, so those stores switched to charging 4% higher prices but offering a 4% discount for cash.
If it’s not every store, they might be charging you that CC processing fee.