Canada has implemented a new tax savings from December to February for some things like taxable groceries, crafts, and gaming physical media. I wanted to get a new Xbox controller and found the best price at Walmart for $55 a week ago. The tax holiday starts today and I now see that the $55 has increased to $62 and change, which is about how much tax I should be saving. Great to see this thinly veiled attempt to help Canadians ( /s - win votes) is just going to be extra profit in the corporations’ pockets.

  • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    161·
    7 hours ago

    It is in the US.

    The FTC’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing generally require that a seller offer an item at a price for a reasonable, substantial period of time in good faith, and in the regular course of business, before advertising that price as the former or regular price (16 C.F.R. § 233.1). The FTC considers it deceptive to offer an item for sale at a higher price for a short period of time in order to support a claim that an item is discounted when the price is then lowered. This practice is prohibited.

    Additionally, most states have consumer protection statutes that prohibit sellers from making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amount of a price reduction (for example, Cal. Civ. Code § 1770(a)(13)). Several states also expressly regulate the length of time an item must be offered at a regular price and amount of time it is on sale (for more information, see Practice Notes, Promotional Pricing: Specific State Laws and “Up To” Discounting Law and Practice: Promotional Pricing: State-by-State Requirements).

    From here

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      The price hike in Canada’s instance, wouldn’t violate US law.

      They aren’t advertising a “sale”. You just aren’t paying taxes on what you buy, and it isn’t wal mart doing it, it’s the government. Wal mart is just choosing to screw over the buyers and the government all in one go.

    • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
      191·
      7 hours ago

      tell that to amazon and every other retailer that jacks prices up the week or so before a ‘sale’

      • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        15·
        7 hours ago

        For Amazon, I use camelcamelcamel to see price history. Personally I’ve not seen price increases just for holiday sales but I also don’t buy a lot of stuff on these sorts of days, I just set a price alert and wait for the email.

        • Bronzebeard@lemm.eeEnglish
          14·
          7 hours ago

          Sites like these are why amazon has been using more coupons at check out instead of straight discounts. Messes with the price tracking

          • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            6 hours ago

            How does that help Amazon if on the price tracker it appears $20, but with the coupon it’s actually $10?

            If I’m using a price tracker and see it for $20 pre-coupon but another site has it for $15, wouldn’t that just drive my business to the other site?

            It seems like with using coupons it’s just artificially inflating the price on whatever trackers, and that seems like it would be bad for sales to me.

            • candybrie@lemmy.worldEnglish
              6·
              5 hours ago

              The goal is to mess up price history. So it will have a list price of $50 but with a coupon to make it $35. Then a sale day happens and they lower the price to $40. It’s 20% off! Good deal.

              It doesn’t really help if you’re comparison shopping with alerts. I don’t know that Amazon thinks you’re going to go to another site.

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      In that case, they won’t lower it in February than it’s not illegal because they’re not offering it for a higher price for a short amount of time.