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As the Canada "tax holiday" starts, Walmart increased the price of an item by the amount I would have saved (lemmy.ca)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

110 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

(page 2) 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I don't say any of this to say that I think what Walmart is doing here is ethical, onky to say that it is logical from their standpoint if they assume there won't be any blowback.

Companies charge what they think they can get for a product. The tax is part of the price. If they think an item will sell for $5.26 including tax, it is reasonable for them to think it will still sell for $5.26 if the item isn't taxed.

That isn't to say this is nice on their part, but the current system doesn't incentivise them to be nice. It incentivises profit.

It does seem like they took the easy route to gain more profit. It is likely that, in the a absence of tax, their profit would be maximized by a price that is somewhere between the old pre-tax price and the old post-tax price.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Yeah, I shouldn't have been surprised. This is normal psychopathic behaviour for a corporation.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Tax credits are always a government gift to corporations.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Well the debate should be over whether the taxes cause things to be expensive or it's corporate greed causing things to be expensive.

Next time you see one of the ubiquitous Poilievre ads claiming it's taxes that's making things unaffordable, think about where the problems actually are.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (3 children)

All prices are set based on what consumers are willing to pay.

The only way prices ever go down is by exercising a decision not to buy something or to go somewhere for an item.

It will not come from the government, unless the government mandates a specific rate.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

They could also provide the cheaper alternative, generating revenue for the government, providing goods at a discount and forcing corporations to match prices.

Like that'll happen, though.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This is why sales tax is silly unless it's purposefully punitive. Like with cigarettes.

If they want to give back to consumers, then literally give money to consumers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

I think it depends on the area. Places like Florida did well with sales taxes because they have large amounts of tourism. So they can have no state income tax, and no tax on groceries, yet make enough in taxes to do everything else they need. That said, sales tax is 6% from the state, and areas boost it based on other needs. .5% for teachers and .5% for local infrastructure was what I grew up with.

Now living in Tennessee taxes are 10% and they charge it on groceries here.. which kind of sucks. I wish stores would just include the tax on the sticker. When running on a budget I really don't want to be saying 6.99 okay that's 7.69 in my head and have to keep track while figuring out what I can afford to eat that week.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well the government can break up corporations which results in more competition. They can also enforce standards which also allows more competition. This gives people more options so they can't just set prices in a monopolistic way.

Unfortunately there's not much the Canadian government can do about Walmart and Microsoft as they aren't Canadian companies. And Kamala's opportunity economy has been cancelled so it doesn't look there's going to be any positive change in the US for foreseeable future.

But they could break up Loblaw's at least.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

They can absolutely tell Walmart they have to reduce their footprint or break up in Canada. They don't lose their sovereignty just because it's an American Corporation. If they think Walmart is using global profits to unduly influence Canadian markets they can introduce a tax or even ban them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Talking point bots will blame Trudeau for this.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If taxes lower, that's good for both the consumer and seller. Their profit margin doesn't even change.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Explain your math. It’s absolutely 100% benefit to the seller and 0 benefit to the buyer.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Reminds me when Alberta reduced the tax on gas, and within a few weeks consumers were paying the same amount again

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Betcha you get reminded again when Canada sweeps the cons in because cArBOn tax and then we pay the same by Monday for everything.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You didn't happen to take screenshots did you? It's something that should be reported to the media as well

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You didn’t happen to take screenshots did you? It’s something that should be reported to the media as well

I wish I had thought of it. I tried the Honey extension which sometimes shows historical prices, but no luck this time. I couldn't find any other way to double check the previous prices either.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

See if it's on the Internet Archive (web.archive.org)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

If the controller was $55 yesterday and $62 today there would definitely be shenanigans, but a week ago? It could just be that a sale ended since you last looked.

Anyway, I don't see $62 Xbox controllers on their site, checking from Nova Scotia. Official controllers are the usual $70-something and there's PowerA brand for $55.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They are ridiculously expensive to begin with, thus my waiting for a special occasion to spend that much money to get a first-party one. Here it is, probably priced lower than the others because of the ugly colour that I kind of like.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

That controller is the same price on Amazon, and Camelcamelcamel shows it went up to that on Dec 6, Friday of last week. It was probably the same with Walmart.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Might be betraying my age here, but do you remember when GST was 7%? EXACTLY the same thing happened.

GST breaks strictly pad the revenues of business AT THE COST of funds to the public purse. Does a fat fucking zero to the wallets of consumers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (2 children)

GST?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Sales tax, has different acronyms in different countries such as Value Added Tax (VAT), Goods and Services Tax (GST)...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

General sales tax we have had in Canada for years. Tax on all goods and services. Used to be 7% but dropped to 5% a number of years ago

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

Ah gotcha, thanks

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