Sales tax and mail-in rebate

Michael This brings something interesting to mind: When you buy something in a store in America, it's well-known that the sales tax is added to the listed price, which is 8.5% in San Francisco. If you buy a chocolate bar for $0.99, you pay $1.08 at the register. This is always confusing for tourists and especially leads to problems when you've painstakingly added up the amounts of all the items in your head before paying, intending to dump the kilo of loose change you've been carrying around for weeks onto the counter--only for the cashier to suddenly ask for a completely different amount! However, you get used to it after a while.

Recently, though, a second confusing factor has come into play: the so-called mail-in rebate. It might happen that a computer superstore advertises a new modem for $49.95, but when you go there, grab the item, and take it to the register, it suddenly costs $69.95 plus tax! The realization comes when you take a closer look at the price tag: in the fine print, it states that the listed price is only applicable after the so-called mail-in rebate, meaning you pay more in the store, then send a coupon to the company, and after a few weeks, you receive a check refunding the difference. The advantage for the company: they know who bought the item and can bombard the customer with targeted advertising.

This system sometimes leads to absurd situations, such as when the mail-in rebate is as high as the product price, which does happen. For example, the listed price for 10 diskettes is often $0.00--absolutely nothing! In the store, you pay $9.95 and simultaneously receive a coupon for the same amount--if you send this in along with the receipt, you receive a check for $9.95 after a few weeks, and the diskettes were practically free: you just have to account for tax and postage.