So it just disappeared? How long did ot last? And is the same skin usable or could it resurface or reactivate the old tattoo?

Now I’m even more curious.

How long will those last? Can you expand a bit on it?

Mine too but I always thought I was an odd thing.

Electronic, e-ink, price tags.

Centrally linked to a shop back office workstation. You can turn the entire shop upside down twice a week and the actual work to change the tags would be negligible.

And for what it matters, lets assume a very large nation wide chain, like Target. The stock leaves their supply wharehouses unmarked, as it should. The cargo is then delivered to the stores, the tags printed (waste of paper), with full price, and the shelves restocked. Each store has to deal with their local taxation or absence of it.

It is not a very complex endeavour.

Agreed

Regardless. It had a better chance to it. And nowadays a bunch of countries with wildly varying cultures, completely different languages and a lot of unsolved baggage is doing it better.

If it was to be another group of independent nations, fine. But the moment federation is considered and considering the duress it had to take from the start, against a common enemy, true, organized union would be easier and simpler.

I risk computers can deal with the brunt of the work, if will to do so exists.

Tax harmonization is an ongoing struggle.

The Nederlands and Ireland have extremely low taxation rates for companies, which is causing many companies to move to these countries and effectively undercutting their country of origin. And now that I think about it, Luxembourg has the same issue.

But completely waving taxation is not legal, at any level.

I’m aware the american states could be considered countries. Unfortunately, the US being a somewhat more homogeneous country at its inception, never took the opportunity to create a good legal super structure. The end result is the conflicting federal and state level.

That is an entire level of idiocy and corruption by itself.

That is awful.

No prices? Things are getting worse.

I’m aware of that qwirk in your system. No such thing here. And I have a mortgage to pay.

No amount of cashback is enough to convince me to sign up to one.

Well… maybe 100%.

And I keep thinking my country’s tax system is weird.

No way! That is ridiculous. That is essentially equating to create tax havens inside your own country. What is stopping people from high taxation states to just go for a shopping spree on a non-taxation one? Or even a city or town? Nothing. It makes no sense.

My country has a mainland and two autonomous regions. All taxation is designed centrally. VAT, special taxes, income, private and corporate, vehicles, land, house, etc, everything is established centrally. The autonomous regions do have the freedom to fine tune the end % of tax but really nothing else. They can’t exempt a tax, just because.

Why would that be?

I think that builds into the credit card trap.

You should not need to guess-timate how much you’re going to spend, that is the issue.

If you want to pay in cash, that’s it. Pick up the items, add it in your head, that’s it. Witholding how much you are really going to spend by not applying all charges holds you hostage.

Yes, you can just put it to your card and pay it later but why?

I’ve seen a tag change price but that price would only take effect the next day, as the store would be having a promotion on peaches. I simply asked for a clarification and the tag was rolled back.

On the day price changes are only done to clear perishables that otherwise will end in the trash, like fresh pastries or bread. And such changes can only take effect near to the closing hours of the store. Price variations throughout the day is a crime and stores have been heavily fined for it.

Take the hat off. Weirder theories exist.

Meanwhile, electronic price tags have been introduced in the market.

It’s these small e-ink devices that are tethered to a central input station in the backroom, where a person inputs prices.

I’ve seen tags change in front of my eyes, updating price, adding promotional info or changing the product available on shelf.

Inventory movements are not an excuse, I’d say. Regardless the end sale price, if a product is not sold, it is just inventory, which value is fixed for the company.

Lidl moves tons of non perishable inventory from central wharehouses to stores, daily, and they could not care what the end price was at the store. A given item may cost an X amount in a given season, disappear for a couple of months, then return to the shelves with a different price. The inventory value does not oscilate.

Tip is of no concern here. It’s a gratuity that may be given, outside the check, to the server.

The tax rates have to be declared on the product label. VAT is 23%, 13% or 6%, depending on the nature of the product. Basic food items and basic necessities, like baby diapers, are 6%. 13% is usually reserved fro restaurants and everything else goes into the higher rate.

Fuels, tobacco and so called luxury items have other taxes added to it, which are declared in the receipt.

It isn’t an opaque practice.