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