Tax is the other thing I found strange. In the UK prices generally include VAT if it applies (this is less true for big-ticket items like computers), and the with-VAT price is often a round number, or number ending in 99 or 95. In the USA I found I never knew whether sales tax was to be charged or not and how much it would come to and things like that - also the round numbers were often pre-tax. It made paying with exact change difficult so you ended up with far too much loose change.
Not listing the price - over here, this makes me think of "if Sir has to ask how much it is, Sir can't afford it", so it's strange to think of it as something that applies everywhere.
While I'm here I'll mention how typically in American hotels breakfast isn't included in the price, whereas elsewhere it is.
I found America to be a place where it was quite hard for me to control how much money I was spending, part of the culture shock I experience when over there.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 05:45 pm (UTC)Not listing the price - over here, this makes me think of "if Sir has to ask how much it is, Sir can't afford it", so it's strange to think of it as something that applies everywhere.
While I'm here I'll mention how typically in American hotels breakfast isn't included in the price, whereas elsewhere it is.
I found America to be a place where it was quite hard for me to control how much money I was spending, part of the culture shock I experience when over there.