Figuring out how much to pay

During my first few years in Romania, I wrote a few blog posts about the seemingly strange or complicated ways that Romanians did things. Fast forward several years. Now many of those very practices make perfect sense to me. I guess that's just part of the process of living in a country for so long.

But it goes the other way, too. While I was in the US this spring, I realized just how foreign the US seems to me now. (I actually started to keep a list of things in the US that seemed so strange to me.) One of the things that repeatedly caused my brain to hurt was trying to figure out how much I need to pay for anything. In Romania, the displayed price on the shelf or price tag is what I pay at the cash register. Not so in the US. 

I decided to take pictures of these head-scratching moments while I was in the US and write this blog post just for fun. For American readers: I hope you can laugh at some of these ridiculous scenarios. For non-American readers: keep this in mind if you ever visit the US!

Taxes

No surprise to me here. Taxes always need to be added to the price on the shelf (except when they don't). Let's say I have $1 in my pocket and I find an item marked for $1. When I get to the register, I need to pay $1.06.

At least that's the case in Pennsylvania. Tax rates vary from state to state and locality to locality. However, sales tax isn't charged on all items. (In Pennsylvania, the 6% sales tax doesn't apply to food, clothes, and a handful of other items.) In such a case, if I have $1 and something is marked for $1, I would be able to pay for it. But if I'd be visiting from out-of-state and wouldn't know the local tax code, I might think that sales tax would still need to be added.

There is one major exception: the gas pump. For some odd reason, the price displayed for gasoline (down to the tenth of a cent) DOES include sales tax.

 

It really shouldn't be hard for retailers to display prices with sales tax included. That's what they do in Romania. But even in the US, I found this food vendor in Washington DC that includes taxes in their prices. (See the fine print at the bottom of the menu.) It makes it so much easier to have the right change ready if you're paying with cash.

Tips

In Romania, when you eat out, you round up to leave a tip for your server (rarely above 10%). You could give a delivery driver a small tip, but it's not expected. American culture, of course, is different. Restaurant servers rely on tips since their earned wages are less than minimum wage. 15% was the standard tip when I was growing up. Now it's at least 20%.

  

A strange thing happened during the pandemic that left me completely befuddled the first time I experienced it. Regular wage workers are now asking for a tip simply to do their jobs. The guy at Auntie Anne pretzels is asking for a 20% tip. He didn't seat me, bring my order to my table, check on me while I was eating, clean up my garbage afterwards. He just grabbed a pretzel off the shelf next to him and handed it to me. Seriously...why would I tip him for that? And why is it now socially unacceptable if I don't tip?

Discounts for greater quantities.

Moving on to the grocery store: I know all about the familiar "Buy one get one free" or "Buy one, get one half off" sales. I grew up with this type of sale, but I have to admit that some of the new sales are getting rather complicated.

This sale is "Buy two 6-packs, get one 6-pack free." (Note that no where on this price tag is it clearly stated what the price is for one 6-pack. You have to read the tiny print to see the regular price, or you need to assume that the amount you save is the price of one 6-pack.) I just needed to buy one pack. I want to glance at a price tag and see the price, not read an essay.

Here's a price tag that I stared at for a few minutes, trying to figure out how much I would pay for just one. (There are 4 prices on this tag!) Apparently, the price for just one is the price with the smallest typeface.

I also found this price tag with 6 different prices.

Let's just say that my trips to the grocery store ended up being WAY more complicated than they should have been! By the time I got to the car, I almost needed a break to gather my wits. Oh, but this is just the beginning of the price nonsense I experienced.

Divide to get a discount 

Some stores don't actually display the price for a discounted item. The price tag only has a math problem to solve. 

I know they do this to make you think you're saving money. But I only want one. And when I only need one, $2.99 is still less than $4.

I see $3.89
I see $1.39
I pay $2.50 each (but only if I buy 2)
I just want one.

Divide to find the price: 

On other items, the regular price is displayed as a math problem. This makes it difficult to know that the tags above are for discounts, when some regular prices are also displayed this way.

Credit Card Fees

This was totally new to me. Although I've seen websites for charitable donations that ask donors to cover the credit card processing fee, I've never seen a business charge customers to cover what should just be part of their normal operating expenses.

Charitable Donation

I honestly couldn't believe this when I saw it. At the self-checkout at the grocery store, I was asked not once, not twice, but FOUR TIMES if I want to donate to a charity. (After experiencing this, I've read online that in such situations, since I wouldn't actually be receiving a charitable gift statement from the non-profit organization, my "donation" is just going to the grocery store corporation, which can then use it as it wishes. If it does make a donation to the non-profit, then the corporation gets the charitable recognition instead of the customers who actually made the donations.)

So finally, after all the posts I wrote in my early days of being in Romania, I found something worth blogging about that is simpler in Romania than in the US!

The funny thing to me is that when I brought this up in conversation with friends in the US, several thought all of this is just perfectly normal and that I'm the strange one for wanting it to be straightforward. I guess I've just been spoiled all these years in Romania by assuming that the price on the shelf is the amount that I pay at the register, with no hidden taxes, fees, tips, or math problems. Silly me.