Topic 'Death of the dumb prices at Walmart' in forum 'Canadian Chat' - dslreports.com

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:11:40 EDT

digitalfutur posted : Go cashless and get cash back on your credit card just for using it. It's the closest thing there is to a free lunch.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:06:11 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted : that is how it is done now.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:00:30 EDT

mr weather posted :

said by dirtyjeffer:

said by mr weather:

Do like they do in Australia: prices are shown taxes-in but the receipt breaks out the taxes from the total.

so what if you get a First Nations person shopping in your store?? :p

Apply the tax rebate at the point of sale.
--
"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:57:03 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted :

said by mr weather:

Do like they do in Australia: prices are shown taxes-in but the receipt breaks out the taxes from the total.

so what if you get a First Nations person shopping in your store?? :p

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:55:30 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted :

said by Gone:

said by nitzguy:

I mean, we are human, we make mistakes, lets say a penny slips and doesn't make it in to the register and at the end of the day you're out a penny, how do you manage that now?

You try and find out what the error was and fix it. If you can't, you make an adjusting entry.

everywhere i worked, you were either "over" or "short", meaning you deposited more or less than what you were supposed to...it was quite common to be out a little bit over the course of a day (grabbing a quarter instead of a nickel by accident)...in the end, when you reconcile your "monies", you might be out $2 at the end of the month, which just comes out of your profit...it is a minuscule amount...of course, if you are out a lot (over/short), then you dig a little further to see what is going on...for example, if you are short $28.25, you look for entries for $25 (plus tax)...you will often find that a sale was processed incorrectly at which point you could then correct it to balance the books...if it was discovered the next day, you can correct it that day and be over $28.25, which would negate the previous day's shortage...any person working in retail works with over/short all the time.
--
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

- George Orwell

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:43:14 EDT

mr weather posted : Do like they do in Australia: prices are shown taxes-in but the receipt breaks out the taxes from the total.
--
"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:11:02 EDT

Gone posted :

said by urbanriot:

Ah, I see what he's suggesting, that the price of tax is invisible to the consumer but visible for everyone else, like manufacturing, distribution, resellers, etc.

When one understands how the mechanism surrounding input tax credits works with GST/HST, and that *everything* purchased by a business with a GST/HST account is an input tax credit - including even the toilet paper for the bathroom - one should also understand that the tax needs to be visible so you can reconcile the credits and ensure that what you are claiming for the refundable portion is correct.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:15:23 EDT

urbanriot posted : Ah, I see what he's suggesting, that the price of tax is invisible to the consumer but visible for everyone else, like manufacturing, distribution, resellers, etc.

No, I think I'd rather the amount of money that the government collects, in addition to corporate and income taxes, is visible to me and everyone else.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:09:44 EDT

nitzguy posted :

said by dragonfly:

We should have tax built-into our prices, like they do in the rest of the world. End this silliness.

We could have the GST built into the price....companies choose not to. You know why? Optics. Walmart wants to sell you that shoe for $9.97...that's their price, they want you to know that its the government that's stealing the other 49ish cents for GST (@ 5%, not every province is subject to HST so I'm just keeping things easy math wise).

Its in the legislation, take a look.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:08:03 EDT

nitzguy posted :

said by Gone:

said by nitzguy:

I mean, we are human, we make mistakes, lets say a penny slips and doesn't make it in to the register and at the end of the day you're out a penny, how do you manage that now?

You try and find out what the error was and fix it. If you can't, you make an adjusting entry.

...I should have known that....I've been out of the accounting practice loop for way too long....thanks for the tip o' the day!

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:05:27 EDT

urbanriot posted : ... what?

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:28:04 EDT

dragonfly posted : We should have tax built-into our prices, like they do in the rest of the world. End this silliness.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:34:26 EDT

Gone posted :

said by nitzguy:

I mean, we are human, we make mistakes, lets say a penny slips and doesn't make it in to the register and at the end of the day you're out a penny, how do you manage that now?

You try and find out what the error was and fix it. If you can't, you make an adjusting entry.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:32:10 EDT

EUS posted :

said by ekster:

They should still be showing the actual total in case you use a credit/debit card. The rounding should only happen if you use cash afterwards.

And only if you do not have exact change.
--
~ Project Hope ~

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:30:15 EDT

nitzguy posted : I have a question, if you're out now, how do you reconcile?

I mean, we are human, we make mistakes, lets say a penny slips and doesn't make it in to the register and at the end of the day you're out a penny, how do you manage that now?

I'm just curious...at work, I just have this magical thing called a "Variance Slip" that makes me magically balance lol.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:58:34 EDT

Gone posted :

said by ekster:

The rounding should only happen if you use cash afterwards.

... that's exactly how it will happen.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:56:42 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted : it is possible they may have an "adder" like this:

Sub Total: $85.53
Cash Rounding : $00.02
Cash Total: $85.55

or

Sub Total: $85.52
Cash Rounding: -$00.02
Cash Total: $85.50

the "Cash Rounding" line would have its own ledger in the accounting part of the program.
--
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

- George Orwell

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:56:16 EDT

Gone posted :

said by urbanriot:

How do you get your bank recs to match?

A separate over/under account for posting rounded amounts is what the accountant told us to do, that way the actual rounded amount is the only thing that appears in the GL for the bank account to reconcile with the physical bank account. If the software doesn't do it automatically, you should be able to do this manually in your accounting package when entering a sales or purchase invoice. Since this only applies to cash transactions it shouldn't happen nearly as often as one would assume.

I would expect that should you accept cash payments your accountant will recommend that you do something similar. If rounding works as well as one would hope, the over/under account should be at or very near 0 by year end.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:54:12 EDT

ekster posted : They should still be showing the actual total in case you use a credit/debit card. The rounding should only happen if you use cash afterwards.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:52:36 EDT

IamGimli posted :

said by urbanriot:

From the small businesses to the large businesses with legacy software, bank recs are a bit of a concern in terms of being out of pennies and companies are still trying to cope with how to comply.

Plenty of people don't have the option to make the adjustment in their software to round in any direction. (We do in ours)

I'd much rather cash registers DIDN'T round off what they display as those that do can have the rounding rules changed by the retailer and I would want to know if a retailer is fleecing me by always rounding up.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:49:30 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted : they have had a year to plan for the change...i would imagine if their POS didn't already include such a provision, it shouldn't be that big of a deal to get one.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:35:38 EDT

urbanriot posted :

said by donoreo:

Business will get them patched, if you select cash as pay type it will round up or down.

Exactly. And this is in response to dirtyjeffer's comment concerning why people are concerned about this. That and custom software for sites with inventory controls that are rather significant in scope and size.

From the small businesses to the large businesses with legacy software, bank recs are a bit of a concern in terms of being out of pennies and companies are still trying to cope with how to comply.

Plenty of people don't have the option to make the adjustment in their software to round in any direction. (We do in ours)

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:31:47 EDT

anon posted : Actually pennies in the price still matter as long as we are paying 13% HST on every piece of crap they sell :p :p :p

It's the final price that matters. Not the listed store price.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:28:57 EDT

donoreo posted : One thing I look forward to: no more old ladies counting out 15 cents in pennies!

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:25:36 EDT

donoreo posted :

said by urbanriot:

said by dirtyjeffer:

the till never says that...if the price works out to that, the till shows the adjusted amount, and that is what is collected.

?! Did the Canadian government release a cash register patch for every cash register in existence and every single custom software package in Canada that changes the money requested?

Business will get them patched, if you select cash as pay type it will round up or down.
--
The irony of common sense, it is not that common.
I cannot deny anything I did not say.
A kitten dies every time someone uses "then" and "than" incorrectly.
I mock people who give their children odd spelling of names.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:24:05 EDT

urbanriot posted :

said by dirtyjeffer:

the till never says that...if the price works out to that, the till shows the adjusted amount, and that is what is collected.

?! Did the Canadian government release a cash register patch for every cash register in existence and every single custom software package in Canada that changes the money requested?

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:22:06 EDT

Steve posted :

said by urbanriot:

How do you get your bank recs to match?

Only non-cash transactions have anything to do with a bank reconciliation, which don't have the rounding issues that cash does.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:20:19 EDT

donoreo posted :

said by dirtyjeffer:

if you question is how that works on the back end, i am not sure, but i am sure there is some sort of algorithm adjustment done.

You mean, math? :)

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:19:13 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted : the till never says that...if the price works out to that, the till shows the adjusted amount, and that is what is collected.

if you question is how that works on the back end, i am not sure, but i am sure there is some sort of algorithm adjustment done.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:17:54 EDT

urbanriot posted : ... and when the till says $1.01, $1.02, $1.03, $1.04, $1.06, etc., ?

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:09:19 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted :

said by urbanriot:

said by dirtyjeffer:

i really don't know why so many people are making a big deal about this...it really is a non-issue.

How do you get your bank recs to match?

?

the till says "1.05", money received (i paid) is $1.05...everything matches.
--
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

- George Orwell

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:08:28 EDT

urbanriot posted :

said by dirtyjeffer:

i really don't know why so many people are making a big deal about this...it really is a non-issue.

How do you get your bank recs to match?

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:55:34 EDT

dirtyjeffer posted : exactly...as well, the rounding doesn't occur on each item, only at the total...so if you bought 100 items from Wal-Mart, all with goofy "3.67, 16.48 and 1.93" price points on them, only the total gets rounded if you pay cash...if you pay debit or credit, the total remains as is.

i really don't know why so many people are making a big deal about this...it really is a non-issue.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:52:42 EDT

Riamen posted : The one cent denomination will continue to exist it's the coin representing it that is being discontinued.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:29:08 EDT

urbanriot posted : I don't see that changing.

Keep in mind that we still have taxes that alter the final price and we still have plenty of people with debit / credit cards as corster points out.

Re: Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:25:33 EDT

corster posted : No.

Debit and Credit transactions will not round, and the posted price of the item is irrelevant as rounding occurs only on the post-tax price.

Therefore, you can look forward to many more $4.97 prices during your future trips to Wal-Mart.

Death of the dumb prices at Walmart

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:23:02 EDT

Sukunai posted : With the death of the penny in Canada, we can now say good bye to the idiotic attention grabbing silly Walmart prices in Canada.

$4.97 simply has no worth any more.

There is simply no reason for these idiotic attention grabbing increments any more.

It's now either $4.95 or $5.00, there is no increments in between regardless of how they want to post it.

Unless of course they want to seriously expect us to care how it all tallies up as grand totals of multiple items.

Pricing individual items now simply will be pointless stupid confusion generation.