I'm Engaged!
Hooray for me (and Amanda)! Sadly, someone bought our preferred wedding site domain name, amandan.com. I think we're going to get amandanwedding.com, which I argued is better than amandan.net or something similar.
We got engaged in Edinburgh, which is where she studied abroad in college and where we went together early in our relationship. The trip was lots of fun. But now for what this blog is really about: nerdy stuff.
I noticed while I was there that prices were listed including VAT, which is roughly the same as a sales tax, at least from a consumer's point of view. This strikes me as a big improvement over the typical American method, where prices are listed pre-tax, so the consumer actually pays a little over a dollar for something listed as 99 cents. In the European method, the price on the menu tells you what you would have to pay for something. In the American method, the menu tells how much money the company receives. I obviously care much about the former.
Also, most American businesses set their prices so that the pre-tax amount is a round number, something like either $2.99 or $3.00, but then with the tax the consumer winds up with a bunch of coins in change. It slows down the process at the cash register and I find it annoying to have a bunch of coins in my pocket. In Scotland, prices are usually set to be round numbers including tax. In the US, there are some places that generally include the tax in their prices and then make round number prices including tax: movie theaters, sports stadiums, and bars. You would get a reputation as a pretty terrible bar if your drinks cost $4 but came out to $4.23 with tax.
I was in a Kentucky Fried Chicken once that had an interesting/terrifying solution to the annoyance of coins. After you ordered your food, say it came out to $5.18. A screen would offer you the chance to throw in another drumstick to make the total price $6. Since most Americans, especially those at KFC, are dangerously underweight, I'm sure that public health experts are thrilled at this innovation and praying it catches on.
I would be psyched if some business started something doing a fair odds gambling game to get rid of coins in change. Your total is $3.82 and you pay with a $5. If you don't want to gamble, you get $1.12 in change. If you do, you get $2 12% of the time and $1 88% of the time. Of course, I think getting rid of pennies altogether is a no brainer.
Alright, my engagement post was 90% whining about coins. Nice.
We got engaged in Edinburgh, which is where she studied abroad in college and where we went together early in our relationship. The trip was lots of fun. But now for what this blog is really about: nerdy stuff.
I noticed while I was there that prices were listed including VAT, which is roughly the same as a sales tax, at least from a consumer's point of view. This strikes me as a big improvement over the typical American method, where prices are listed pre-tax, so the consumer actually pays a little over a dollar for something listed as 99 cents. In the European method, the price on the menu tells you what you would have to pay for something. In the American method, the menu tells how much money the company receives. I obviously care much about the former.
Also, most American businesses set their prices so that the pre-tax amount is a round number, something like either $2.99 or $3.00, but then with the tax the consumer winds up with a bunch of coins in change. It slows down the process at the cash register and I find it annoying to have a bunch of coins in my pocket. In Scotland, prices are usually set to be round numbers including tax. In the US, there are some places that generally include the tax in their prices and then make round number prices including tax: movie theaters, sports stadiums, and bars. You would get a reputation as a pretty terrible bar if your drinks cost $4 but came out to $4.23 with tax.
I was in a Kentucky Fried Chicken once that had an interesting/terrifying solution to the annoyance of coins. After you ordered your food, say it came out to $5.18. A screen would offer you the chance to throw in another drumstick to make the total price $6. Since most Americans, especially those at KFC, are dangerously underweight, I'm sure that public health experts are thrilled at this innovation and praying it catches on.
I would be psyched if some business started something doing a fair odds gambling game to get rid of coins in change. Your total is $3.82 and you pay with a $5. If you don't want to gamble, you get $1.12 in change. If you do, you get $2 12% of the time and $1 88% of the time. Of course, I think getting rid of pennies altogether is a no brainer.
Alright, my engagement post was 90% whining about coins. Nice.
posted by pokerschwab at 3:06 PM
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