Because even though sales tax not being included in the list price is dumb, it is expected. You don’t get to the register and have a completely unrelated price. What DG is doing here, if I understand, is having the final price be completely decoupled from the list price.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t double check each line item on my receipt against the aisles after checkout. So while you might think it seems a bit high, you don’t automatically assume something fishy.

I know it's not sincere because this part was the lie.

they attempt to explain yet again that showing a price lower than the cost is normal and good?

That didn't happen. Not to mention this article said absolutely nothing about sales tax which is what you were told is the only thing remotely like this, so it's pretty obvious you weren't genuinely confusing the two.

Getting used to something that sucks isn't the same as accepting it. You ask 1000 people if they'd prefer this change, probably 998 would say yes. The 2 saying no would just be because they're used to it.

Anyone that tells you they don't know the price is playing dumb or is dumb. All you need to know is your state's sale tax and do the math.

Sometimes you'll get hit with a small city or county tax in an area you don't know (usually 1-2%), but these are rare and in the most populus areas. Most places it's just the state tax.

Point is if you are shopping in your home state in your home city you know exactly what you need to pay. Doing the math is inconvenient, I won't argue that. But it's not a total mystery. If someone were that concerned they can lookup tax rates and calculate.

What dollar general is doing is they are updating a price in their computer system, but not changing the tag. So an item with a $5 price tage should cost $5 plus the local tax. But in reality the item was $6 plus the local tax because dollar general didn't change the price tag so you can't know the price.

Don't get me wrong I wish everything was included on the tag, but it's not some unknowable random price. There are rules

Problem being, our sales taxes vary by state, county and city and sometimes by area (like a beach hotel with higher taxes) and they can change every election. Aside from being a pain in the ass to keep up with labelling, no one wants to be the hero with "honest" pricing and go out of business for seeming more expensive.

Made up numbers as an example:

Say you see something on the shelf with a $5 tag, and you know the sales tax is 10% in this area. You would calculate in your head that the price is a total of $5.50.

When you get to the register, the item rings up for $6, so with tax, you pay $6.60. This isn't a "computer error" or a "price change they missed", they are doing this on purpose to make money and hoping people don't notice. If you're only buying one item, you'll see it easier, but if you by several items and your total is off couple dollars you might not notice...

On top of that, there's typically one employee in the whole damn store, so if you do tell them something is wrong now you're the Karen holding up the line over "just a dollar" while they have to go to the back of the store and verify what the shelf says.

It's a combination of illegal business practices and social engineering done for profit by a major corporate entity, and I hope they burn for it.

Sales tax is expected to be added to the base price at the point of purchase, and the legislated tax rate is - ostensibly - public knowledge in whatever municipality the store is in.

If the prices on your items' shelf tags are accurate, as is legally required, you can sum up all your items' base prices, apply your locality's tax rate to that subtotal, and get an accurate total before hitting the checkout.

This article is about the shelf tags or labels being out of line entirely with the base prices the register pulls out of the system, which is obviously illegal basically everywhere. You can't display one price and surprise customers at the register with a different, higher price. This has nothing to do with sales tax added at the register and not shown on the tag.