As the Canada "tax holiday" starts, Walmart increased the price of an item by the amount I would have saved

This is exactly what the “Taxation is theft” morons don’t understand. They think if the government no longer takes their cut, everybody will just have X amount of money more, and the market won’t just swallow that up without giving you a single thing in return.

Is that legal? (Am American - idk about Canadian legal strictures around that, but it definitely feels like it’d run afoul of some sort of consumer protection legislation or something like that)

Kroger (grocery store) is doing the same thing this week. They're doing a 20% off "holiday bonus" discount on a one per-customer basis (20% off your entire order). The catch? Every item in the store is at least 20% more expensive than it was last week.

See, trickle down economics works ladies and gents /s

the prices probably won't go back down in february, either.

Reminds me when Alberta reduced the tax on gas, and within a few weeks consumers were paying the same amount again

Tax credits are always a government gift to corporations.

In any reasonable country, that should be illegal. In many places it is

Might be betraying my age here, but do you remember when GST was 7%? EXACTLY the same thing happened.

GST breaks strictly pad the revenues of business AT THE COST of funds to the public purse. Does a fat fucking zero to the wallets of consumers.

Well the debate should be over whether the taxes cause things to be expensive or it's corporate greed causing things to be expensive.

Next time you see one of the ubiquitous Poilievre ads claiming it's taxes that's making things unaffordable, think about where the problems actually are.

Seems like an opportunity to use this in attack PP's tax-cut rhetoric, and to attack the oft-repeated talking points from business that tax increases will be passed on to consumers.

Tax cuts are eaten by businesses, so long as the businesses believe that people will continue to buy. Tax increases will also be eaten by businesses, so long as the businesses believe that people will refuse to buy at a higher price. It's all being taken by or from shareholders.

It's a shame no political entities will actually touch this with anything more pointed or useful than "that's appalling!"

That's probably illegal.

Guess they're using the "black Friday" technique to lure in shoppers, again!

You didn't happen to take screenshots did you? It's something that should be reported to the media as well

I think the answer here is to buy that somewhere other than WalMart. Are there any stores nearby that didn’t increase their price on the controller?

All prices are set based on what consumers are willing to pay.

The only way prices ever go down is by exercising a decision not to buy something or to go somewhere for an item.

It will not come from the government, unless the government mandates a specific rate.

I don't say any of this to say that I think what Walmart is doing here is ethical, onky to say that it is logical from their standpoint if they assume there won't be any blowback.

Companies charge what they think they can get for a product. The tax is part of the price. If they think an item will sell for $5.26 including tax, it is reasonable for them to think it will still sell for $5.26 if the item isn't taxed.

That isn't to say this is nice on their part, but the current system doesn't incentivise them to be nice. It incentivises profit.

It does seem like they took the easy route to gain more profit. It is likely that, in the a absence of tax, their profit would be maximized by a price that is somewhere between the old pre-tax price and the old post-tax price.

I would support Canadian Tire over Walmart.

companies will 100% of the time do anything even illegal things to make more money.

That’s more than mildly infuriating.

Talking point bots will blame Trudeau for this.

I am just really glad none of the crap I sell is included. The list and logistics to comply with this "holiday" is insane.

Lets say you run a liquor store:

• Beer, cider, sake and wine are now not taxed
• But wine, cider and sake over 22.9% is still taxed
• Spirit coolers and premixed alcoholic beverages are now not taxed
• Spirit coolers and premixed alcoholic beverages over 7% are still taxed
• Gift boxes/baskets are taxed
• Unless those boxes/baskets have more then 90% the value in beverages that meet the tax holiday requirements

This is not even opening the other categories (Oh don't even think about child car seat/strollers). The cost of this program on stores and taxpayers (the cost of it is payed by the lack of tax and also the tax collected being diverted to this program) is not worth the 5% off some people will see (since most places will just up the price 5%).

Edit: and as the radio just pointed out this is a tax break on mostly luxury goods so it only really helps the people who don't need the help. (the example given was a dinner party would be 5% cheaper but a single parent's heat is not).

If the controller was $55 yesterday and $62 today there would definitely be shenanigans, but a week ago? It could just be that a sale ended since you last looked.

Anyway, I don't see $62 Xbox controllers on their site, checking from Nova Scotia. Official controllers are the usual $70-something and there's PowerA brand for $55.

Report them

Not buying a new controller until Valve Ibex releases. If one of mine breaks before then, it'll be replaced by an inexpensive 8bitdo 2C.

What about other stores?

If taxes lower, that's good for both the consumer and seller. Their profit margin doesn't even change.