Consumer Convenience in Pricing Act (Law'd)

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Sponsor:  Senator Lief

Consumer Convenience in Pricing Bill

Effective January 1st, 2011 all public and private establishments must present/label all goods and services sold in said establishment with the total price paid by the consumer (including all national, regional and local sales tax).

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I think this is an important bill to make shopping easier and more convenient for our citizens. This is already done in many other countries (whether by custom or by law), and should help Atlasians on a budget more easily calculate the costs of groceries and other important purchases.

The only objection I have to this is that it will allow businesses to jack up their prices.  If an item currently costs $9.99 and is subject to my local sales tax of 7.375%, the total price comes to $10.73

I can easily see a business raising the price to $10.99 and pocketing that extra cash just because the new restriction on pricing gives them easy leeway to do so.

It's the same argument as with getting rid of the penny.  The business will round up, not down.

We also would have to make changes to marketing laws so that businesses can advertise products at their base price without being accused of false advertising.  No business should be forced to change an ad in every single taxing jurisdiction to advertise the correct price.

The difference is that right now, a product advertised at $9.99 is $9.99 on the shelf and tax is added at the register.  Instead, the advertisement would say $9.99, but the price on the shelf at the store would say $10.73 or whatever.  Do you see where I'm going with this?

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I see no reason to oppose this bill, then.

I call a motion to end debate.  

Senators please vote aye, nay, or abstain.

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Aye

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Cloture has been passed.  No new amendments may be proposed for this bill and debate is thus ended.

Voting for:  Snowguy716, DallasFan, Bgwah, HappyWarrior, Duke, Lief, Antonio
Against:  None
Not Voting (Abstention):  Eraserhead, Bacon King, NCY

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I motion to open a vote on this bill:

Senators, please vote aye, nay, or abstain

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Aye

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Aye

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Indeed it is.

Voting aye:  9 NCY, Eraserhead, Duke, Lief, Antonio, Snowguy, Bgwah, Bacon King, HappyWarrior

Voting Nay:  0

Abstaining:  DallasFan

Senators, you have 24 hours to change your votes.

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Alright.  Sorry for the delay.  No votes were changed, so the official total is as follows:

Voting "Aye":  9  (NCY, Eraserhead, Duke, Lief, Antonio, Snowguy, Bgwah, Bacon King, HappyWarrior)

Voting "Nay":  0

Abstaining:  1  (DallasFan)

This bill will be submitted to the president's desk for signing.