[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Wand and British money

[Cait Hunter]

>From: "Amy Z" <aiz24 at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
>To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Wand and British money
>Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 00:40:57 -0000
>
>Darla wanted to know:
>
> > The whole dimes, nickles etc thing confused me as well. If you have
>ten cents
> > then why not call it ten cents?!?!?!
>
>This seems inevitable.  No matter what the official terminology,
>people will come up with slang for their money.  It's colorful!  Not
>as colorful as all those bobs, shillings, guineas, and whatnots you-
>all used to have (I never have any idea what's going on in monetary
>transactions in older English writing...I just skip right over them,
>just like I skip scenes where people are playing bridge).
>
> >
> > But the most confusing thing has got to be the way that in an
>american shop
> > you'll see something that claims to be (for example) $4. you then
>get to the
> > check out and are charged $4.25 or whatever...Why not just add tax
>onto the
> > price in the first place?
>
>Because things sell better if people think they're cheaper.  It's
>that simple.  You mean the posted prices in Britain include tax?
>Some places do that here, but most don't.
>
>Amy Z

That was one of my favorite things about the UK! I went to a summer program 
in Cambridge in '98, and it was really neat- we had a lunch break where it 
was our own responsibility to go find our own lunch, (we had almost 2.5 
hours) and a friend and I wandered all over the place finding sandwich 
shops. It was cool paying for stuff in coins and not having to figure out 
what 8.25% was going to add to the price. (Another neat thing was sandwich 
shops with everything ready made, no people messing around with 'I want this 
and not that'- you just picked off what you didn't want, simple as that.)

Cait & corgis
http://k9rainbow.tripod.com/photos/

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