How do I get to go to one of these fancy-schmancy extra-cost ethnically focused chain grocers?
Avanza Supermarkets puts its groceries on sale, but then charges customers 10 percent extra when they get to the cash register, virtually wiping out some of the sale prices. It’s a new pricing program that the company, Nash Finch based in Minneapolis, began in its stores in Colorado.
Most shoppers do not notice that the extra charge has been added to their bills until they look carefully at their receipts.
“I don’t usually read the fine print, I just look to see what the sales are,” said Antoinette Garcia of Denver. “I don’t think that’s fair. They should let somebody know before they do that.”
When shoppers and 9Wants to Know asked store employees to explain the new pricing program, the store clerks and managers seemed confused.
“This is for taxes in Mexico and we think that people would feel better if they are charged for taxes as if they were in Mexico,” one worker said.
I always suspected that the main assimilatory issue new immigrants to our country face is not paying the same taxes they did in their homeland. If you have an immigrant presence in your community, most stores will simply take minor patronizing steps to accommodate them - moving tortillas to the end of the aisle, having a special Eid section, ordering up some extra bratwursts every October. But somehow I doubt that Avanza serves its German customers by adding that country’s VAT to their bill, a move which would finally allow our Brüder and Schwestern to feel at home in this alien land.