{"id":704190,"date":"2026-05-30T17:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T17:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704190\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T17:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T17:40:14","slug":"n-b-liquor-will-stop-tax-inclusive-price-tags-to-reduce-confusion-for-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704190\/","title":{"rendered":"N.B. Liquor will stop tax-inclusive price tags to ‘reduce confusion’ for customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

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The customer experience at a New Brunswick Liquor store has been straightforward for nearly 30 years: the price on the shelf is the one people pay at the cash register.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s going to change as soon as this fall, when the Crown corporation eliminates taxes-included pricing in corporate and agency stores. <\/p>\n

This is being done to match what happens in grocery stores, where the HST and deposit charges are added at the cash register.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis change will help [N.B. Liquor] align with standard retail practice; most retail stores do not display \u201call-in\u201d pricing on the shelf, and in fact our grocery partners are already using this approach,\u201d N.B. Liquor said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will ensure consistency across our retail network and reduce confusion for customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement didn’t say how N.B. Liquor determined there was customer confusion over the all-in pricing.<\/p>\n

CBC News could not get an interview with anyone at the corporation.<\/p>\n

WATCH | What do customers think? :\"\"<\/p>\n

Cheaper booze? Don\u2019t let the price tag fool you<\/p>\n

N.B. Liquor will eliminate long-standing taxes-included pricing in corporate and agency stores to match with the experience at grocery stores.<\/p>\n

Rothesay resident Craig Pinhey, who writes about beer, wine and spirits, and is a judge in national competitions, understands the planned change but does wonder about an ulterior motive with the price of alcohol products on the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like that when the price you see is what you’re paying \u2026 I don’t want this [change] to happen. But I guess I can see what the argument would be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cynic in me would say they just want the prices to look lower because prices have gone up so much lately that it gives a little incentive for people to buy a more expensive product than they would otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ARothesay resident Craig Pinhey, who writes about beer, wine and spirits, said he understands the planned change but suspects the motive isn’t customer confusion. (Mark Leger\/CBC)<\/p>\n

In its release, N.B. Liquor said customers will still not see increased prices as a result of the change in the pricing model.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price will look different on the shelf, customers will still pay the same price at the checkout as they usually do,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Fredericton resident Damian Bilodeau likes the simplicity of tax-included pricing, but he\u2019s ultimately fine with the planned shift to calculating the final price at the cash register.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of nice to see the price and you just go to the counter \u2026 you don\u2019t have to worry about any of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be a lot of people that will be outraged, they don\u2019t like taxes already. Personally, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be too broken up because I buy it sometimes from Sobeys too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AN.B. Liquor currently uses tax-inclusive price tags. (Hannah Rudderham\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Brett Hood, who also lives in Fredericton, said he\u2019d like to see the entire retail world embrace tax-include pricing, rather than see N.B. Liquor embrace the standard practice of calculating additional charges and taxes at the register.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be better if all stores went the opposite approach and had all-inclusive prices on the shelf for everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a lot of other countries, especially across Europe, the price you see at the cash is the price you see at the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

N.B. Liquor expects the changes to be in place in the fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-704190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}