[maaku]

At least in the US, sales tax is assessed locally, so it can vary even within a particular region. Dealing with fixed prices and additional sales tax is the only reasonable way to run a business that crosses multiple localities.

[milanst]

What about gas prices? The displayed price is what you actually pay, it always includes all the taxes.

I guess the businesses are not required to do this for other products and naturally they choose to display the lower price, i.e. the one excluding taxes.

[maaku]

Gas prices vary from street to street. People expect that.

On the other hand, a cleaning product from target costs $2.99 (plus tax) no matter where I live.

[_delirium]

Yeah, for whatever reason most (all?) states have decided to specifically require that advertised gasoline prices include all taxes and fees, but haven't done the same for other products. Though there are some moves afoot to require it for mobile telephone contracts as well.

[flomo]

Probably because many people want to purchase exactly $X of gas.