Breathtaking. So the Bahamas Federation of Retailers condones, and actively ignores, the possible misleading and overcharging of Bahamian customers by a small band of local retailers who are accused (by their *own customers*) of attempting to hide profiteering under the smokescreen of a new tax introduction?
Your commitment to business and to your community is one of "if they can get away with doing it, fine, its not our problem, we're too busy telling people to wake up."
Great ethics you've got there as a pseudo-official spokesman for retail.

An extraordinary response you've given.

So you've said nothing publicly on the record then. You've done it all (including the personal attacks in lieu of factually comparable examples) 'exclusive' of your name and 'exclusive' of your position, and you then turnaround and claim you are being ignored by government. Well no surprise there, they cannot hear you if you hide in the bushes. Look where exclusivity gets you.

VAT exclusive pricing has been soundly rejected by *all* countries (140+ of them) with the same consumption tax model as we have now introduced. Canada has a different model to us, a mixed consumption tax model, incorporating both a value added tax *plus* a variable provincial sales tax *plus* exemptions.

It took a very long time for you to understand the difference between a VAT and a sales tax during the lengthy period that you relied upon the USA being an example of an equivalent consumption tax model to us (which of course its not either). So I hope you can understand now, after repeating it half a dozen times, what a *mixed consumption tax model* (e.g. Canada) is compared to what a *single rate/single type consumption tax model* is (e.g. The Bahamas).

Bahamians have woken up. They have woken up to inclusive pricing for nearly seven days now and, irrespective of the merits of having a VAT or not, they know inclusive pricing is here to stay. The only people who haven't woken up to it yet are a small handful of retailers who are at odds with every other retailer in the world who operates successfully in a single consumption tax model market economy. One in which consumers - your customers - know exactly the price they will pay for your goods from what they see in the advertisements and on the pricetags, and exactly the amount that goes to government in tax from their receipts. Without needing to carry a pocket calculator out shopping with them.

If you are really so wedded to your exclusive pricing because you believe its in the interests of your customers, why do you not just price your products on the shelf with the tax amount also shown? For example, an individual pricetag simply stating
**"Price: $129.00 (*includes VAT of $9.00*)"**

I now look forward to hearing all your reasons why this is simply impossible, and how nobody understands retail but you, and how we must all wake up, out of the box, and understand that pricetags that have transparency, honesty and accuracy are simply unachievable in our completely unique economy that is like no other.

As a paid spokesman for the local retail industry, what have **you** said publicly, with your real name attached, about the companies being complained about for price gouging at the moment?

We are not crafting anything. We have a single value added tax, its already in effect. The rules have been written, adopted, and are one week into implementation. The points you make are about as valid as your misuse of Canada as an example. You have long since lost the debate on exclusive pricing. And you've clearly never been to Canada.

Canada does not have a consumption tax model like ours. FNM knows this.
The United States of America does not have a consumption tax model like ours. FNM knows this too.
You are still asleep to these facts and the fact that inclusive pricing is used in every country in the world that has the consumption tax model that we now do. That is why FNM will not alter the policy of inclusive pricing that PNP has put in place.
So yes, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Your wheel doesn't go anywhere, just around in circles.

Little wonder some retailers stand accused today, by dozens of customers, of hiding price increases through price gouging since the VAT was introduced nearly one week ago. Little wonder when their advocates think that sales can be "boosted" by hiding the true cost of a product on the shelf and in promotional advertising from a consumer until they reach the cash register.

With your arguments and international examples for maintaining the pretence of exclusive pricing collapsing all around you, this repeated mantra of yours is surely becoming embarrassing to read back at yourself again and again, and to those funding your organization.

No kisses required. This is not Paris (but if it were then the price of your kiss would be shown VAT-inclusive, of course, as it is the law in France too).

There is a very high chance that the local business community, via the actions of a small number of individual business owners, retailers, and representative spokespersons, is going to come out of the whole VAT introduction process looking worse than the government. This would be extraordinary, and a huge disservice to those in the business community who have worked hard and with genuine integrity to build trust with consumers and constructive relationships with government officials (in often difficult circumstances).

- Why is the "apolitical" Bahamas Federation of Retailers not loudly condemning those retailers seen attempting to price gouge customers under cover of the VAT introduction?
- Why is the BFR not assuring local consumers that this behavior is not indicative of the large majority of honest retailers who are complying with the law and pricing their goods correctly (and tax inclusively)?
- Are the BFR representatives who tell everyone else to "wake up" in fact asleep on the job themselves?