I volunteered to bring ice pops to a Cub Scout event in a couple weeks. Easy enough, right? Our pack plans to hand ice pops out to children at the event, and after estimating how many kids might attend, the pack asked me to purchase two thousand ice pops.
Two thousand! I knew that some stores carry 100-count boxes of these, so I figured I “only” had 20 boxes to pick up. This proved a little more difficult than I anticipated. I was sure I’d seen these at Menards in the under-$3 range, but after visiting two different Menards and finding the large boxes sold out, I continued looking elsewhere.
The Huntley Walmart had 100-count boxes of Pop-Ice for $3.77, but they only had eight boxes in stock — four regular fruit flavors, four tropical fruit. I bought them, then headed to Jewel-Osco to pick up the rest, as I was pretty sure I’d seen them there before too.
The Huntley Jewel indeed had 100-count boxes of Pop-Ice too in regular flavors for $3.99. I bought 12 boxes, taking me to my total of 20 100-count boxes. Want to see what two thousand Pop-Ice pops look like in the back of a vehicle?
If you too find that you suddenly need mass quantities of ice pops, try Walmart first — the boxes sold at Walmart had 1.5 ounce ice pops inside. Jewel’s are 1-ounce. You get much more ice per pop buying them at Walmart…
As I compared receipts, I noticed something very strange. Despite buying the same items, I paid 1.75% sales tax at Walmart, but I paid 7% sales tax at Jewel:
I should add that the Walmart and Jewel locations I shopped are on the same street! They are exactly 1.3 miles apart.
I’m not sure if this is a factor too, but I thought of something else that might affect the tax rate of identical items at these two stores: The Walmart I shopped at is located in McHenry County, but the Jewel-Osco I shopped is located in Kane County (here’s a map.)
The county line cuts right through our town, which causes occasional mishaps, most notably when people plan weddings at Del Webb’s Prairie Lodge here. The county line bisects the Del Webb property too, and a few people have been in the news when they’ve had to get “remarried” after taking a McHenry County marriage license to the lodge, because the lodge is actually located in Kane County.
I don’t know if the difference in counties is enough to affect things, because McHenry County’s sales tax rate is also 7%, but I was only charged 1.75% at Walmart. Is it possible that one county taxes candy/snacks (or in this case, ice pops) differently than the other? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, as I’m very curious..!
SSMark1 says
What? No MyMixx # entered?
I’m guessing Jewel’s tax table for that item or class is incorrect.
Does your troop have a not-for-profit letter?
(My wife & I use them when we volunteer to buy & cook Awana meals Wednesday nights.)
Then you would not have to pay any tax.
I would gladly trade Crook County sales tax for the tax rates of Kane & McHenry!
We recently bought a TV for our place up north at Best Buy. It was on sale & a great deal. I took the receipt to a Best Buy in Wisconsin on the way and did a full return & then asked them to put it through as a new purchase as saved $3.50 in tax. I just took the receipt to customer service. The TV was not needed for the return/repurchase. No hassle & a great experience.
The TV was for our place in Wisconsin.
Tax in Michigan & many other states on these pops would be ZERO… and most of the other non-food items are 5.5% in Wisconsin in just about every county in the state!
Most of Illinois food sales tax is in the 1.75-2.25% range.
My cousin in Wisconsin calls this taxing the poor.
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/rpt/2012-R-0490.htm
scroll down… and keep going… and the very bottom.
The “Coke” (soda/candy) tax has been in & out of the news for years.
Downstate Illinois thinking is – If it’s bad for you, it needs to be taxed.
And the we have the USE TAX for internet & out of state purchases we must claim on our IL income tax.
Sorry if I vented a bit, but when it comes to taxes & our government, they still don’t know how to budget properly.
Most of us couponers know how to work within a budget & watch the money close.
Put us in charge!
-Mark
Coupon Maven says
No MyMixx because I knew I didn’t have any ecoupons for these. And yes, we do have a tax exempt letter, but I didn’t have it with me..! Oh well. Consider it my contribution to the pack… plus, how would I have known about the differences in taxes if this hadn’t happened? :)
I am tempted to go back to Jewel with both receipts (and the tax letter) and ask them to explain this. At the very least, I could have them re-ring the purchase to take the tax off, but I suspect these ice pops aren’t coded in their system as a food item…
SSMark1 says
I haven’t worked with the Jewel folks for 16 years. And back then they kept a database of what was purchased & a total spend amount…supposedly for marketing purposes only. Anyway, we would sometime select the top “X” many customers for mailings based on spend. Remember those Preffered Books we mailed every month with a free item coupon in the late 90s?
It would be interesting to find out what’s being collected with MyMixx these days… I always enter it, even if I’m buying that 1 banana for the CheckOout 15/SavingStar/Ibotta rebates…
-Mark
Carrie says
I’m betting they categorize it differently. Ready to Serve items are typically taxed at a standard sales tax rate – like restaurant food would be. Things that are classed as “groceries” for food prep are taxed at a lower rate.
dancingwolves says
I know food is taxed lower (under 2%) most of the time except for fast food. So not sure why one store classifies it different. I have to think twice when shopping at Menards or Walgreens as I go past both the Carpentersville and Crystal Lake stores in my travels. Most of my receipts reflect McHenry 7.75% and Kane 9%.
hwendt12 says
Speaking of tax, I got annoyed the other day at Dunkin Donuts drive thru.
I’ve been there often enough to know that at large coffee, priced at $2.29, comes out to $2.35 with tax, so I dug out exact change as not to hold up the line. I get to the window…$2.46…what??? The guy had no explanation for me & the receipt indeed showed $.17 tax…did the way they tax those drinks change??
One more reason to love my Keurig…
Coupon Maven says
No kidding! What you paid in tax is almost our target price per K-cup (.25 or less, when we buy them…)