Also, isn't it a little risky letting someone copy your credit card like that? Even if you trust the cashier not to steal the number, how do you know whether they're destroying the information after they're done with it?

pedantic? yes. but as a fellow member of the "give-em-too-much-to-get-fewer-back" tribe, I feel that you might appreciate this particular bit of pedantry.

I remember talking to someone who had clearly never worked in retail, complaining about their god-given right as a consumer to have change made for them trumping an open-air market vendor's right to have change for the rest of their sales for the day.

1. A country side advertising campaign? 2. A state wide advertising campaign? 3. A local newspaper that serves the county?

As odd as it seems, that's the way it is here in the States (but I can sympathize, a friend from Sweden was horribly annoyed by the differences between sticker price and final price because of the tax rate).

Over time, one does develop a vague sense of how much their purchases will be taxed, but I would definitely support a measure that required merchants to charge no more than what's on the tag.