Do you want to pay the inside price or the outside price?

The inside price (At the cash register)

The outside price (In front of the restaurant)

Pricing is one of those things that drives customers crazy. And these two posted signs, with prices penny apart, are just infuriating.

$3.57 plus 12% HST equals $3.9984. $3.58 plus 12% HST equals $4.0096. Now, if I remember back to the primary school arithmetic rules about rounding up and down, the $3.57 price should round up to $4.00, while the $3.58 price should round up to $4.01.

I am not sure what the rules are about rounding taxes. Does the Canada Revenue Agency say that the price with taxes should round up to round down? But regardless of what the rule is, the price inside and outside should be the same. It is only a penny, but it is just another detail that someone is not paying attention to.

This stuff drives me crazy.