successfully sued K-Mart for taxing her toilet paper [1].
In October, the Murrysville woman went to court and submitted her sales receipts as evidence. According to these receipts, the store had twice taxed her twenty-eight cents for the purchase of a twelve-pack roll of toilet paper. After she brought it to K-Mart's attention, the chain immediately offered to settle out of court. But she refused to accept.
That's because, according to Ms. Bach, the settlement required that she sign a confidentiality agreement stating that she would not discuss the case or its particulars. Her goal was not to recover her twenty-eight cents, but to encourage others to be aware of what is taxable and what is not, and to make sure they aren't taken advantage of while shopping this holiday season.
K-Mart says it will not appeal the decision. Kim Freely, a spokeswoman for the company, stated "We don't want to fight with our customers... we apologize for the inconvenience and the problem is being corrected."
The article didn't say whether every K-Mart shopper had been taxed for toilet paper; but, seeing as how store register systems are programmed with UPC updates weekly, I can't imagine Ms. Bach was the only one. Whether or not others come forward remains to be seen, but it wouldn't surprise me if more consumers checked their old receipts after reading about this incident. I know if I'd been unfairly taxed for toilet paper -- and that I could get one hundred dollars for it -- I would take the money. One hundred dollars sounds pretty good.
But then again, maybe I'd just ask to be reimbursed the extra tax and then see if I could get some free popcorn. I like popcorn.
