Costco favors sales tax over members savings

I want to start off by saying I love Costco and that I do a lot of shopping there. My family buys the majority of our food as well as gas and other necessities there. That being said, I have a huge beef with how they treat their members.

While examining one of my Costco receipts recently I had difficulty getting the taxes to match up. After quite some time I discovered that the only way I could get the tax balance to match up was if I added the original prices of items that I had purchased with coupons. I assumed this was a mistake since other places I frequently shop at, like Fred Meyer and Target charge tax on the discounted price rather than the original price. After talking to a Costco representative it was explained to me that Washington State allows businesses the choice of charging tax on the discounted or regular price and that Costco chooses to apply tax at the regular price. Say what!?! I always thought Costco worked hard to provide its members the best possible value.