VAT

I don't know about you but this VAT business is changing my buying pattern and I wonder if it's giving retailers the jitters. For example I'm about to buy a couple of items for around £100 each so I should save about £4.30 by holding off until Monday ... if the retailers Do The Right Thing.

That is assuming that they're affected anyway. Will play.com reduce their prices? They're in the Channel Islands so I'm not sure goods from there have VAT on them anyway.

Some firms also seem to be hedging. VirginMedia for example currently have a note on their web site that says:

VAT rate to be reduced to 15% from 1 Dec 2008

We intend to ensure the Government's VAT rate cut is passed on to our customers as quickly and simply as possible.

which is marvellously vague but I can see it from their point of view: when your prices all end with .00 you don't want to drop them by 2.17% (so for example we would be paying £36.21 a month rather than £37) - it's not very easy to sell those sort of figures is it?