Stuff That Bugs Me - Liberty Tax Service Edition

I was in a mall recently. It was annual "tax time" - leading up to the IRS's deadline for filing. I saw this sign and something about it really bugged me:


You see, the convention in America is to put the dollar sign in FRONT of the number - not after it. I'm sure they were thinking they want people to read this sign as, "Twenty five dollars off with any mall receipt," so they put the dollar sign after the number.

The thing is, that's how we read it anyway, with the dollar sign put correctly in front of the number. "$25 Off" is read "twenty five dollars off." No one would say, "Dollars twenty five" when he or she sees "$25."

So by breaking with standard convention, in my opinion at least, the sign just makes them look stupid. I know I need to get a life, but this bugs they heck out of me because they probably think they did nothing wrong. OK, it's harmless - but it's wrong!

More importantly, I can't imagine anyone would decide where to have his or her taxes done based upon saving dollars twenty five with a mall receipt anyway, so not only is the sign stupid - the whole promotional idea is too!