If you purchase an item and have it gift wrapped by the retailer, the odds are quite good that they’ll remove the price tags and include a special receipt that doesn’t show any prices. From what I understand, this is standard practice for gift-wrapped orders. As a result, you don’t have to wonder whether there are any prices hidden inside the package.

But what happens when you purchase a gift and choose to wrap it yourself? Sure, you might be able to request a gift receipt, but there’s still the pesky issue of price tags. For some items, the price tags are clearly visible, so you can just remove the tag or the portion that has the price on it. However, for products that come in a sealed box or a plastic pouch that can’t be opened and resealed, there’s no easy way to tell if a price tag is lurking inside.

To take the guesswork out of this situation, retailers should affix a small, removable sticker to factory-sealed items to indicate that there’s a price tag inside. That way, shoppers who are buying them as gifts will know to carefully open the package and remove the price tag. Of course, it would be better if prices appeared only on easily-accessible tags or were printed on the outside of sealed packages. But short of changing how these items are produced, adding a stick-on price tag reminder would be a big help to customers — especially during the holidays and other times when gift giving is at its peak.