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warrrreagl · 12-15-2004, 05:50 AM

Last night, the wife and I stopped into our local Office Max for some car window paint. En route to that aisle, she found the Clearance Row, and I found a Day Planner there priced at 00 cents. It was on the shelf and had a pre-printed factory price label attached to the shelf for 00 cents (the item codes matched perfectly and everything). So, I called one of the sales clerks over to explain it, and he told me that if the sign said 00 cents, then they had to sell it to me for 00 cents (they had two of them in stock, normally $13.89). He cautioned that I would probably have to call over a manager when I got to checkout, but it would be "false advertising if the manager didn't let it go for 00 cents" (his exact words).

So, my wife dared me. She continued to shop, and I took the two Day Planners to the checkout, where I found a manager actually working one of the registers. I explained to him what the price tag said and what the store clerk told me, and the manager said there was no way he would let it go for 00 cents. When I pressed him further, he agreed to sell me one of them for $1, and the other for regular clearance price ($7.19). When I asked what was the difference between the two Day Planners (why was one of them $1 and the other one $7.19 even though the product codes were identical), he replied, "One of them is blue and the other is black. The black one is more valuable." So I bought the blue one for $1. He also told me that pre-printed price tag errors "happen all the time around here."

To me, that sounds like a racket. You pick up an armload of stuff including several clearance items and head to the checkout. However, the clearance stuff scans at a much higher price than you expected. I think the store is counting on some of the customers to let it go.

Here's what my wife and I have figured out at several stores:
* The checkout person starts scanning stuff WAY before you finish unloading your armload/buggy, and you don't get a chance to monitor the prices as they scan.
* The scanner display is turned crookedly so you can't see the prices very well.
* Some stores have the goofy scan system that "deducts all reductions at the end," so you really never know if something is scanning correctly.
* The offending stores practice this as unofficial "policy" because they're playing the odds that many customers won't take the trouble to challenge the incorrect prices.

The most heinous offenders (in our experience) are the following: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Office Max, Office Depot, and Penney's. When we checkout now, we stop dead in our tracks and don't move until we've perused the entire receipt (which is exactly what you'd expect an old curmudgeon to do anyway, right?), and we end up going back to Customer Service about 50% of the time. The only time things work out perfectly are at Wal-Mart when we use the Self-Checkout aisles (a Godsend, in my opinion, until foreign college students discover them).

Thoughts, anybody?

12-15-2004, 05:50 AM	#1 (permalink)
warrrreagl pinche vato Location: backwater, Third World, land of cotton	Clearance Sale shenanigans Last night, the wife and I stopped into our local Office Max for some car window paint. En route to that aisle, she found the Clearance Row, and I found a Day Planner there priced at 00 cents. It was on the shelf and had a pre-printed factory price label attached to the shelf for 00 cents (the item codes matched perfectly and everything). So, I called one of the sales clerks over to explain it, and he told me that if the sign said 00 cents, then they had to sell it to me for 00 cents (they had two of them in stock, normally $13.89). He cautioned that I would probably have to call over a manager when I got to checkout, but it would be "false advertising if the manager didn't let it go for 00 cents" (his exact words). So, my wife dared me. She continued to shop, and I took the two Day Planners to the checkout, where I found a manager actually working one of the registers. I explained to him what the price tag said and what the store clerk told me, and the manager said there was no way he would let it go for 00 cents. When I pressed him further, he agreed to sell me one of them for $1, and the other for regular clearance price ($7.19). When I asked what was the difference between the two Day Planners (why was one of them $1 and the other one $7.19 even though the product codes were identical), he replied, "One of them is blue and the other is black. The black one is more valuable." So I bought the blue one for $1. He also told me that pre-printed price tag errors "happen all the time around here." To me, that sounds like a racket. You pick up an armload of stuff including several clearance items and head to the checkout. However, the clearance stuff scans at a much higher price than you expected. I think the store is counting on some of the customers to let it go. Here's what my wife and I have figured out at several stores: * The checkout person starts scanning stuff WAY before you finish unloading your armload/buggy, and you don't get a chance to monitor the prices as they scan. * The scanner display is turned crookedly so you can't see the prices very well. * Some stores have the goofy scan system that "deducts all reductions at the end," so you really never know if something is scanning correctly. * The offending stores practice this as unofficial "policy" because they're playing the odds that many customers won't take the trouble to challenge the incorrect prices. The most heinous offenders (in our experience) are the following: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Office Max, Office Depot, and Penney's. When we checkout now, we stop dead in our tracks and don't move until we've perused the entire receipt (which is exactly what you'd expect an old curmudgeon to do anyway, right?), and we end up going back to Customer Service about 50% of the time. The only time things work out perfectly are at Wal-Mart when we use the Self-Checkout aisles (a Godsend, in my opinion, until foreign college students discover them). Thoughts, anybody? __________________ Living is easy with eyes closed.