This is one of my pet peeves. I'm not talking about the instances when a shopper changes his or her mind and simply sticks one or two items on a random shelf. I'm addressing the issue of mismarked prices, so when I pick up an item, I think it costs the price that's listed on the shelf where it's sitting. Years ago, each item was priced individually, but these days, the tags on items are often coded, so there's no way to discern the individual price, other than to seek out a price scanner. Price scanners are difficult to find, and there are often only one or two in a store. This issue may not always work in a store's favor. I was shopping the other day, and picked up one bag of garden soil because I was working with a fixed amount of money, and all I could afford was one bag. I really needed 3-4 bags, but the marked price was too expensive to buy them all, so I figured I'd buy the bare minimum I needed to get my garden started. I later found out that the actual price of the item was just about half of the price listed on the shelf. If I'd known that, I definitely would have purchased at least one more, and possibly two more bags. Since that store isn't as close as some others, I will most likely pick up the other bags in a different store, so by having incorrect pricing on the shelf, that store lost revenue.
I agree that it is annoying when you take something up to a register thinking it is one price and it is something else. I think that stores need to make their prices clear so there is not possible misintrepretation However, if you mention at the register you thought it was a different price, and you would buy more had you known, they probably would have brought some up to you. When I find out the price is higher than I thought it was...I just tell them I don't want it.
This just happened to me at Dollar General the other day, when I was buying some 2 liters of pop. The label on them said $1.25 each for their Seagram's Ginger Ale, but when I got to the register they rang up as a $1.66 each. I didn't bother complaining to the cashier because it was just a few cents and there was a line of people behind me, but it's still frustrating. I don't often carry cash on me, for example, and sometimes that few cents can be the difference between me having enough on me or not. However there were a couple of times where the item was listed with the wrong price which worked in my favor too. For example, I bought what should have been an $80 toaster oven at Wal-Mart for only $29.95 since they had the wrong price listed for it on the shelf. I knew that was too good to be true when I saw it, since I had been looking at this toaster oven online before going there. But I wanted to see if they would honor the price at the register and they did. Another time was when I bought my desktop computer at Best Buy. The floor model was an $800 Lenovo system, nothing special. But when the clerk went to retrieve a boxed one for me, I noticed he had instead brought a more expensive model, which typically sold for around $1.200. I pointed it out to him, but he insisted that was the same as the shelf model, and showed that it was only ringing up as $800. Hey, I was honest in pointing it out, and he didn't seem to care and was willing to sell it to me at the lower price, so I got it.
Pardon me for this segue. I just want to share an actual event that happened to SM - the largest mall chain in the Philippines. When the workforce waged a sit in strike, the management did not know that some mischievous employees were interchanging the tag prices of the clothing items. Some of my colleagues in the office were able to buy very cheap clothes because of that mischief.
@ohiotom76 At least you were up front with the salesperson and it turned out to be a good deal. Human error is probably one of the biggest reasons companies lose so much money each year. I agree that incorrect pricing is a real pain in the neck and one of my biggest frustrations when shopping. The tags at some places are so hard to read so even if they are marked right you do not know what the price is. They need to come up with better labeling for the shelves to make it clearer.
No worries @Corzhens, that's right in line with the thread subject. When I was a teenager, I worked at McDonald's and coworkers would often give away free food to their friends, or if they were angry with management for some particular reason. That's a big cost on companies, so they really should keep an eye on how happy and satisfied their employees are. @Ke Gordon I didn't even notice the price difference while I was at the store, or I might have done that, and requested that someone grab a few more for me, since they don't ordinarily offer to do so at Walmart. I was discussing gardening with someone later, and she happened to mention how much she'd paid at the same store in a different state, which made me curious. When I looked at my store receipt, that's when I realized the price was about half what was listed on the shelf. I might go back there next week and get a few more bags, but I also might purchase them the next town over at a different type of store, so they could end up losing money over a mistake. @ohiotom76 I've had something similar happen in the past, and all you can really do is try to be honest and point out the discrepancy. If they don't follow up on it and verify the price, you've done your part. It's nice that you came out ahead on that transaction. @morgoodie I totally agree that changes need to be made. I think it's best for all parties involved to have transparency in pricing. One thing that irritates me lately is when I try to compare unit prices and some are calculated by pound and others by ounces or other types of measurements, which seems deceptive to me.
Though it can be annoying, a lot of the time it works out in the customer's favor. Most stores are willing to honor what ever price that it's marked on the shelf or on the sticker if you are polite and point it out to them.
I've seen this before. There was packs of notebooks on the shelves, 10 for £1. I took it to the checkout and they refused to honour the price, saying it was £10 for 10. I wasn't happy with that at all considering that was the price on the shelf, but management wouldn't honour it. I've also seen 3 for 2 not being honoured at the checkout as well. I think if it's on the shelf they should have to honour it.
This is a common problem in stores. I have encountered such situations where products do not have price tags on them. This can result in wasted time and embarrassment. Some of the sales staff manning the shelves appear clueless. Some stores do this deliberately in order to mask their price increments. I usually avoid such unmarked products to avoid embarrassment at the cashpoint.
In Canada we have something called Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) which most grocery retailers are a part of. If on the shelf it says say $3 and when you go to pay it scans in at $5 then if you mention SCOP you can get as much as a $10 discount off the item -- or in this case, just free. Of course, the inconvenience of that is you have to hold up the line, have someone run over and double check and so on -- it's a chore for everyone, really. That said, I've always been mindful of watching the price of items as they are scanned in. Realistically though, it's not always easy to remember the value of each item and figure out any differences on the spot.
I hate it when an item scans for more than what the price sticker or shelf signage says. That's why I use the price scanners at Walmart to check even clearance items. A lot of clearance items don't even scan correctly as being on clearance so sometimes I have to fight to be charged the amount on the sticker. I think some larger stores make these mistakes because they have so many products to keep track of.
I agree completely. I think it's really their loss for not putting up a much better system. Another thing I hate that is similar is when online sites have items listed but won't list the prices. Whenever I look for a restaurant and want to buy from them, and i get to their website and their items and see that they haven't put up the prices, I think to myself what's the point and it just kind of frustrates me especially since most of the time I search for these I'm already hungry and grumpy. Because of that they lose me as a customer but I lose too somewhat because I don't get to order what I'm craving.
