Every so often, I’ll see a sign advertising something at “.50¢”
Can I insist that they honor the advertised price of half a cent? What’s the legal status of something like that?
IIRC, advertisements and the like are an invitation to make an offer. Even if it were an offer, there has to be a “meeting of minds”, ie. both parties must understand what they’re agreeing to. The intent of the business is clear, so no, you can’t get the item for half a cent.
I don’t think so, because I don’t believe they can be compelled to sell it to you at all.
If it was on a sign and the store had scanners that scanned it at 50¢ you might be able to*, but in a regular store, I don’t think so as a store can refuse to sell you an item for pretty much any reason you want, even if it’s because they marked it incorrectly or just feel like raising the price in the middle of the transaction.
Remember, assuming you haven’t consumed the product, you don’t owe them anything and they haven’t sold it to you. When you bring the item to the counter you’re telling them you’re willing to give them the amount they marked it, they can still back out of the deal*.
*At least around here if a scanner scans for higher for the price on the shelf they have to honor the price on the shelf, that’s ONLY required for stores that use scanners. I’m not sure if mistakes like the one in the OP count. For example, if Best Buy marked a TV $800 and it scanned at $850, you’d get it for $800. However, if they marked it $8.00 and it scanned at $800, I’m not sure if the law would be on your side, I’ll have to check. Surely that happens from time to time.
I think that’s just customer service polices, not law.
If it is clear that an advertised price is in error, like a $800 TV advertised as $8.00, the store is not bound to sell you the TV for $8.00. Generally, if the business can demonstrate that it was a mistake, then they usually will not be bound to honor the price. They will probably end up with angry customers, so where you see companies honoring mistaken prices (i.e. online airline pricing mistakes recently) they are doing so to maintain goodwill with their customers.
No, it’s the law, in every state that I know of. On top of that the Weights and Measures guy (look at the stamp you see on gas pumps or scales at stores) checks to make sure scanners are scanning properly. The guy that checks my scales says that once a year he goes to the megamart in our city, takes 50 items off the shelf, writes down the prices and scans them, if there’s discrepancies, they have 30 days to fix them.
The state also does random checks, but they don’t give warnings, they fine the store.
Anyways, Google “[state] price scanner law”, or some variation of that for more information.
A half century ago, I was in 6th grade and the bakery in the supermarket had the price of brownnies at “.10¢” I tried to get ten for a penny. No dice. I’m still upset about it.
I wasn’t talking about an advertised price, though one of my cites did mention that the customer is entitled to the lowest price, including what was advertised.
But I’m still curious about outright mistakes (or what could at least be claimed as a mistake, but I suppose it could be a bait and switch type tactic so maybe they’d still be forced to sell it at that price) where the item is advertised or priced on the shelf at a ludicrously low price, like $8.00 instead of $800.00. On top of that, it may run afoul of minimum markup laws, which may get them out of selling it at the incorrect price.
A court would apply the “reasonable person” doctrine. The intent is interpreted to be that which a reasonable person would understand it to be. That’s the answer I got when I asked a lawyer friend about a billboard that says a motel has free breakfast. A reasonable person would know it applies only to paying guests, even if that is not stated.
What’s a minimum markup law?
To address the OP, I’m pretty sure a merchant could only be bound to the half-cent price if it was a specific offer. Like, if a car dealer says “I’ll sell you the car with VIN #123 for .50 cents.” That’s a specific offer because a buyer, a price and an item have all been identified.
Even in a case like that, though, I don’t think you’ll get much traction if the seller reasonably insists it was a miscommunication. The law does recognize intent, and it does grant some leeway to withdraw from the offer to sell. After all, if they break their contract to sell to you, what damages can you show? If the only damage is not getting a good price, then you haven’t been directly harmed. (Thus, it would also likely be different if you’d already committed to sell the items to a third party, already sold your existing car, etc.) As you add complications, the question becomes more and fodder for the courts to rule on rather than something that we can predict in advance.
I don’t know of anywhere this is a law, though perhaps it is. However, there are certain distributor-wholesaler-retailer agreements that do their best to skirt price-fixing by preventing the retailer from offering discounts below a certain price. So, for example, your store might decide that offering widgets at half the price of everyone else is a good loss leader. But the widget manufacturer doesn’t want to be perceived as cheap, and doesn’t want you to discourage others from carrying the widgets. To achieve that, they tell you that widgets must be sold at no less than $x and they’ll stop selling to you if you don’t.
It’s a law that forces retailers to markup their products by a minimum percentage (Usually 6%). It protects smaller stores from places with deeper pockets that can afford to take a loss for a while on the same products in order to undercut them and drive them out of business.
It’s mostly prevalent with cigarettes, alcohol and gas. You’ve probably seen signs that say “LOWEST LEGAL PRICES ON CIGARETTES” in gas stations windows, that’s what that’s about.
I can’t (quickly) find a wiki page on it, so it’s possible it’s not as widespread as I thought it was.
Further Googling makes me wonder if Wisconsin is one of the only places where it’s law. If anyone else wants to look, I’ve only heard it called Minimum Markup Law, but the legal term seems to be Unfair Sales Act.
Even if you could legally prove false advertising, so what?
It’s not a criminal offence and the worst that could happen is that the store could be compelled to stop the deceptive advertising. There is no way they can be compelled to sell to you at the advertised price.
You could try suing them for damages… I’d love to hear what the judge has to say when you ask him to preside over a case with a 49 cent judgement at stake. My money is on him finding you in contempt and making you pay a fine for wasting the court’s time.
States vary widely. Some states have an enforceable “scan law”, in which there is a substantial penalty if a price rings up at the register different from the price marked on the product or the shelf. The same law usually contains other provisions, concerning the manner in which a price is advertised or displayed.
Usually those .58 cents are on outside signs, and when you get inside, it’s correctly marked on the shelf. It’s some half-literate flunky who made the sign who goofed.
I’m not sure if an employee counts as a “third party,” but I know that when I worked at a movie series, we we’re bound by third party mistakes. The student newspaper was always screwing up ours ads and printing the wrong ticket price. We didn’t have to honor it, and we’d usually have a letter on hand apologizing for the error.
When WE screwed up, which was rare, we honored the mistake, including sometimes some awkward running of reels across the street to a second screen, when we’d screwed up and printed two different start times. We didn’t have to do that, though, it was just a goodwill gesture.
It’s been a while, but the last time I checked, in at least one state the law was that the customer was entitled to the lowest price of either the shelf sign or what the scanner rang up. BUT there was a specific exemption in the law for clear obvious errors (I don’t remember the exact language)
When I worked at a store in New Jersey, I was told that state law DOES compel the store to sell the item at the marked price. If you have a box which has been labelled $24 and then the price goes up to $31 and you forget to change the label and someone walks in, picks up the box and says “Here’s my $24” you have to take their money and give them the box. I’ll admit the possibility that the person who trained me on this subject had incorrect information. IANAL.
Fifteen years ago, I informally consulted a lawyer in Tennessee on this issue and he said my only recourse would be to (1) buy the item at the higher price, (2) sue them for damages, (3) win and get 49 cents, then (4) pay my lawyer’s bill, which would be way higher than 49 cents.
The law in the UK is pretty much the same. A ‘contract’ consists of offer and acceptance. If I offer a car for £100 and when you wave the notes in front of me and say “I’ll take it.” I can say “Oops, silly me, it should have been £10,000.” You would have no recourse at all.
In the Verizon case, There was an offer of .002 cents per kilobyte, and the poster accepted that. A contract then existed and could be enforced until one party withdrew.
As an aside, a ‘sale’ has to include some consideration, usually money. If I give you a free car, you cannot come back later and claim that it is faulty and make me repair it. If you give me as little as £1 for it, then the whole consumer rights protection kicks in. Of course I can just refund your money but it’s the principle that matters.