or they want the kids to pester Mom or Dad into buying something. Like candy at the checkout line.
I’ve finally had to accept that loose toys in the discount bin are fair game. That’s not to say that I don’t want parents to teach their kids respect and restraint, but at certain ages kids touch and there needs to be some compromise.
“Stop playing with those loose toys!” seems very Grinch like.
How about checks, does that work the same as cash? I write checks for pretty much everything because I don’t like carrying a bunch of cash - there isn’t any processing fee for checks is there? (Ones that don’t bounce anyway…:D)
no, and I don’t really care.
pop quiz, hotshot: a credit card:
a) is extremely convenient for it allows me to get through my daily life with a slim wallet that is about .1 inches thick, i don’t have to worry about having enough cash for a particular transaction, and i don’t have to deal with change
b) provides me many consumer protections from dickhead merchants who don’t like taking back defective products or who attempt to defraud the consumer.
c) grants me an effective 30-day, cost free loan for everything i buy so I don’t need to worry about having the money right now for something I need
d) is the safest form of payment, from a personal security standpoint
e) provides an easy-to-reconcile trace of all of the money I spend in a given month
f) all of the above.
Bit of a tangent:
I experienced similar things when I had an afterschool job as a cashier in high school. People were just total assholes about the smallest things. One guy came in to return a pair of crutches. Why? Because his broken leg healed several weeks or months ago and now he didn’t need them anymore. He complained about how burdensome it was to have crutches he didn’t need anymore and how he didn’t want them laying around.
“Put 'em in your garage.”
“Nah, I live in a small apartment.”
“Donate 'em to the Salvation Army or Goodwill.”
“But I want to get the money back.”
Sorry, dipshit, it doesn’t work that way. Eventually he took it to the manager who told him to get lost (politely).
Another guy flipped out because he wanted to pay for something small with a Canadian dollar and I wouldn’t let him. Was that pendantic? I dunno…but I couldn’t bring a Russian Ruble into a store and pay for something, could I? Canadian quarters I didn’t usually even notice and didn’t usually care when I did, but a dollar? Nah, man, sorry.
How about the douchebags who wanted to used expired coupons even though I pointed out the experation date on them? “But I want to use this, what’s the problem?” Shoulda come in last week, asshole!
The customers who thought that they I could make the line move faster for them because they were waiting for a bus or were “in a hurry?” People in line ahead of you get service first, moron, unless they agree to let you go ahead of them (which most did). If not, TS for you.
How about people who tried to buy booze with foodstamps? No way (it even says you can’t on the stamp itself, doesn’t it?).
After my experience with that job I never again shouted at or acted impatient with a slow cashier (especially trainees) and I never again tried to unfairly cut prices at a mom-and-pop joint. A little respect and patience can go a long way.
Congratulations, fessie, for correctly using the word “reining”, you win a special dispensation to make three egregious grammar errors in your posts, during the remainder of the calendar year.
Cosmosdan, if it makes you feel any better I’m in an entirely different country (Australia) but worked in the retail electronics field as a manager for two years, and I completely agree with everything you’ve written.
Customers have learnt they can get whatever they like by complaining to head office, AND they’ve repeatedly said they want the lowest possible price at all times.
Yet they also want impeccable service AND staff that know everything about each of the (literally) thousand individual items in the store.
It just doesn’t work that way. You can either do your own homework and pay less at the retailer, but you’re not allowed to complain that the staff don’t know anything about the product and aren’t as helpful as you’d like, or you can pay more and get the good service and knowledgeable staff, but then you aren’t allowed to complain that The Discount Electronics Warehouse (Motto: Undercutting everyone else by at least 5%!) has the same stuff cheaper.
Nor are you permitted to learn what you want to know about the product from the staff at The Knowledgeable Store and then go to the Discount Electronics Warehouse to make the purchase, for that matter.
Exactly my point.
That’s an ADVERTISED price, not a marked price. The notice at the front of the store is a retraction of the advertised price. Sometimes this is a printing error, sometimes it’s a store error. A marked price is a sticker or something that indicates what the individual item sells for. If stores were allowed to mark a false low price on an item, and then ring up the correct price, I’m sure some would do it. My google-fu is weak tonight, I can only find state laws on this (and all say that the stores must have the prices marked correctly), I can’t find any federal laws.
However, if a clerk marks a bunch of stuff for $9 when they should go for $39, I’m fairly sure that the store has to sell those items for $9…and then the manager will go and personally change those tags, or that display. I’ve picked up items that were not individually marked, thinking that they were a special buy, and then getting to the cash register. Each time, I’ve pointed out the error, and each time, I’ve been able to buy the items at the price that they were marked/displayed. And each time, the manager rushes off to change the price.
That is in fact, law, in most places. In Texas it’s the department of weights and measures that enforces it IIRC.
what’s your point, exactly? that i should concern myself with a business’ cost structure? surely you jest.
I worked in retail for many years, and I think your post gave me horror-story flashbacks. December is retail hell because the customers are all on edge trying to find gifts for everyone on their list and tons of people are shoehorned into the store, leading to long lines. As for the long lines, customers need to keep the flow going, not hold up the cashier to ask a million questions they should have figured out before they got in line. And don’t ask me to call your kid and pretend I’m Santa Claus when there’s 20 people in line behind you. Not unless you want to explain why Santa has a female voice.
Interesting, over here the last I knew about it the marked price was, legally, only an “invitation to treat” and the shop could correct the error at the point of sale, although the customer quite naturally had the right to back out if they didn’t like the corrected price. In practice most places will indeed sell at the marked price, but that’s not legally enforceable. Tesco, for instance, prominently state that the customer will be refunded if the price they pay (thanks to the bar code) is more than the marked price (usually on the shelf display, not the individual item). Of course that tends to be a necessary gesture given the nature of supermarket shopping, and Tesco doubtless gain more in customer loyalty than they lose this way.
What law? Any Cite available?
I’ve spelled it out in detail. Did you miss it?
Your list consisted of only things that mattered to you. That’s one way to approach things.
I’m sure an advertised price has some legal obligation which is why we posted the notice. The law allows for honest mistakes which is why we could print the retraction to avoid legal problems.
Sorry, “fairly sure” doesn’t convince me. You may be correct but I’m doubtful. I think stores in general have a policy of honoring small mistake tags and changing them. I don’t think there’s a legal obligation. If something was supposed to be $39 and it was sold for $9 that’s probably below cost. If that’s the case a mistake of a decimal point can make hundreds of dollars of difference or even thousands.
I can’t believe the law requires a store to do that over a mistake.
It would also lead to massive and repeated customer fraud as “customers” changed tags and threatened to sue if it wasn’t honored, or employees {the biggest source of theft} purposely mistagged expensive items for their friends.
yes. i missed the part where customers are supposed to care about how much a business’ expenses are, and modify their habits accordingly.
what’s next? do I concern myself with how much a premises liability policy costs? or a water bill? maybe the cost of cash register tape?
I might’ve agreed with you OP, but then you started using “merch” as a word. May people let their children run wild in your store and open your products and not buy them forever!!!
Oh, he’s already said, you’re supposed to care about the merchant’s light bill, and, naturally, a “living wage” for his employees. :rolleyes:
If it’s too much for you to imagine that some people actually give a crap about other human beings they share a community with, including their local merchants, then please, don’t strain yourself thinking about it.
This goes for you too **Carol S **
Over react much?