Since you are a very special person, and have felt the need to bring this up twice, and evidently will go on bringing it up, possibly because you feel better about yourself when you go out of your way to embarrass people: I didn’t go out of my way to embarrass my dad. I just noticed that the store had (I thought) overcharged him, and said that it wasn’t worth messing with it now; I’d take care of it later. But it bugged him, so he double-checked the ad, and discovered that it had been deliberately written to encourage people to spend more for two cases of pop than for four. Being an intelligent person, he agreed with me that the ad was deliberately deceptive. Being a very nice person, he blamed himself for the trivial extra amount it cost me. Because even without the help of you and your peers here, he realized that the store had fulfilled the legal requirements to charge what they charged.
Also, I have no problem with people who disagree with me; it’s often an opportunity to learn. I do have a problem with people who disagree in a very condescending way. Or, in your case, in a very nasty way.
Have you tried talking to the Manager at the store to see if he or she would let you get two more cases and give you back the difference?
If I were the Manager, I’d probably not have a problem with that. If you have a receipt and explained that you guys misunderstood the sale, I just can’t imagine them turning you away unhappy.
But maybe that’s just because I have little doubt that my grocery store would do it.
Sometimes sales like this are because they overstocked, and they have a bunch of stuff nearing the sell-by date. They want to get rid of it, so you are not helping them if you don’t cart away four of the cases that are about to expire. If they give single cases at the “four for” price, then they don’t get rid of the overstock. They need to charge the people who are not being helpful the full price, because if they don’t get rid of the overstock, they have to ship it back, so they need the money.
If what you are suggesting is that the store should have sold your Dad two cases for $11 instead of $12 (or instead of $5.50)-- that anyone who bought four of fewer should not have paid more than $11-- they don’t want to do that if their goal is to move as much as the stuff as possible.
If you really had use for only two, you could have bought four, and thrown two away, or donated them to a free kitchen.
No, this is a multi-state chain, and their ads are the same all over, which is why I didn’t yell at the manager about it. It was clearly a corporate decision that had nothing to do with a certain store being overstocked.
You noticed it out loud, right? Your dad didn’t know there was a problem until you voiced it. Why didn’t you notice it w/o saying something out loud, if it was likely to embarrass him?
You told the other posters who didn’t agree w/ you that you hoped to never meet them before I showed up, didn’t you?
He was reimbursing his father. If he only reimbursed the amount Pops thought he spent, then he would have been cheating his father. He had to reimburse more to make it fair, and the older gentleman would probably like to know WHY the OP was giving him more.
How do you think Pops would have felt if he’d realized later that he’d been cheated by his own child?
Nine times out of ten, the grocery store I work at does things so that 4/$11 means $2.75 each. Except for certain kinds of Mega Madness sales where you have to buy 5 items from a really capricious list to get the savings.
And Except for Pop/Soda/Coke/7-up type things, where sometimes it isn’t the store making the choice, it’s the Coke/Pepsi/etc. company making the decisions, and you do end up with situations where you have to buy all four cases at once to get the super savings.
It’s frustrating and confusing sometimes, but it isn’t age discrimination.
Yeah, mark me in the camp of “the terms were crystal clear and you’re getting mad because you were reading something into a perfectly understandable statement that didn’t end up being true.”
I mean, it said what it said. One just needed to read it.
“Hey dad, thanks for running to the store; how much do I owe you?”
“Looks like $12.”
“Here is $12.” Son pays dad, takes receipt which he looks at, sees unexpected amount and decides to look into after dad leaves.
END SCENE
My parents are in their 70s and I don’t bother correcting unimportant things b/c it’s not worth trading time spent in comfort and happiness w/ time spent arguing w/ people I love who don’t hear, understand or remember as accurately as they used to. Not all older parents are like that, naturally, but I know from experience mine are and I communicate accordingly for greater peace.
It is perfectly fair. Bulk discounts are created to incentivize people to buy in bulk.
Why should the discount apply if you’re not going to buy as many as they want you to buy? That would defeat the purpose of the discount.
Have you also notice coed that individual packages are often priced differently, so that the per unit price of a larger quantity is lower? For example, a gallon of milk might be $4 but a quart of the same milk might be $1.75. Do you consider that unfair?
Often the stores can do this because they can save on freight, so you must buy in bulk because the stores and warehouses can’t keep it due to space. It’s usually a partnership with the store, vendor and warehouse. Half a truck of soda coats just slightly less than a full truck. That stuff has to move.
“Hey dad, thanks for running to the store; how much do I owe you?”
“I got a great deal on the soda–it was 4 for $11 and I got only two, so you owe me $5.50 plus tax.”
Son pays dad, dad later looks at receipt, or maybe just at his wallet, realizes there’s something wrong somewhere, and then … what happens next?
With my own parents, not much. With my FIL, however, the fecal matter would hit the rotating climate control device. He doesn’t understand or remember as accurately as he used to, so all he knows is he spent $12 on you and you only paid him back $5.50 after promising to pay the full cost. You cheated him. His own flesh and blood, and you took advantage of him.
People are different. Some of my other older relations would react in completely different ways–one of the uncles, for example, if he ever realized what happened, would be really hurt that you saw the receipt and didn’t point out what was wrong. He would assume you were condescending to him, treating him like a little child who didn’t rate being told the truth. He would not get angry, but instead would be tremendously embarrassed that you thought he needed protecting like that. Frankly, it would scare him and cause him a great deal of distress that you thought so little of his mental capacity.
You are generalizing from your experience, and assuming that EVERYBODY’s parents would react the same way, and sorry, it doesn’t work that way. I will stake out the position that the OP knows his father, and how his father wants to be treated, or should be treated for HIS family harmony, rather better than you or I do.
It’s the same thing. They want to incentivize the sale of the larger quantity. It’s a perfectly legitimate practice. There are very rational reasons to do so.
It’s not unfair, unless someone affirmatively lied to you about the prices.
Except it was the OP who says they looked at the receipt, saw a potential discrepancy and then brought it up.
I know how to avoid embarrassing my dad, you know yours and he knows his; this is irrefutable. But the OP hasn’t said anything about his dad’s actions or reactions is uncharacteristic. He’s put the blame for his dad’s upset on the store’s discrimination due to age or disability or the store’s trying to trick people unfairly; but the store didn’t point out dad’s error, the son did.
Yes, it said what it said. But IMO it’s deliberately deceptive when all the other ads on the same page do it differently, and the other major stores in the area do it differently in their ads.
Suppose you were driving down the road at 30 mph, and noticed a sign that said “SPEED LIMIT 35,” and you get pulled over, and the cop writes you a $200 dollar ticket. You say you were going only 30, and he says, “Right, you’re supposed to go at least 35.” You go back and look at the sign, and in tiny letters, above the “SPEED,” it says “minimum.”
Well, you just needed to read the sign, but if it’s the only sign like that in the state, I bet you would consider it a speed trap.
Horseshit. If their motive was to make you buy four, they would go out of their way to point out that it is more expensive to buy 3, not hide it with tiny print.
I had 20/15 vision when I was younger and I had a hard time reading the
tiny print on stores ads. The tiny print is used to made money for the store and cashiers work for the store not the customers so of course they’re not going to tell your dad he will save money if buy he more cases of pop .