Retail crap that's pissing me off

The BBQ Pit
61

“Wrong” place? Absolutely not. But they do put an 8ounce bottle of chocolate syrup that’s on sale next to a 10 ounce bottle of chocolate syrup that’s not on sale, and then place a sign under them saying “SALE - CHOCOLATE SYRUP 8oz”. Yes sirree, they do. It’s a science.

I’m pretty sure there’s a “my job sucks” thread around here where this would be a more appropriate post. If not, wait 10 minutes and someone will start a fresh one.

What you don’t see as a groundling is the number of sales at other lines where the person remained ignorant and paid the extra buck for the not-on-sale item. As long as the money collected from those “mistakes” exceeds the money spent on paying you $8 an hour to walk to Aisle 3 twice in your shift it makes financial sense to inconvenience the workers and customer. And if you’re doing it more than twice a shift, then Cat Whisperer is not the one taxing his brain here; just remember that there’s a misleading display and a) fix it (which your manager won’t like, because in her eyes it’s not broken) or b) take a few of the on sale items with you to the checkout to offer the next [del]sucker[/del] customer who makes the same error. “Error” of course, from his viewpoint; he’s done exactly what the behavioral scientists hired to plan a POP predicted he would do. Mostly because…

Exactly.

62

And the 1-kilo bar of bread which weighs all of 450 grams…

63

A thousand times AMEN!!! My favorite pumpkin pie recipe calls for a 1-pound can of pumpkin - those are now 14.5 oz. Our 1-pound cans of dog food were down to 13.5 oz when our last dog was gone (no, we didn’t starve them…) Toilet tissue rolls are about a half an inch shorter, so they don’t fit neatly on the spindle any more.

Prices go up - it’s a fact of life. So, dammit, raise the prices and keep the sizes of products constant. I expect before too long, we’ll see “New larger size!!” bringing all our products back to where they used to be, with a higher price tag, of course.

64

If you enjoy recreational outrage at retail pricing come to Thailand. Just recently at 7-Eleven I noticed a $9 bottle of wine on the shelf so asked for it. I got less change than expected and walked away with a bemused look. The manager noticed my expression and mentioned that this was a different $18 wine on the wrong shelf. I just walked out with a half-smile: Don’t sweat the small stuff.

It’s 45212 when I’m trying to think of a zipcode. The U.S. Playing Card Company puts its address on the Joker, so, when playing poker, I used to taunt “What’s the Zipcode of Cincinatti?” when holding (or pretending to hold) the Joker.

65

And if yon moronic sucky customer would READ the damned sign and make sure they have the correct product that is advertised on the aisle card, there wouldn’t be a problem. Why is it the cashier’s job to walk around making sure the idiot got the correct product?

66

Because the store is the one putting the items on the wrong shelf in a deliberate attempt to get you to pay more than you intended. The person trying to trick you is the one that has the moral obligation to stop doing so.

Or, if you’re more of Objectivist, tricking the customer makes them less likely to trust you and more likely to shop elsewhere. You may get a short term gain, but you lose in the long term.

I know I don’t shop anywhere that pulls this crap. I’ve never been to the market and seen the sign point to the wrong thing.

67

No, they don’t. There is no deliberate attempt to get you to buy the wrong product. When a brand runs a sale on a specific item, they want to get people to buy the sale item. They may have a surplus, or they may be trying to get more people to try it. Regardless, the item is on sale because they want to move that specific size and flavor.

68

Like I said in my original post on the subject, I’ve been retail shopping for a long damned time - I know they play this game, and I know that I have to look very carefully at what is on sale and not just grab the item that appears to be on sale. That said, when you’re doing a big shop and you’re tired and you just want to get home and relax (and that’s not even taking into account people who are shopping with kids), sometimes you let your guard down and assume that the item right behind the sale placard is the item that’s actually on sale, not the item that’s slightly off to one side of the sale placard.

ETA: Funnily enough, when I’ve grabbed the wrong product because it looked like it was on sale, it never rings up as a lower-priced item - it always rings in as a higher-priced item. That must be a hell of a coincidence, no?

69

Because, let’s review: “…retail businesses are there to take your money. That is why they exist.” If you want me to bring my wallet back to your store, you’re not going to make me walk back to Aisle 3.

I have plenty of other stores to choose from. I even have a number of other stores that are more or less exactly at your price point to choose from. So how do I choose a store? I choose by customer service. A quaint idea, I admit, and one that’s been out of fashion for years as price became the primary determinant of shopping behavior. But my hypothesis is that now that we’ve gotten prices as low as they can go (and yes, due to the price of fossil fuels, now they have to go up), customer service will make a comeback.

A new mass market grocery store opened near me within the last year. They literally moved into the same building that another mass market grocery store was failing in for decades. There’s another failing mass market grocery store 250 feet north, essentially in the same parking lot. The new one is selling circles around the old ones. Basically the same products. Basically the same prices (slightly cheaper for some things, slightly more expensive for others). But their “thing” is true customer service. Butchers who actually know and can recommend meat based on my budget and how much time I have to cook tonight. Produce people who know produce, and ask me what I like and recommend new items or seasonal items, and can pick me an avocado that will be perfectly ripe in two days. Managers who can and will special order anything and shelve it for a trial run (I’m responsible for them bringing in the naan in the bread aisle, folks. You’re welcome!) All this stuff matters, especially when it doesn’t cost me more. It got me as a customer, and the place is always packed, so I’m not the only one. And now it’s got me posting on a message board with other Chicagoland readers, who now know that Mariano’s on Western and Roscoe is made of awesome and you should go check it out. Try the in house sausages, only $4.99 a pound and made fresh daily.

70

[QUOTE=Cat Whisperer]

ETA: Funnily enough, when I’ve grabbed the wrong product because it looked like it was on sale, it never rings up as a lower-priced item - it always rings in as a higher-priced item. That must be a hell of a coincidence, no?
[/QUOTE]

Wait, non sale items are more expensive than sale items? Who would ever think such a thing would happen every time? What a coincidence!

71

Gee, what an excellent point. It’s amazing that no one thought to bring it up before now. Imagine if, for instance, the OP itself raised these issues. Oh, wait…

So, like, maybe you could just learn to pay the fuck attention to what you’re reading before coming off as a smug, sanctimonious ass who thinks he’s soooo much cleverer than the rest of us.

72

I remember when Dannon cut the amount of their yogurt from 8 to 6 ounces, the container actually advertised the fact that you now had more room to add your favorite mix-ins like granola, raisins, or whatever. :rolleyes: Not true if your favorite mix-in is more yogurt.

73

No, you’ve missed the point.

Sale item: $2.00
Nearly identical item next to sale item: $3.00
Nearly identical item waaaaaay down the aisle nowhere near sale item: $1.50

Yes, you’re right that they want to move sale items. But they’re not loathe to sell a few of the higher regular priced items while they’re at it.

74

No, I’m not missing the point, you are. There are rarely “nealy identical” items next to the sale items that cost less than the sale item. There are rarely “nearly identical” items that cost less than the sale items anywhere in the entire store.

75

Store brands are often cheaper than name brands on sale.

76

Yes, and the packaging is totally different. There is almost no way to accidentally buy the Kroger brand when there’s a huge sign advertising a sale on Kraft Mac n Cheese. On top of that, many brands price their sale products to undercut generics.

Kraft does not want you buying the store brand, and has an army of employees who make sure it doesn’t happen.

77

The MTA in NYC asks for zip codes, too. I’m from Europe and live in Canada; the only US zip code I know is 90210 :smiley:

78

Sometimes I just keep listing numbers at random, until the clerk looks confused and runs out of room in the field. “4…5…3…8…6…9…5…8…7…2…” I know, it’s mean. But it mostly makes them laugh.

79

I almost started a thread the other day on this bullshit from Nabisco concerning their “Premium” brand of saltine crackers.

Look, I don’t know what kind of backwards-ass, negative-zone, bizzaro-world planet those executives at Nabsico live on, but where I live, saltines are square. Don’t give me that round BS, and don’t you even try to claim their original when they clearly aren’t! Original recipe, sure, I’ll buy that (well…I’ll accept that explanation, I won’t buy the product,) but with no other qualifiers, original should mean the same as it was.

But the worst part is it is just an excuse to save a LOT of money at the expense of the consumer. If they just wanted to make round crackers, despite my rant about square being “correct” I’d say ‘fine.’ Someone even posted a comment on that article as to why round ones are probably cheaper to manufacture…but at least give us the same amount for the price! If indeed round ones are cheaper to make, then Nabisco is already saving money…but to then double-down and ALSO give us less product, and a substantial amount, no less (10.5 ounces vs 16…over 34%.)? That’s low.

Yeah, that’s a “thing” now. The USDA has strict labeling and content guidlines for food. Ice cream has to have min and max percentages of milk fat, milk solids, and other such things. If those requirements aren’t met, then they can’t call it ice cream. But “frozen dairy dessert?” Go hog wild!

Another aspect of ice cream is how much “over-run” a product can have. “Overrun” in this case meaning air in the product. A certain amount of air is desirable…it gives a good mouth-feel and texture. But too many companies use it to sell you less ice cream/frozen dairy dessert. The upper limit is 100% overrun, which would mean a product is literally half air. Premium brands (Ben and Jerry’s, Hagen-Daz) are typically at or below 50% overrun, so cheap ice cream is often cheaper because there’s physically less ice cream in the package, even at the same volume.

Oh, and since the “unit price” on ice cream in the store is going to be in volume, not weight, you can’t tell just by looking at it which brands have a modest amount of overrun, and which don’t.

So, uhh…bring a scale. :wink:

80

It does? That’s news to me, and I live here.

You may be talking about credit card validation on vending machines (and gas pumps). I’m pretty sure that foreign issued CC bypass that check (as it only accepts 5 digits). For US issued CC, every billing address has a 5-digit zip code. My guess is that it helps keep down fraud from cloned cards. While to the consumer it may seem to be the MTA, really it is the CC verifier asking for the information.