Price match

[Dark Psion]

The Smokey Joe Grill sells for $269.

A guy comes in and says he "Saw" it at another Wally World for $80 and he wanted us to price match it.

How about .......no.

Comes back later and say he called every Wally World in our area and all of them are selling it for $140. But of course they are all out of stock at every Wally World in Oklahoma, except ours. He says we Have to price match it.

Ummmmm......no.

He is going to call corporate and get all of us in trouble for not price matching.


http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

[LadyAndreca]

I actually heard a manager tell a customer once, "We don't need to price match something you just told me you can't buy from anyone but us."

[Food Lady]

I actually heard a manager tell a customer once, "We don't need to price match something you just told me you can't buy from anyone but us."

Love it. I understand being cheap--I am--but then there's totally unreasonable.

[drjonah]

When I worked there, when my manager would get one of those TGTBT price matches, he would tell the customer 'Ok let me just call that store and verify the price and once they verify the price, we'll gladly match it'. Funny how every customer backed down after that

And besides, I thought Hell-mart doesn't price match other Hell-marts?

[wordgirl]

And besides, I thought Hell-mart doesn't price match other Hell-marts?

They do not, because they totally raise and lower prices based on what they think the local market will bear.

Here's a good example from just last night: I love back-to-school time because they always put socks on sale. They had a big mega-pack of different colored socks at my local Wart for $4.87.

Mom saw my socks, wanted some of her own. Exact same mega-pack at the Wart near my mom's? $6.47. Here's the kicker: The clientele at Mom's Wart is obviously lower-income than the customer base of my resort-town store's. I'm not the only one to have made this observation. (My mom's local Wart is actually mentioned in this article.)

[MoonCat]

Wordgirl, there was a bit of a flap in my town years ago when it was found that the various Aid of Rite stores charged different prices for the same items in different parts of town - and the higher prices were in the lower-income parts of town.

[workerbee222]

Wordgirl, there was a bit of a flap in my town years ago when it was found that the various Aid of Rite stores charged different prices for the same items in different parts of town - and the higher prices were in the lower-income parts of town.

Not that it's ethical, but might it be because the poor folks *have to* shop locally, and the more fortunate have cars to drive out of town?

[Ironclad Alibi]

Might it be that in the poorer parts of town the higher prices were to offset shoplifting losses?

[CyberLurch]

Not that it's ethical, but might it be because the poor folks *have to* shop locally, and the more fortunate have cars to drive out of town?

Might it be that in the poorer parts of town the higher prices were to offset shoplifting losses?

Not 'might'. That is EXACTLY the reason. Part of it, anyway. Stores in economically-challenged regions also have greater inventory shrink due to theft, a higher turnover rate (it costs money to hire and train a new employee), and have to be better staffed to try to control shrink and, believe it or not, to minimize overtime that can arise if someone calls off or abandons their job. These costs are passed on to the customer who, if they can't easily go somewhere else, has to pay it.

Plus, of course, they *CAN* charge a higher price and get away with it.

[Aria]

I think lack of cars plays a huge factor. In my city there's a really lovely little neighborhood that I'd like to live in but will never, ever be able to afford. It's got cute little houses and very close proximity to a train station.

There's a grocery store, also by that train station. It's the only one around, unless you drive a fair distance or take that train. They charge more than the same store by my parents, which has to be reached by car and has two competitors in spitting distance. My guess is a lot of the people in those expensive homes don't have cars because why would they? The train is right there! And not paying for a car and repairs is totally worth a little gouging at the supermarket.

[EricKei]

Absolutely.

I live in a smallish city (maybe 25K folks in the city proper), where many people don't even consider using the interstate to get from one side of town to the other to be an option (it's less than 3 miles, guys!). Even there, where it's generally easy to get around (despite the complete lack of public transportation), the poorest area of town has a "discount grocery" with some of the highest prices in town on most of their staple goods. The only things they have that are lower than other stores (including WM) are meats and their little dollar store section off to the side, that you need to walk through the entire store to get to or escape from.

Sadly, this town is far enough from major cities (closest major is almost 2 hours away, closest "bigger than us" town is 45mins) that even the cheaper places are still noticeably more expensive than the big grocery chains back in New Orleans x.x Back home -- accounting for shopping the sales, and using the store "shopper's card" -- I was able to buy a full-sized basket's worth, overflowing with groceries, for about $140, around five years ago. Around here, that same amount of money, including the card and sales discounts, will buy me a tetris-packed half-cart plus whatever I (or a friend) can hold in our arms. I realize that everything is more expensive out here due to shipping, etc (even the water...despite the fact that we live 5 minutes from a huge lake), but dayum....o_O