IT BEGINS

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Super Duper Uber Mega....ah fuck it, I don't have the energy any more. Lowest Prices of the Season started today. Lots and lots of people in the store divesting themselves of cash in exchange for garbage high-quality yet affordable merchandise.

A co-worker and I are stocking grocery items off the truck. Some woman comes up to us wanting to know where the Viva paper towels for $6.xx (actual price not given to obfuscate my employer) were. Answer: stacked up in a wall that I'm standing in front of, and woman is looking right at.

The she's contesting the price, because the towels are signed for $9.xx, which is their actual price, and a quick scan with the scanner reveals this to be the actual price.

Woman bellows "JUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDYYYY! GET OVER 'ERE!" Around the corner JUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDYYY comes barreling in one of our motorized carts, smacking into a rolling display table which I have to dodge as it rolls toward me. She digs in her purse and pulls out a cutout from the ad circular, which also shows the Viva paper towels are $9.xx. At the bottom of the cutout there is a $6.xx price listed, but for a different item.

I leave my co-worker to explain this as I walk away so neither of the women will see me shaking my head. The usual SC threats are complaints are made: "that's deceptive, that shouldn't be, you're ripping me off," whatever.

Co-worker explains the $9.xx price listed above the picture of the Viva towels is correct, and the woman finally understands, chides herself a bit for not recognizing this, and leaves with a couple packs of Viva towels, because $9.xx is still a good price for an 8-roll pack. Still it would've been nice to be spared the premature vocal ejaculation.

[SixFortyK]

...and pulls out a cutout from the ad circular, which also shows the Viva paper towels are $9.xx. At the bottom of the cutout there is a $6.xx price listed, but for a different item.

At least she finally saw her error. I'm always amazed how often people misread the ads, and how resistant they become when you point out their mistake.

I had a SC regularly do something like that, but she wasn't just reading things wrong, she was scamming us. She would moan and whine that something rang incorrectly. She would whip out a cutout from a circular that showed a different price. Management would come over, apologize, generally bend over backwards, then adjust the price just to make her go away. I thought the ad cutout was from a different store because the style was a bit different. She kept doing this, and I was sick of seeing her whining rewarded. I started keeping the other market's circulars in my work smock. Months later, she's in my line, does her whining bit, whips out her little cutout, and I pull out the circulars. Took a minute to find it, but it was just sssoooooo awesome to show her where her cutout came from. "I'm soooo sorry, but this ad price is for another store."

[EricKei]

Lots and lots of people in the store divesting themselves of cash in exchange for garbage high-quality yet affordable merchandise.

In the words of the great sage, Garfield Arbuckle: "It's amazing the things people would rather have than money."

[MelindaJoy77]

People are funny, they tend to either ignore signs and ads altogether, or misread them when they actually do read them. I have a lot of fun with the ad matching sometimes - I buy the paper every Wednesday and Sunday on purpose and bring the ads with me to work. I love calling people out on their BS. What I don't get is why people think we will honor the ad in a different way that the actual store that the ad came from - some people apparently get their grocery ads a day early if their paper is delivered but the ads themselves are still not effective until the following day. Similarly, if the price they're matching comes from an ad coupon, they have to give us the coupon just like they would have to at the originating store. I have been scammed by customers(before I started bringing my own ads) often enough to know why we follow this rule so closely.

[TimmyHate]

premature vocal ejaculation.

And like that TimmyHate has a new favourite term

[Jester]

...they have to give us the coupon...

On multiple occasions at my bar, I've had customers sincerely ask if they needed to have the coupon with theme to use it. "Yeah, we had this coupon for buy one get one free, but we left it at our hotel. Can we still use it?"

Um, no. We kinda have to have the coupon.

And yes, we need to take it from you if do have it with you. And yes, we need one coupon for every buy one get one--one coupon won't cover multiple BOGOs. And yes, we've had people sincerely ask both of these as well.

[otakuneko]

Some places do let you keep the coupon. I think these are usually places that regularly put out the same coupon though, or with online coupons. Kinda hard to take the coupon from me when it's a jpg on my phone.

[Jester]

We actually do have some promotions that send coupons to people's phones, but we still need to see the coupon and get a promo code off of it. Obviously in that case, we're not keeping the coupon, but still, a lot of these people are stupid.