Cashier gone to the DARK side!!

[Kiarna]

OK ladies and gents this is a quickies from a lady at work.
Now this lady is lovely and quite funny but always polite.

She went to our local grocery store near our work at lunch time. Shopping around she notices her favourite ceral is on sale. Normally $10 a box for a 150/250 g box there is a sign stating it is for $4.49.

Grabbing a few boxes, and the rst of her stuff she proceeds to the checkouts. Here it is still ringing up at $10a box....no problem right?

SC- Sucky Cashier
CW - Co Worker

CW: That's labeled on the shelf on sale for $4.49
SC: This is NOT on sale. I BUY this cereal.....
CW: Well there is a sign which states its on sale on the shelf
SC: *sigh* I'll have to go check then

Cashier walks off after closing down his register. Returns a short time later with a handful of tags.

SC: Well isn't it your lucky day! It was incorrectly labelled so we HAVE to give it to you at the cheaper price.
CW: Thanks

My co worker leaves and then relays the story.
I know retail sucks, been there but she wasn't being narky no need to be as apparently rude as he was.

Oh and in Australia the big chains have in their corporate policy (i think) if it is incorrectly labeled you get it at the cheaper price.

[Supermarket Slave Girl]

You right about the Australian policy, if you have a couple of the same item and it rings up dearer than the shelf price you get one for free and the other at shelf price.

You will usually get the item for free if it rings up dearer.

[JustADude]

Dunno about down-under but, as far as I've ever heard, they're required to give you the lower price in the US otherwise it's false advertising, which is a form of fraud, and thus a criminal offense.

[sarahj]

Supermarket code of practice. It's voluntary but all the big chains do it. We have it posted around the place at work, and a ton of printed pages to hand out if anyone wants a printed copy. It states that if an item scans above the shelf price, the customer gets one free and the rest at the lower price. So if the tag read "200g cereal $4.49 each" then this applies.

In the OP's case, assuming the tag stated "100g Cereal $4.49 each" and it was placed in front of the 200g boxes, there is no free item, but the cheaper price is given. This is because the tag is correct (ie. the 100g boxes are scanning at that price) but in the wrong place, and theoretically people read the tags (ha!).

At least, this is my understanding of that part, and how I apply it as a supervisor.

[Nyoibo]

Yeah, that's how it works, unles the customer is a douche about it, then they don't get it, for the code of practice to apply when I was working it was that it had to be for the correct item, if you didn't look or the shelves weren't stacked properly then if you were a douche tough, if you were nice we'd do it.

But yeah, scanning code is voluntary, not mandatory, I wish people would learn that.

[Nashida]

Tyical supermarket code. I had to follow it at Big Yank when I worked there. Usually there's not oo much of a problem if it's pointed out politely, as it sounds like the OP's coworker did.

In this case, the suck is definitely on the cashier. I'm sure you'd get sick of hearing it after a while, but if someone's asking politely about it there's no need to rip them a new one over it.

[Kiarna]

Yeah i was pretty sure that was the policy, friends worked at chains for years.
But the sign must have been directly for that sized box as they would have argued it!!

Though he did have another point, which I forgot about in the orginal story...my CW loves the protien bars, like candy bars but with less fat etc. She had like 20 of these and the other theings and she went through express (12 items or less) so he was slightly narky about that but hey.....i wouldn't blame him for that one....just the other thing was pretty bad!!

[bainsidhe]

So if you get something free, does that apply to all retail in Australia? For example, the latest model 52" plasma TV is ringing up at last week's price instead of this week's sale price. You get one for free? Surely there's a reasonable limit here. I hope, anyway.

[fireheart]

So if you get something free, does that apply to all retail in Australia? For example, the latest model 52" plasma TV is ringing up at last week's price instead of this week's sale price. You get one for free? Surely there's a reasonable limit here. I hope, anyway.

Like sarah said, it only applies to supermarkets, not to department stores or anything else. I've been in both situations and I was extremely annoyed at the number of people wanting things for free because the prices were mucked up. There is also a limit for items, I think the limit is about $50. After that, it's simply a case of "if the price is wrong, then it's given for the price tag not the original price."

[wanderingjoe72]

$10 for cereal?

What is the Australian dollar at? Yikes. I guess I'm used to getting store brands at $2 to $3 and name brands under $5.

That must be some really good cereal.

[PepperElf]

according to the currency converter on my mac, $10 Aus = $6.607 US... still pricy for cereal in my opinion but hey, if she likes it then go for it

and hey... the "mistake" listed price is equal to $2.967 US so that's pretty good for a sale

[Kiarna]

I thin its organic special stuff in one of the big boxes.
It is pretty much the most I've EVER heard cereal being sold for.

Normally even the HUGE family pack ones are like $5....but I dont' eat cereal so can't say for certain!!