So if you can get it cheaper at some other store, then GO THERE!

[Bright_Star]

I don't know how many times I've had some customer get angry over the price of something only to hear them say this little nugget of wisdom..."Hell, I can get that cheaper at such & such a place!!" NOW if they have the competitor's circular then we can do a price match on the item. BUT if they don't then we're not going to take their word for it.
Just once I'd like to say back to them..."Then why don't you go there & get it?"
Of course, IF I said that I'd have my head handed to me on a plate by a member of management.

[BookstoreEscapee]

aack! I hate that!

It's cheaper on your website/Amazon/Borders/Sam's Club/Walmart/Target/wherever.

THEN GO THERE!! I DON'T CARE!! I STILL GET PAID EITHER WAY!!

wow. sorry. i think you hit a nerve

[DesignFox]

Escapee, I added to your retort...

"I still get paid, AND I don't have to deal with YOU!"

[CRXPanda]

our competitor is across the street...

but the customer(s) seem to want to pricematch stuff they dont carry and can't get

NEK logic: if it's unavailable, ask them how much it would be IF it was available

[BookstoreEscapee]

"I still get paid, AND I don't have to deal with YOU!"

Very true! You are so wise.

But ya know, 9 times out of 10 they'd just buy it from me anyway.

[DesignFox]

Of course they will. They almost always come back... *sigh*

[blas]

Didn't you know it is part of the customers' civic duty to waltz into your store and proudly proclaim that your competition or "the store down the street" is cheaper?

[jagerofdarkness]

I'm so glad I don't have to put up with that.

[ahanix1989]

I always hear "I can get this so much cheaper at Pick-n-Save" or "It's cheaper at Wal-Mart". Yeah, where do you think we bought them from? Buy it in bulk, mark it up, sell it.

Why do people buy it anyway? It's cheaper than driving all the way across town to Wal-Mart. We're in the middle of the residential area, and just a mile from the downtown area, while Wal-Mart is across the street from the far edge of town.

[Petronella]

We will price match if it is the EXACT same model, which is actually IN STOCK at a nearby competitor. We very rarely end up having to price match, because usually it turns out that 1) it's not the exact same model, it's some cheaper version, or 2) the other store doesn't actually have it in stock, they are pulling a bait and switch...

By "nearby" we mean within city limits. I have had SCs inform me that they saw the same high-ticket kitchen knife for less in Calgary, and/or in Oregon, and/or in Japan for God's sake! When they do this I always very sweetly say, "Oh! That IS a great price! So...did you buy it, then? "

They never buy it when they see it, yet they stumble in to my store 2 months and 1500 miles later expecting me to take their word for it and match some unknown place's prices!~

[Lace Neil Singer]

My fantasy retort: "So go THERE, and piss THEM off instead, moron!"

I get this all the time, and it really bugs me. Especially since half the time they're talking crap.

[Linda]

Ah yes, bane of my life.

I know that supermarket A and supermarket B are cheaper than us. But they are supermarkets. We are a small independent shop. Yes, you are more than welcome to go to A or to B. I am not going to break out the thumbscrews and force your wallet open. Your 5 prints will not put me out of business. And no, I do not price match as 5p per print for digital photos is plenty cheap enough thank you.

And most of the time they leave to go to Supermarket A and B who are cheaper. And spend more in petrol than they have saved by going there.

Oh, and did I mention that supermarket A's lab blew up a few weeks ago and they have a 3 - 4 month wait for a new one?
Or that Supermarket B's lab only operates between 10am and 2pm. And their paper supplier recently went out of business so they are very limited on what they can and can't do for you?
Or that I have good relationships with both of their managers, meaning they will send you to the nearest working, cheapest lab? Which is mine?

See ya soon!

[Department stores *sigh*]

SC: You know i can get this cheaper at wal-mart dont you?

me: Then you have an easy decision to make dont you?

[Imogene]

*actually said the following, at least once, perhaps more often*
SC: "I can get this cheaper at WalMart!"
RJ: "Very true, however, you won't get the whole movie..."
SC: "Huh?"
RJ: "I knew that'd catch your attention. WalMart likes to censor the movies and CDs they sell, to protect the chillun's from violence, and dirty language. And I know this because we've had people try to return Sopranos box sets that weren't in our system, and we had a field day trying to figure out why it wouldn't show up. Noticed it was censored. In effect, you get ten minutes of show spaced out over four discs."

[Hobgoblin]

It's cheaper on your website[...]

I do hate it when I find a deal on a store's website and then can't get it in the store itself. On very very rare occasions, things needed can be time-sensitive, and it is needed before shipping can get it there at a different price.

Case in point: My brother teaches school in inner-city St Louis (for those of you who didn't just gasp in horror, feel free. Inner-city St Louis has on of the worst school districts in the country in pretty much every way that gets measured: violence, test scores, graduation rates, etc). His boss told him one day that he needed to have an aquarium set up the next day. Sucks right? So my bro (I'll call him #1, as he is my oldest sibling) goes online and discovers that PetSmart has a great sale on what he needs (which is a LOT). HE prints it out and then the two of us run over there after school. Only to discover it is an online only sale. We convinced the manager to do it, but he didn't realize that we were buying a ton of stuff. Basically the markdown that was given was over $150 of stuff. The manager got upset and told us that he wouldn't have matched his own company's prices if he had known how much we were getting.

But did it come out of his check? Certainly not. The lady checking us out--did she have to have such a bad attitude and keep trying to tell us off for what we did? No. Would we have purchased everything without the discount? No. We certainly would have gone elsewhere (PetSmart is really expensive). But they told us they would match it. Once you decide to do something, don't have an attitude about it.

Were we sucky? We didn't yell, never lost our tempers, and never told them we wouldn't be back (which we told each other on the way to the car). They were pretty horrible to us.

But yeah, that's really the only time I've been justified in needing to get something ASAP and honestly didn't have time to get it online. Normally, I feel free to order online. Then I forget that I got it and it shows up in the mail and I get surprised. But sometimes life happens...