The need for checking prices online first.

[polkanut]

<span style="font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So yesterday (4/15) I checked the Office Max website to see if my local store had refills in stock for my little manually operated label gun, which they did.  The price online showed a pkg of 3 refills @ $6.99 but, the in store price was $9.99.  Luckily for me the clerk did check the website, and I got the $6.99 price.  It may not seem like a big deal to some, but $3.00 in my book is quite a difference.  Does this mean that going shopping with a computer printout in hand is now the new normal?</span>

 

[ea56]

Not only is it a good idea to check prices online before going to the store, it is a good idea to scan items in the store before going to the register to check out. In my local Target I find at least 1 or 2 items every week that are marked at a lower price on the shelf than they scan. I have brought this to the attention of the store manager, the Target corporate office and my county Weights and Measures office, but to no avail. Just imagine how many extra hundreds of dollars Target is making every day in just this one store on shoppers that aren't aware if this. It has gotten to where I don't buy as much at Target anymore because its just too much of a hassle to check prices before checking out. On one shopping trip 2 months ago I found 4 items that were over charged at a total of over $6.00, they refunded the difference. Thats when I started to scan everything before check out. There has even been a news segment about this on our local CBS affiliate about Target being fined for this, but it still continues! The Weights and Measures person I spoke with wanted me to give her s specific items and prices, this was after I told her about my shopping trip where I was overcharged by over $6.00. I told her that I thought this was HER job to investigate this. I had already given her the info re: items that were mismarked.

 

[petek]

Most of the major food chains and some other stores in Ontario at least, voluntarily belong to a program called SCOP  Scanner Code of Practice or something.   If an item scans at the register for more than the shelf price (and it doesn't have a price tag affixed to it) you get that item for free up to $10. If the item is more than $10, you get $10 off the shelf price. One item per SKU code so you can't claim 6 of the identical product free.  It happens quite often and was brought into being because stores do make millions in pricing errors in their favor. They voluntarily do it before the government forces them to.. I  think it's a law in Quebec. 

 

That being said I've had it happen a few times . The best time is the first day the flyers come out because there's usually quite a few prices they've missed updating in their systems for the sale. 

 

[arbilab]

Kroger (perhaps others) police themselves. If an item scans above the shelf/adv price it's free. Customer still has to catch it. Very strong internal incentive to keep the scanner files updated.

In 2009 I went a whole month with free bacon and toilet paper; they forgot to change the shelf price after the sale ended. That manager got replaced. Since then, the few errors I've caught are actual scanner errors: double scans or misidentified item.

They also have no-argument satisfaction replacement/return. Like a bag of chopped lettuce that turns brown unopened before its date. Or something you just plain didn't like (I've never invoked that one).

Their prices overall and storebrand quality are better than walmart. Not to mention nowhere near the zoo wm is. I'm sold. In Austin, regional HEB kicks wm's butt on the same parameters AND in market share.

 

[turquoisedude]

Price scan law in Quebec

Yep, as we say here 'Dats Da Law'...   There was a huge consumer push in the 90s about this - at the time Zellers were the worst offenders (I'm proud to say I was one of the many consumers who wrote to the Office de la Protection des Consommateurs about this).   The ruling is just like the Ontario voluntary program described by Pete - for items under $10, a wrong price scan means you get the item for free and items over $10 get a $10 reduction.  Of course one frequently encounters the 'Oh, well, that item was put on the wrong shelf' BS.... 

 

It's mind-boggling when you think of the potential for stores to gouge you with wrong price scans - I'm sure there are tons of people who aren't paying attention to the items as they are scanned!

 

Surprisingly, the places where I see the fewest price scan errors are in the grocery stores.  WalMart was good, but can be a little iffy these days and Canadian Tire is somewhere where you should always scan the price in-store before heading to the check out, armed with the weekly flyer... LOL 

 

[countryguy]

Many times I have had the price that is scanned at the cashier to be different than what was on the label on the shelf or on-line. The medical supply store where I get supplies for my Cpap machine is always a problem. There is not supposed to be any tax charged on the wipes that I buy for my Cpap mask but yet every time I buy them the tax is charged and I have to tell the cashier that the item is not taxable. I buy them every 3-4 months and have been doing so for years so this has been an ongoing problem but yet the store's head office does not update their system. Because it is a tax I am assuming that the store is passing it along to the government but then again may they aren't...and instead are pocketing that revenue.

Gary

 

[brib68]

Connecticut routinely comes down on retailers that have scan discrepancies, although I think it was more common back when Sen. Blumenthal was still our Atty General. Much of the time, you get the item free if you catch it scanning wrong. My husband always makes the cashier at Stop & Shop not start ringing up our order until he can stand and watch how it scans. (In fairness, S&S is usually pretty good--Target routinely has issues.)

A few years back, Best Buy got into trouble for maintaining an in-store website that looked exactly like their regular website, but had in-store prices in place of the online prices on their regular website. Customers would do their comparison shopping online at home and decide Best Buy was the place to buy their TV or stove or whatever, but the price might be higher at the store, and when they asked the employees to match the online price, the in-store website showed the price was the same as the shelf tag, so unless the shoppers printed out (with that day's date) what they saw online, they got hosed. I'm sure BB got rid of that scammy system--they kind of have no choice since everyone has an smartphone now and can pull up the real site in a matter of seconds.

Sears, in my experience, has been very good at matching their online price on a couple of occasions. One time I wouldn't have known, except they didn't have a shelf tag for some small appliance or hardware item (I forget which it was) so I looked it up on the Sears app on my phone. When it rang up different I said something and pulled it up again on my phone and the clerk took care of it right there--didn't need to page a manager 15 times or anything.

Another thing I do with my phone: if I'm in the grocery store debating whether to by something like detergent or paper towels, I scan the barcode with the Walmart app on my phone and see what the price is. If it's a sale that's less than WM's price or if the price is within a few cents, I stock up and save myself a trip. If it's higher, I make the decision how much it's worth to me to save that trip/get it now vs. putting it off until I make a Walmart run. (During the month of December, the grocery store makes a LOT of margin on me so I can avoid going to Walmart or Target during Christmas season.)