Monday, May 01, 2006

Fun near the bottom rung

There is some kind of law here that the merchant has to display the product price (either on the package or on the shelf), and the price, if scanned, must match the displayed price. If this doesn't scan correctly, the customer is entitled to the product for free up to ten bucks.

So when I do my grocery shopping I pay attention to the prices of things (especially if they are on special, you'd be surprised how often the "specials" somehow don't get entered into the system) and try to watch as the cashier scans everything. Sometimes it's impossible to watch and unload the basket at the same time. Saturday, I couldn't do both and when I got home, I noticed that the swiss cheese fondue had rung up at $5.99 instead of $5.79. So I went back again on Sunday, bought the cheese again, pointed out the error, and got it for free. Tee hee.

Free cheese, you gotta love it.

21 comments:

Snooze said...

I can't believe that's a law! Wild.

toobusyliving said...

Again, the thought of cheese, especially fromage gratuis, isn't helping my current status of "hungry but shrinking."

CoffeeDog said...

That's the samer thing here when shopping at Kroger. I have gotten loads of stuff for free there because I watch them like a hawk. I too have thought about going back and buying a boatload of whatever item that rang up wrong.

In other stores it drives me insane if they do not have a screen where I can watch the prices add up.

S said...

With all that cheese flying around, it's a good thing you're not lactose intolerant.

_Psycho said...

snooze when it's higher than 10$, you get 10% of the price I believe., Very good when you buy something at 100$, that show up 120$ on the coumpter, you save 10% or the 15% of the taxes.

Anonymous said...

haha..very smart!

I'm a little late, but also loved the video on the weekend.


Jane

Lyvvie said...

I'd understand for a steak, but for runny cheese? Too Francais for me.

We have similar rules, but they give you double your money back, and you get to keep the food. I had this happen once with a bag of cheicken breast, cost me £8, they gave me another bag and said bye bye - but I'm sure the cashier got 20 lashing with a cat o'nine tails later. Poor wee sod.

Just re-read that, and it makes no sense; they give you the choice of the cash or the food, I chose the food.

hope you enjoy your cheese! (Doesn't that count as a milk product?)

St. Dickeybird said...

Wow, I've never heard of that. But I'd be wary of Discount Cheese.

Chunks said...

My grocery store is way across town. If they screw up and I notice it later, I have to consider the traffic, the gas and how much they screwed up before I determine if it is worth it to drive back there. I would probably give you anxiety with the way I shop...I just grab what I need and I don't even look at the price. It drives Murphy crazy to shop with me!

GayProf said...

Living in Texas, I have to ask, what is this thing you call consumer rights? Actually, what are rights in general?

Adam said...

You know you have a sickness right? Its the same sickness that my father has, all things cheap and free taste the best.

Anonymous said...

You are too funny! You sneaky little bugger you!lol. I love it! Devo

joey said...

Well I somewhat agree with Adam because I was going to mention the same thing. I mean cheap and free that is :)

buff said...

I find that I do that also when I shop at the supermarket. A&P is great about that. I never have any trouble when I bring it to the customer service counter, and some times I get the price difference, others I get the product for free.
A guy today has to have a head for numbers and a sharp eye. Like yourself, I review my register tape each and every time I shop.
Great blog posts. A new fan.

r said...

What Adam said. Cheap and free always tastes best.

Yum... fondue....

dantallion said...

John Cleese would not bne amused. I, however, thought that was hilarious.

epicurist said...

a law? Are u being serious?

Perplexio said...

Reading this post I just kept hearing Wallace from Wallace & Gromit saying "I'm crackers for cheese, Gromit!" over and over again.

Now I'm going to have to go home and re-watch The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Jason said...

I wonder if we have that law here?

Sunshine said...

That was so sneakily brilliant! ;)

Patricia said...

oh i love this game more than you can imagine and i play it constantly! the trick is not to say something to the cashier when i notice the error. because they'll just fix it right away and that's the end of that. the trick is to let the error go and then take the receipt to the service desk where they'll give something like 10 times the difference in cash, up to 5 or 10 dollars.

seriously i can't tell you how much i love this game. it's like my hobby. sad, but true.