Hidden cost of markups at WalMart!

[gtaus]

Mini rant coming up from my latest experience shopping at our local WalMart.

I seldom do any food shopping for our house. Dear Wife has that job, by choice, and I'm OK with that. But I was in town at our local WalMart yesterday to pick up a few things on my grocery shopping list. I come down the aisle with Cup of Soup and think that it might be nice to have a few of them in the cupboard during the cold winter months. The sign on the shelf says 37 cents each. I pick out a few different flavors and add them to my cart.

At our local WalMart, you basically have to check out your own food because WalMart does not want to hire checkout people anymore. There is always one or two lines with actual people to check out your food, but you will be waiting almost half an hour standing in either of those 2 lines. So, they force you use the self check out machines if you want to get on with your life. I realize that could be a separate rant, but not the subject of this post.

When I scan my cup of soup, it shows up as 42 cents per item, not the 37 cents displayed on the shelf. I call the young girl supervising the self check out machines area that the cup of soup is displayed at 37 cents on the shelf, not 42 cents. She is very helpful, and takes out her magic pricing gizmo, types in the item, and tells me that it is listed at 42 cents on their system.

I guess I am a complete idiot, but I once again state that the price on the shelf is displayed as 37 cents per cup of soup and I ask her to mark down the soup to the displayed price. But she insists that those items must have been misplaced and that she cannot override the system to mark down the items. To which I replied, there are 5 shelves full of these cup of soups and they are all listed at 37 cents each, there is no way way they are misplaced, you are advertising one price on the shelf and marking up the item 15% in your system at the check out.

Of course, she just smiles, that is what she is paid to do, I guess. I ask her to remove those items on my check out because I no longer want them. She is happy to do that, using her supervisor override badge. I leave her with one final thought, and that is that a store should charge you the displayed price on the shelf, otherwise it is a hidden bait and switch tactic and a 15% markup if you don't catch it. She smiled and wished me a good day.

I don't know how much it costs WalMart to restock that shelf with those 6 cup of soups I returned, but probably more than the 5 cents per item they tried to pass off without a person knowing.

If you made it this far, then you might be thinking some old guy upset about 5 cents per cup of soup. No. I'm upset that display prices are not honored when you scan an item. Although only 5 cents per item increase, that is almost a 15% hidden price hike. This is why Dear Wife buys the groceries, and not me....

 

[gtaus]

I love self cashout I hate people touching my stuff though few weeks ago i was cashing out and the broad walking around claimed i didnt pay for the cheese i bought .... So scanned again to find out i paid $15 more for her mess up as I did pay for the cheeses!!!!

Months ago, Dear Wife scanned out a few items at the self service and was charged almost $45.00 more than her purchase. Turns out somebody before her scanned some items and left without paying. Don't know how that can happen, but Dear Wife was able to call over a supervisor and show her that she did not have any of those items in her cart.

From what I hear, lots of stuff is walking out the doors with these self check out lines. They hope you are honest and pay for what you take, but not everybody is honest and I guess some people have figured out how to cheat the self check out system.

 

[NatJ]

That's interesting, because I've found that stores typically will honor the price on the shelf-- after they waste a lot of time sending someone back to look at it in person.

(Yes, there have been a few times when I really did read the wrong label, the price really was higher, and I didn't buy the item.)

Hmm, it looks like some states have laws requiring prices to be accurate, so I'm looking for Minnesota...

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/325F.53
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/325F.67

The first one requires that the price be clearly displayed, and the second requires all advertisements, price stickers, etc. to be accurate.

quote from the second one:
"it shall be the duty of the county attorney of any county wherein a violation of this section shall have occurred, upon complaint being made, to prosecute any person violating any of the provisions of this section."

So depending on how much effort you're willing to put into the matter, you might be able to get them in legal trouble over this. Presumably you would need to complain to the county attorney of whatever county the store is in.

(And if it happens again, and you want to insist, you could ask her to walk WITH YOU to look at the price. If the price tag says the correct item and the correct price... )

 

[NatJ]

From what I hear, lots of stuff is walking out the doors with these self check out lines. They hope you are honest and pay for what you take, but not everybody is honest and I guess some people have figured out how to cheat the self check out system.

At one store in my area, the machine summons a cashier if you try to ring up more than one scale-full of bananas. (I wanted to make banana bread, so I had enough to fill the scale three times.) Apparently some people would enter the code for bananas, then put their more expensive produce on the scale instead. Or at least, whoever programmed it THOUGHT that might happen. I've never noticed that with any other kind of produce.

 

[Cluckerdoodle]

WalMart is not to be trusted anymore. They play games with sales on line. They advertise a great price but when you go to checkout the item is not available. However the item is available in the store for a much higher price. Mr Walton is probably turning over in his grave.

 

[gtaus]

That's interesting, because I've found that stores typically will honor the price on the shelf-- after they waste a lot of time sending someone back to look at it in person.

Yes, that is usually what happens. Most of the time, they just mark down the item instead of wasting their time sending someone to check the price on the shelf. This was the first time I had anyone tell me that they could not override the system and mark down the price to the display.

Honestly, it's still a rip off even if they override the item on your list. Everyone after you will still be charged the higher price on that item, even though they verified that the item is displayed at a lower price.

So depending on how much effort you're willing to put into the matter, you might be able to get them in legal trouble over this. Presumably you would need to complain to the county attorney of whatever county the store is in.

Yeah, not worth my time or effort and I doubt any attorney would ever pick up this issue unless it involved really large amounts of money. There is the law, and there is who cares about the law on these issues. I think it all comes down to principal, not principle.

 

[gtaus]

Apparently some people would enter the code for bananas, then put their more expensive produce on the scale instead.

I imagine there are a number of ways to cheat the system, if you wanted to take the chance on getting caught. Honest mistakes happen too. I had a problem checking out some bulk pickle jars and the supervisor came over the helped me out. When I got home, I discovered that she removed all the pickles from the list and I got one bulk jar for free! Those were some good tasting pickles!

I have heard of some people scanning in one cheap item and two items getting thrown into the bag. The item not scanned is probably the more expensive item. I'm sure that happens a lot. Evidently, WalMart must figure that the theft out the door from self check out is less than the cost of hiring someone to check out your goods. Problem is, any theft increases the cost for all of us who don't cheat the system.

 

[gimmie birdies]

One of the only reason my DH goes into walmart, is for his favorite candy bar which they sell for 2 dollars less, but he did the same thing, I think on the shelf it said 2.15 per candy, and when rang up it was 2.59 or something like that, I think they think you will not notice and then pay whatever, it might be a good idea if you see a good price on the shelf take a picture of it. if they don't honor it, it is false advertising.

 

[Sally PB]

I just ask that the price on the shelf that I agree to pay is honored at the scanner when I check out.

Absolutely.

This just blows me away.

 

[gtaus]

If you check your receipt before you leave the store, it's easier to get them to fix it-- just walk over to customer service and complain (or return the item if they won't fix the price.)

Better yet, check the prices as you scan the items. If you wait until after you pay, and then you have to go to customer service, be prepared to stand in a long line because there is only one employee for customer service out of the 5 tills at the counter. Better to call the scanning supervisor and if they won't mark down the price to what was on the shelf, then have them delete the item (if you no longer want it at the higher price) from your cart before you pay.

I don't bother making a complaint at customer service at a place like WalMart. The employees don't care and there is nothing they can do about it anyway. I don't want to hassle low paid employees because the company is playing games with the lower prices displayed on the shelf and those higher prices entered into their system.

There was a time in my life that I thought making a complaint at customer service was worth my time. If you talk to someone who has a stake in the success of the company, like in a mom and pop shop, then they want to improve. But the big box stores don't care about your complaint and the employee behind the customer service counter that day will probably be off to a different job next week.

BTW, I know someone who worked at our local WalMart and had worked herself up to some low level "management" position. She made a mistake with a customer by not asking for some ID on a transaction (cigarrettes?) for a person obviously in their 50's. She was fired from WalMart, but it was a mistake as she had not been trained in that area and their policy was supposed to be to provide training for a first offense. Anyway, she ended up getting 6+ months of unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic so she ended up coming out better financially. Karma, I guess.