Hidden cost of markups at WalMart!

[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.

 

[gtaus]

I know what you mean. I alway's worry about it, but my DH think's that thing's will alway's be there on the shelves. Lately he has been finding that sometimes they aren't.

Yep, that's why I buy non perishable things when they go on sale. I have room to stock up on some items, so I fill up my shelves with those sale items.

I also look for tools on sale and buy them if I think I will use them in the next year, or so. Usually, I am right and save myself lots of money. I find that if I wait for something to break and then I don't have the proper tool(s) to fix it, then I end up paying full price for the tool when I could have paid maybe half the price on a previous sale.

Also, I do a lot of shopping at our local Dollar Tree because I can get in and out of there in little time. They have some food items that I like, but they cannot always to be trusted to have any particular item in stock. If they get a good supply on something that I know we will use, then I will buy some extra. But then you have to rotate your stock, so you don't end up with a shelf full of expired food in the back.

Because of the pandemic and empty shelves, I think a lot of people have come to realize that they cannot assume their particular item will be on the shelf when they go to the store.

 

[Cynthia12]

Bless her heart! She did great! She is not responsible for prices going up. Whole different department. She's just in charge of handling that area you were in.

 

[BlueBaby]

Yep, that's why I buy non perishable things when they go on sale. I have room to stock up on some items, so I fill up my shelves with those sale items.

I also look for tools on sale and buy them if I think I will use them in the next year, or so. Usually, I am right and save myself lots of money. I find that if I wait for something to break and then I don't have the proper tool(s) to fix it, then I end up paying full price for the tool when I could have paid maybe half the price on a previous sale.

Also, I do a lot of shopping at our local Dollar Tree because I can get in and out of there in little time. They have some food items that I like, but they cannot always to be trusted to have any particular item in stock. If they get a good supply on something that I know we will use, then I will buy some extra. But then you have to rotate your stock, so you don't end up with a shelf full of expired food in the back.

Because of the pandemic and empty shelves, I think a lot of people have come to realize that they cannot assume their particular item will be on the shelf when they go to the store.

Yes, rotating thing's on your own shelves at home is the way to go, as that way you make sure that you use the older item's first.

 

[gtaus]

Bless her heart! She did great! She is not responsible for prices going up. Whole different department. She's just in charge of handling that area you were in.

Not quite sure of your response. "Bless her heart" has many negative meanings down south, like "Bless her heart. Her hair is blonde but her roots are not."

Anyway, it was the first time I was told that the supervisor could not override the scanner price if it did not match the shelf price. She has a badge to do everything else, so I don't know why she could not override the incorrect price. But, like I said, the next person going through the line will get charged the hidden price just like I did. If they don't catch it, WalMart makes another 15% over the advertised price on the shelf.

Just makes me wonder how many other items on the shelf have hidden markups at the scanner?

 

[NatJ]

Because of the pandemic and empty shelves, I think a lot of people have come to realize that they cannot assume their particular item will be on the shelf when they go to the store.

I hate trying to find too many different things on a trip to the store, so when I have to buy a given non-perishable item, I tend to buy enough to last for quite a while.

When store shelves were running empty, that was quite convenient! I bought what I could when I could, but had enough things on the shelf to piece it out and make do until stuff was available again. (I also used up some of the things I had bought because they might taste good "someday," because I kept staring into my pantry and looking for new ways to arrange the remaining ingredients so they would not taste the same every time. Great motivation to use up the oddballs!)

 

[Isadora]

I worked retail about 9 years ago. Our store policy was that if the shelf price was incorrect we would honor it.
I've had many times where I have purchased something at a store and the price was wrong but customer service honored it.

 

[Sally PB]

Yep, that's why I buy non perishable things when they go on sale. I have room to stock up on some items, so I fill up my shelves with those sale items.

I have some non-perishables I stock up on when they're on sale. If I'm getting low-ish on something, I'll add it to the shopping list with IOS (if on sale) written after it.

 

[gtaus]

I worked retail about 9 years ago. Our store policy was that if the shelf price was incorrect we would honor it.
I've had many times where I have purchased something at a store and the price was wrong but customer service honored it.

Until this post, the supervisors have always honored the shelf price. I was taken aback when this supervisor told me she could not mark the item down to the shelf price. I hope this is not a sign of the future.

 

[Sally PB]

I hope this is not a sign of the future.

Me too. Wow.