Priceless tags
The next time the checkout assistant at Wallie’s asks “Did you find everything you were looking for today?”, try to imagine this shopping list (as seen in the headlines from CBC this afternoon).
“ordered 10 SA-18 heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles and launchers, 500 AK-47 assault rifles and other military equipment, the FBI said.” I know the local box store, here, doesn’t have any of the above in stock. Not because I was trying to buy, you realize; the possibility of spending 25 years for an attempted purchase means that success might be really hard on one’s constitution. No, if there had been hardware like that in the hardware section, I would have noticed.
We were into Wallie’s this evening. Where else can you buy a shopping cart full of pillows, some CLR and a bath mat on a Monday? My son was upset, intellectually, with the very idea of purchasing from the juggernaut, but sometimes you just have to go where the stuff can be found (the pillows were for him).
There is a rumour (fueled by TV) that you shouldn’t have to wait too long when an article doesn’t have a price. Just a rumour – ten minutes into our being placed on a side track while assistants were supposedly checking the value, I called the manager over to find out the retail truth.
There are laws: if an article is marked with the wrong price, the client wins. If the scanner shows the wrong price, the client wins. If the article doesn’t have any price at all… priceless. You wait until someone takes the time to go back to the aisles and check. If your patience is worth more than the waiting time, you don’t have to buy. In other words, before bothering to show up at the checkout, do your own verification. No tag AND barcode, you may want to bring a good book, or a society game (you do shop with a friend, right?)
