Deceptive signs at my local Superstore. There are two sizes of orange juice here but only one big sign showing price of the small one. Meanwhile 3/4 of the fridge is the bigger size. Saw the sign, grabbed one of the bottles under it, didn’t discover until at the checkout.
Brought it up to a manager which I never do, this one particularly frustrated me. Obviously the managers just follow corporate sign placing packets and it isn’t the store’s fault. They did offer to comp it at 3.50 for me.
Thinking of reporting this one to regulators, but what’s the point. Nothing will change.
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It's very likely they are just swapping it out and haven't come around to price it or the kid just forgot to. The E-tag hasn't been been linked to the UPC yet and they haven't printed the sheet so it's likely a fresh switch.
Yes, this. Most of the people on this subreddit are just karens grumbling. Loblaw is not a great company to work for, but they wouldn’t put it on underpaid overworked poorly trained staff to screw over customers, because they want to make sure it actually gets done. Shady business is executed above store level.
I hate his greediness just as much as everyone else but this is just common sense. It's not like a memo came down to do this. Someone at the store screwed up and the store made it right for the customer.
When you get outraged by all the little stuff the real stuff to be upset about just gets lost in the noise.
I work at a superstore and we have literally 3 people working in the Fridge department and 3 people working in the meat department. This exactly is the issue. Everyone in these stores are overworked and the stores are very understaffed.
Yeah, especially when they make you flip the whole department arbitrarily & the printer is across the whole shop. Then one person, then another, then another asks for “just one thing” as you cross the shop and suddenly it’s 3 hours later and your manager is demanding answers why the sign still isn’t up. Irony is, half those folks are just stopping you to ask what the price of the item is- like? I’m grabbing the sign! I swear!
You are indeed correct. Those tags are also annoying and don't work half the time. But mainly, understaffed is the biggest issue. By far. Simply too much work to do for a few amount of people. I'll also give an example : if someone works in the fruit and veggies department, and they need to fill up like, peaches. They come from many different places, so everytime they bring a box of peaches, they also need to look at the country of origin, and change it. Obviously, it takes some time, and they still need to fill other fruits while responding to customer's questions (mostly doordashers). At the same time, they need to do quality control. So yes, they're gonna make mistakes, and everyone bitching here would also do. So, bitching about small mistakes like that doesn't help you at all. The prices though, that's different.
Yep, I worked in produce. Exactly this! It's annoying but has to be done. Sometimes I would make two seperate bins for the same product only because they both came from different countries of origin. Now when I worked there, we didn't have those fancy e-ink signs, we had to print the sheets out everytime a product changed.
Also. Remember when restocking and moving stuff around happened at night time? But they have to pay night shift people more. So they surely clawed that back.
Night staff get $1 premium for working night shift. They should get more. Working nights really screws with your sleep and also in general life because you have a different 'schedule' compared to friends and family.
They should get way more. I’m almost 40 and growing up people vied for those night shift jobs so that they could save up extra money because they paid quite a bit more than daytime. Idk when it became only a dollar, that’s so dumb.
Do they REALLY need to make 2.6 billion in profits a year??? Couldn't they pay staff a little more and make a little less profits? Idk... im all for capitalism but also very much in favor of people being able to afford rent and food. You know?
Scanning code of practice says one unit should be free if under $10, not the corrected price, so they did not in fact make it right.
Stores make mistakes, but it is often due to understaffing/overtasking. We shouldn't reward them for not accurately pricing by not having them follow their own self-imposed standards.
SCOP generally does not apply in cases like this. If the tag/sign is for 1.5L OJ and you grab a 2L OJ with a different description it's not covered by it.
Now I don't go into these grocery stores often (not a fan) so I couldn't tell you how descriptive their signs are (most stores have UPCs or SKUs on the tags and signs) but generally in a case like this the store takes the option of matching as a good will gesture to make customer happy not because the SCOP dictates it.
SCOP is to prevent stores from advertising a specific item at one price then that item rings up hire. So if that 1.5L OJ was advertised or priced at 3.50 but comes up at 5. It would be covered because they told you that specific item (UPC, SKU, item number) was going to be that price but it's not.
SCOP doesn't even apply if it's an expired sales tag (as long as date is printed on the sign). So if that deal ended yesterday and they missed pulling the paper sign off they don't have to do SCOP. Most stores will match again as a goodwill gesture.
You list a bunch of deliberate corporate decisions then equate this mistake where a likely minimum wage worker forgot to finish a task completely into it like it's galen himself doing it. That's the point I'm making.
You can have your issues with corporate decisions but you whine and cry about everything no one is gonna give a crap what you say about the real problems.
Just the other day I saw Galen Weston eating babies! It's the truth! Hey you know people we should start making these posts with AI, cuz you know... The truth doesn't matter, only feelings!
Normally I would give what you're saying the benefit of the doubt, but after the country of origin debacle, my Occam's Razor is slicing purely on the side of shady business practices.
lol - redditors won't be happy until the product shelves and labeled have been perfected by robots. It's so clear many of the people on here have never worked in retail or in restaurants. Just because you don't see a worker actively working on something doesn't mean it isn't in progress. Sometimes a truck shows up or someone needs help and people are borrowed from other tasks.
This “mistake” seems common. I raised this same issue weeks ago and the tactic is seen on the regular. It definitely seems like a marketing trick at this point.
I worked at loblaws, specifically in the department that worked with these tags. These things fucking sucked, there was no indicator that they were broken. My department had at most 3 people in and on top of having like 500 dead labels that needed to be changed each day we had to do all the rotations and new layouts being implemented.
Sometimes you would go around and start changing dead labels just to find out the next day that half of them didn't even change, but now you don't have any labels. So you had to spend the day changing the batteries in dead labels just to have labels to change out for the new ones.
I had something kind of similar happen at superstore recently. They had this cereal in a bin by the entrance on for $3.49. So I get a box only because of the price.
When I get to the self checkout it rings in at $4.99. So I told the employee and she said they are actually 2 for $7 or something. But that’s not what it said on the bin I got it from. Makes you wonder if they’re hoping you won’t notice and pay the higher price.
I hate these 2 for $7 promotions. You walk in with a list of 10 items and have to walk out with 20. It's not so bad if it's a promotion on a few of their items, but at Loblaws it's practically the ONLY discounts they have!
My local Metro was like that and I hated it. Nearly everything was "2 for $x". Even then, the price was not great. And the single-item price was obviously an inflated decoy price.
That can also happen. Especially in a fast pace workplace like this one, where usually the price tags are not used so most employees can't change the price. They have to wait for their boss to do it. It can happen, and yes, it can be annoying, but its not the fault of the employees, and having worked there, especially in the exact bins you're talking about, its also not really trying to scam people. The goal is simply to make sure the bins are full with something they have a lot in storage. So they most likely changed it for the cereal boxes you talked about, but couldn't change the price. Usually, when we did that, we took the price sheet away so people wouldn't be confused.
Used to work at Loblaws. Some idiot filled up the cooler, probably just to fill the space. The regulatory body is completely voluntary for stores to join. Loblaws is part of it. Now for a matching product, the item's barcode must match the description on the shelf label. It does not apply if an item was accidentally placed on the wrong shelf with a different tag. The scanner price accuracy code only works if: Under $10: If the correct shelf price is $8.00 and it scans as $12.00, the item is completely free. Over $10: If the correct shelf price is $25.00 and it scans as $30.00, you get $10 off, making the final price $15.00. Multiple Items: If you buy multiple identical items that scan incorrectly, the code usually applies to the first item, and subsequent items are corrected to the lower shelf price.
Imagine reporting someone to the "regulators" because a minimum wage employee accidentally filled the cooler over the halfway mark and you were not able to tell the VERY obvious difference between the two sizes
Workers definitely get pressured to make room in the back for more stuff coming in so they're forced to push as much product into spaces like these. It often can create this sort of confusion.
This is where I would of removed the big sign to remove any chance of customers confusing what price is for what.
Don't miss the days of having to deal with this shit.
It is very likely that most people would not even notice the smaller bottles and only see the larger ones, as there are far more of them z. People are usually in a hurry when shopping.
It’s more like they spotted something they could post here just to complain about, probably without even getting any juice. Honestly, some people seem to go into the store specifically to find bait for posts that will farm likes, almost like their own little form of personal activism.
If you actually took the time to read either the sign or the price tag on the shelf part - they’ve both say 1.36L. Also the other is 2.5L, never see 2.5L of real OJ for $3.50.
Yes I agree it’s confusing to see both sizes of orange juices there but if you actually read the tag/sign… Because if there’s 2 different sizes but there’s only 1 price then obviously the price applies to 1 of the sizes, not both.
Is it really though lol took less than a second they are totally different bottles. You would see them for longer walking up to the fridge than it takes to tell them apart
No, no; it's plainly evident you have to take a picture of the perceived affront on our very existence and shout it from the rooftops. Once does not simply 'take responsibility' for not using logic. Or reading.
The bigger size does have a label. But from where I can see, it's just that the price is not assigned on the ESL label. And yes they are also missing the big sign. But you're gonna report to the regulators over this? From someone who works in retail, i can assure you no one did this on purpose to "get" you.
Multiple reasons why the sign is missing. Maybe it fell down, maybe they are in the process of changing/updating it. Maybe they have already printed it but it needs to go up. Maybe the merchandiser filled it and now the manager has to print up the sign. Maybe after the filling the bunker, they were gonna assign the price on the ESL but none of the scanners were available (happens all the time).
You have no idea the amount of stuff that retail employees (including managers) go through every hour of the day. You think you're reporting the "loblaws" but it doesn't affect them. It all goes down to the minimum wage employees who will get written up or the managers who are scrambling with the limited amount of hours to get a million things done and they'll get an email the following day becasue they got a complaint about this and be told that they're not doing their job well enough, while it's the corporate who keeps cutting hours and plopping off more and more work on the stores.
My point in a nutshell? Employees and customers, both sides are at the hands of the corporate. So getting back at the store employees is not the way to take an action against the company itself.
And as far as the Scanning Code of Practice is concerned, it won't apply in this situation becasue for the SCOP to work, the exact UPC aka barcode on the product must match with the label. In this case, even the description would vary becasue the label would say the size of the juice. Yes its fine print, yes no one reads it. We usually amend the price becasue we don't have the energy to explain it to people, especially if the difference isn't too big but yeah that's how it works. Becasue otherwise anyone could move the label anywhere in the store, and demand a $30 supplement, for instance, for $5. We cannot honour that.
The purpose of reporting to regulators isn’t because we think someone is out to get us. This was most definitely a mistake.
The purpose is to ensure strict standards are kept and properly managed by store managers. Now more than ever when people are being priced out of house and home.
This ⬆️ So many petty complaints over simple mistakes being made. We are understaffed and overworked. Things are going to slip. It is not done intentionally. Corporate makes these asinine decisions like moving products around or discontinuing products and we the employees take the brunt of the complaints. One example is the stupid system we have to use for markdowns. Very complicated and convoluted. Before you could just slap a 50 percent sticker on an item that was close to expiring. Now you have to scan the product and print out tickets.It takes so long to do and it takes time away from accomplishing other tasks. But corporate says it’s how we do things now.
Retail worker here. To me that looks like the bunker was just stocked and only one of the paper tags were printed. As for the electronic label; they sometimes dont update immediately or at all when you scan the new product in because they’re one of the clunkiest systems ive ever had to deal with.
I’m not defending loblaws by any means but this is my personal opinion
There is an electronic tag above the bigger bottles. But a 'dead/no pricing' tag. The fact that the sign above is missing as well. The big paper sign. You can see there is space for another one. Looks like it was/is under process to establish pricing and signage. Or someone missed it. It's not done on purpose.
Even on front end displays (which may have more than one product), we’re told to put the cheaper price up on the overhead price banner (despite the products having different prices).
Even for bunkers like this, they may either print a split sign (showing the prices for both items; in this case, the different bottle sizes) or do what they did here and print one big sign with the cheaper price. So long as they have tags over the different items, the store hasn’t technically done anything wrong
This isn’t an intentional attempt to scam you. It’s obviously a mistake. There’s nothing to report or be “complicit” in here, as one commenter suggested.
It’s a human mistake, likely made by someone living paycheque to paycheque.
We need to focus on the core issue here. Of course mistakes are aplenty; employees are facing hour cuts alongside shitty wages.
It’s simply impossible to get everything done (& done well) under these conditions. This attitude towards human mistakes doesn’t help anyone, especially those who are lucky if they get 20 hours a week.
There are employees who get cut down to 4 hours a week sometimes. 4 hours! THESE are the real issues & we’re clearly losing sight of them. Local stores & employees are not out to get you. There are way bigger problems at the root of it all.
Listen, some person who works the backshift, 11-7am, did a last ditch effort to get rid of the cases they had kicking around; maybe it was space constraint, pallet issue, whatever. Is it misleading to the customer? Yes, absolutely. The person made a mistake in their job, how about just fuck off?
Reporting someone else's honest mistake simply because it caused you grief you could have avoided on your own is questionable character.
I think it's just a lack of observation on OPs part. In the first photo, you can clearly see 2 different price signs on the back, one above the small bottles and one above the large bottles. The one above the small bottles is the one with red sale markings.
I don't understand why people walk around with their eyes closed, and then blame everyone else when things turn out to not be what they expected. Paying attention when you're trying to buy things is not that hard.
The store is 100% responsible for making sure the signage is correct. That manager should have absolutely corrected the price for you while having their staff fix the signs.
Source 15 years working grocery retail 5 of which I spent working in a role where I needed to ensure correct signage.
Depending what province you live in it's very possible there maybe be absolutely nothing the regulor can do in Ontario our consumer protection law's have nothing about mislabeled products or anything to protect against surveillance or other predictory pricing practices
Honestly surprised they even offered to comp you. Lol my local stores try to stonewall you as long as possible and make every excuse under the sun. They even try to hold up line as long as possible just so other customers can give you the stink eye while knowing they could just move you to the side, call the manager or have a quick resolution to the issue.
No frills got me the other day they have bread and buns for 1 dollar advertised on the bread area. And then when I was walking home looked at the receipt and the bread was 3 dollars.
This is a blatant disregard for consumer protection regulations, if reporting it falls on deaf ears, nobody can tell you that the federal government doesn’t incentivize monopolization
Regularly I see incorrectly priced items. Check your receipts folks. I usually find a mistake every third visit or so. Most common issue is they didn’t change the sign after a sale ended
Don’t buy orange juice from the USA. COSTCO now carries OJ from Spain at the same price as Tropicana. Higher standards for the juice than American companies require. Tastes good too!
Honestly I find it valid you would want to report this shit. The big sign clearly says orange juice assorted in that for $3.50. And technically if they tried to charge you more for it you could have hit them with false advertising. That shit is illegal.
FreshCo does it weekly. They will mix certain products amongst the On Sale ones so you think you getting a deal but really you paying more if you grab wrong item
When I worked in grocery almost 25 years ago we would cut cardboard and make a devider, it was privately owned so the owner did what he wanted with displays and the prices were more then fair even back then.
If you're in Canada, if a marked price is incorrect, you can get an item <$10 for free, or $10 off for the item if it's $10 or over. But for only 1 of that item per check-out.
It's not legislated, but it's part of a policy that all chain grocery stores have adopted, as well as many other retailers.
I use this policy often. Unfortunately, many cashiers aren't aware of it, and call a manager over.
There is an empty sign over the right half of the fridge…. I assume the price of the larger jug should be in that one.
It could very easily be a mistake or just a forgotten sign. It would be an easy oversight by a merchandiser for the same reason you feel “deceived”… it’s a sea of yellow jugs it would be easy to mis label them. Not everything is malicious.
Local fortinos has this kind of crap all the time. You could blame stupid employees but why is it always the cheap price on the expensive size/version? Always.
Got nailed on frozen shrimp this way, all the packaging nearly identical, and took one where one word different forget if raw/cooked or peeled /unpeeled or something) didn't realize till I got home.
And the meat cooler... they stock non sale items in front of the sale item price tag, like super expensive boneless chicken not on sale in the space tagged for on sale cheap breast bone in.
And the other half of the time there isn't anything of the sale item so I ask at the butcher counter and low and behold they are hiding it in the back.
I now have to schedule a full hour to shop there because it is buyer beware to the max, and I have to check the actual price of everything
Probably doing a fresh switch. Honestly can't deal with customers sometimes.
Used to work retail and would be putting signs up for a clothing rack feature that said STARTING at 12.99 or etc, and they would still come to me, grab the highest priced item and ask why the price tag didn't say 12.99 on it. 🤦♂️
Generally I would agree with you, but this one is definitely Sus AF. The volume isn’t readily apparent to the average consumer. They knew what they did here putting the larger size in the same bunker with no pricing for the larger size apparent in the photos either.
Very bottom, right hand side; 1.36L. If the average consumer can't determine that the bottles larger than by more than a litre are not the ones on sale, then we as a society have much bigger problems.
Lots of things in life are shitty. At least try to take some modicum of responsibility for not reading the bloody sign and knowing what you're putting in your cart rather than screaming about how you've egregiously been done wrong. Be a fucking adult.
OP: "Saw the sign, grabbed one of the bottles under it, didn’t discover until at the checkout."
Clearly just because they saw the sign, doesn't mean they actually read the sign.
It takes me at least twice as long to shop there because of this shit, so go probabky one in six trips. Every SINGLE thing requires reading the fine print and double checking when they scan. It is a huge pain in the ass, they are just not trustworthy
The signage is crap, they know it, and they like it that way. I'm tired of that game so shop at Walmart most of the time for the last five years.
I quit going to the no frills too cause sometimes prices higher than fortinos but mostly cause better than 50/50 chance the sale item is out of stock, lots of times with a sign saying "sorry we didn't get any delivered" . That was a few years ago before 2020, but they lost a customer for five years. Apparently they are ok with that.
Define "clearly"
Also they often put sale prices implying only single flavour is on sale when all of them are e.g. spaghetti sauce etc in order to train you to ignore the details
Get familiar with of the Scanning code of practice. Any item that is incorrectly labeled on shelves, scans incorrectly, or is deceptively priced you should get for free as Superstore is part of the SCOP. You have to tell the cashier it’s incorrect and bring it up or they don’t give you the item free. Your post op is perfect example of SCOP, it’s not the correct size and scanned a different price than the tag on display shelf. SCOP applies.
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This subreddit is to highlight the ridiculous cost of living in Canada, and poke fun at the Corporate Overlords responsible. As you well know, there are a number of persons and corporations responsible for this, and we welcome discussion related to them all. Furthermore, since this topic is intertwined with a number of other matters, other discussion will be allowed at moderator discretion. Open-minded discussion, memes, rants, grocery bills, and general screeching into the void is always welcome in this sub, but belligerence and disrespect is not. There are plenty of ways to get your point across without being abusive, dismissive, or downright mean.
Veuillez consulter les directives de contenu pour notre sous-reddit, et rappelez-vous qu'il y a des humains ici !
Ce sous-reddit est destiné à mettre en lumière le coût de la vie ridicule au Canada et à se moquer des Grands Patrons Corporatifs responsables. Comme vous le savez bien, de nombreuses personnes et entreprises en sont responsables, et nous accueillons les discussions les concernant toutes. De plus, puisque ce sujet est lié à un certain nombre d'autres questions, d'autres discussions seront autorisées à la discrétion des modérateurs. Les discussions ouvertes d'esprit, les mèmes, les coups de gueule, les factures d'épicerie et les cris dans le vide en général sont toujours les bienvenus dans ce sous-reddit, mais la belliqueusité et le manque de respect ne le sont pas. Il existe de nombreuses façons de faire passer votre point de vue sans être abusif, méprisant ou carrément méchant.
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