What a stupid law!

Noters Beware!! This is a “mean-note” free diary.

Here in Michigan there is a law known as the “Scanner Law”. It has to do with purchases made at stores. Basically it states, in a nutshell, that if a store overcharges you for an item that is price stickered, then you can go back to that store and not only get the money back that you were overcharged, but a “reward” of 10 times the overcharge up to $5.00. I think I read that the law is from 1976. I think it needs to be reworked or thrown out all together. I am sure that the person who wrote this law had the best interests of the consumer in mind, but all scenarios weren’t thought out. Nowadays, there are waaaaayyyyyy too many scam-a-licious type people out there. I have been witness to two scenarios where it probably wasn’t the stores fault that the item was marked lower than it rang up, yet the customer demanded their “Michigan Bounty”. (And no, I am not going to tell you how to cheat a store out of money. If you can’t figure out what I am referencing, put on your thinking cap, and see what happens. I work retail and I won’t help someone do the exact thing I am ranting about. Sorry.)

I DO believe that stores should give people back the money they were overcharged. I understand overcharging does happen. And probably a lot. But in an environment where employees regularly multitask (as in… your friendly dollar store cashier also is a stocker/customer service rep/janitor/etc. who is answering 10 people’s stupid questions at the same time he/she is answering 10 people’s not so stupid questions), it’s no wonder mistakes are made. I cost our store $2.50 because of this stupid law this week.

Here’s how it happened: We used to carry a BIG can of White Rain hair spray, the kind with the pink cap. Recently we downgraded to a smaller can of White Rain hair spray, the kind with the green cap. But when we put the new shelf labels with the price points on them up, we didn’t notice that the size and kind of White Rain hair spray had changed. We should have, because the price of the old kind was $2.25 and the new stuff is $1. But as I said, we are usually doing the price point changes inbetween customers, so sometimes you literally change one price sticker, jump up, run to your register, ring out a few customers, run back to the area that is being changed, change another price sticker, jump up, run to your register…lather, rinse, repeat.

Well, when I was stocking that area, I noticed our mistake and pulled all the big cans off the shelf and moved them to a “flex” area. (This is simply an area where items that don’t have a regular home can get put.) I remember doing it. But, again, I was also cashiering, and was in a hurry. Come to find out, one of the cans I pulled off the shelf must have been one of the cans that had been consisitently pushed to the back part of the shelf every time new stock came in. It had a $2.00 price sticker. Those particular cans used to be $2.00 a year ago. Then they moved up, as the price of everything rose, to $2.25. I didn’t notice the sticker. I had 6 or 7 other cans in my arms at the same time, trying to find a new spot for them in a flex area. But this crabby old lady customer found it. And when the cashier didn’t notice the sticker, either, she demanded her stupid “Michigan Bounty”. All over a stupid quarter. So she got $2.50 because I missed a sticker.

It can be almost impossible to keep this from happening. I have ranted on here many times before about the “not-so-neat” shopping habits of customers. And here we go again. With a little story…JoeJimBob needed new batteries for his Walkman. So, JoeJimBob goes to the store. He finds a package of batteries that costs $3.00. But JoeJimBob is bored and decides to wander the store for a while and look at other things. JoeJimBob wanders down the hardware aisle and finds a really neat package of sandpaper, which also costs $3.00. Right at this exact moment, JoeJimBob realizes that he has only enough in his wallet for one item or the other, so JoeJimBob has a decision to make. He decides he really needs the sandpaper for his latest project and that the batteries can wait until tomorrow. But instead of JoeJimBob putting the package of batteries back where they go or giving them to the cashier to be restocked, he simply shoves it behind the stacks of sandpaper packages on the shelf. The next day, the store gets a memo from their corporate office stating that the Energizer Bunny needs more carrots, so the cost of batteries is now going to have to be $3.50. The employees of the store go and put new price stickers on all the packages of batteries…all, that is, except the package that JoeJimBob stashed in the hardware department.

See where I’m going with this….? Now all it takes is for JoeJimBob’s second cousin, Lisa Noteeth to come in the store and find that package of batteries that are still marked $3.00 and get charged $3.50 and woo-hoo for Lisa! She gets her fifty cents back plus $5.00 bounty. And it was no one’s fault, really, except maybe JoeJimBob for leaving an item in the wrong spot. Even in a store that gets straightened up regularly, it’s amazing what can turn up. I once found a Cadbury Egg in October. I don’t know where it hid for 6 months, but there it was, sitting on a shelf. And I know it didn’t spend 6 months where I found it. Someone had to dig it out of some nook or cranny somewhere. It still looked normal, it wasn’t squished or gross. Now, imagine that Cadbury Egg being the pack of batteries. When price changes come through, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to know that you have EVERY SINGLE ONE of a certain item in the store at that very moment. Price changes are done while the store is open at our store. Most everything is done in our store during business hours. So there’s no telling which customer has what in their cart and where they are going to shove items that they don’t want. So then if something turns up a week or two after a price change, I have to give someone a reward for being overcharged? I can see giving them the price on the package, but not a bonus amount.

Stupid law. Stupid stupid law. And all it probably accomplishes is raising prices when stores have to make up for all the freebies.

And, imho, a good number of those bounties go to people who scammed the store anyway.