To the Editor:
Two ten year old girls walked into The Locker Plant, the local grocery, to pick up a few items the moms forgot to buy last shopping day such as, 1 loaf of Wonder White Bread, 1 jar of French’s yellow mustard, 1 bag of red delicious apples, 1 bunch of homegrown carrots, and a bag of Oreo Cookies. After exiting the store with the purchase, they did the usual routine, pulled out the grocery slip, added up the items, and subtracted it from the dollars paid. Old Lady Warner (they called her) cheated them again and this time by $1.65. Now in today’s dollars this is not a lot of money, but in the mid 1960’s you could buy 20 nickel candy bars for $1, or 2 loaves of bread for $.70, or 5 gallons of gas for $1.75. So what is the point of this anecdote? Cheating the consumer is cheating the consumer. And the lesson from this experience? Never trust a business transaction and shopping in such hideous environments has no rewards.
It is now nearly 40-years latter and “Old Lady Warner” is alive and well, but his time she is embedded in business processes practiced by discount stores such as Circuit City and Best Buys. Circuit City requires shopping in pairs, once an item is decided upon, one goes to the cash out and pays while the other stands guarding the floor display to prevent another sales person from taking the floor model and selling it as brand new. Best Buy sells by bundling products. So in the hustle of gathering the bundled items, extra items can be added to the cart by the sales associate. These extra items could cost $100 or more. If the consumer notes the items, the sales person will most likely claim that they are part of the package deal. If the difference in the ticketed price and sales receipt is pointed out, the rebates are said to make up the difference. This brings out the calculator to recalculate. Unable to detect the difference, the sales person exclaims, “The extra items are needed!” Of course one can return the extra items, which means another 30-minute wait in the customer service line, but this allows the retelling of the experience to everyone in line.
Joan Davis October 20, 2005 Secondary Language Arts Teacher 14104 N. Creek Dr. # 2418 Mill Creek, WA 98012
