The entire night I have been going through pages of Michigan Retail Law, trying to figure out what in the heck I am supposed to know about how things scan in the store. I work at Meijer, and would appreciate that my name and email aren’t included in this publicly, but I can assure, I have a rather in depth look from both sides at the scanning debate.

My store is pretty good about it, we’re a huge store in Metro Detroit, and we are the busiest Meijer in Downriver. So, it’s pretty sure that we make a few mistakes. We’re always understaffed because we’re an older store and because our profits don’t merit our staffing, which means that although we have more traffic than another store, we can’t have as many people working because that other store makes more from their advantageous clientele.

Theft Is a Huge Problem

Therefore, we have quite a few variables to piece together. We have a higher theft rate. We have more customers than an average store, but those customers tend to be poorer than other areas, so we make less profit. We’re understaffed, and underpaid, but it’s work.

Honestly, over two years ago I started out at Meijer making $5.50 an hour. I’m making $6.50 now. When someone steals from our store, or when someone gets grumpy because they read a sign wrong, it’s personal to me, not business. Because every drop in profit we have feels like it comes right out of my pocket. Why didn’t I get that merit raise I busted my butt for all year? Because half these people are fricken’ illiterate in the store.

It’s true that we make mistakes. Like I said, I’ve worked there for over two years, and I’ve done everything from being a bagger, to running the service desk, being a cashier, pulling in carts, stocking toys, throwing out candy, auditing other sections through Systems; I’ve done it all. I would say, that 1 out of about 50 or 100 complaints about pricing is in fact our fault. This is an estimation, and I’m inclined to say that there are fewer instances than I’m guessing that is our fault.

Addressing Scanning Errors

I’ve done the scanning award quite a few times, and I’ve told people more than once they couldn’t have it because it wasn’t marked on the item. Of course, I also make sure that there wasn’t a sign or shelf tag that said something else. A very specific tag that had not only a date which was current, the same UPC, and a price. I’ve done price changes, but no scanning award, for people that made mistakes reading the sign, where is was slightly misleading- but even when I was just a lowly consumer, I wasn’t so stupid as to just assume something was one price. I read signs thoroughly, because my Pa always taught me to read the fine print.

I have to say that most of the people that come to the desk for a price adjustment and scanning award bring up old signs, wrong signs-, and sometimes, just for giggles, things that don’t even slightly resemble signs that any of our stockers would use.

I had a woman the other night insist that her apples rang up for the wrong price and she deserved the scanning award since her cashier had been faulty. I went back, grabbed the sign, said, “Yes, this is on sale. Unfortunately, you grabbed the wrong brand of apples. Which were on the other side. Which you couldn’t possibly have mistaken for these apples. I’ll make the price adjustment, since it’s only a few cents, but I’m not really supposed to, and you are not entitled to the scanning award.”

Handling Complaints

Many more people come up to the desk to rip us off. And the ones who complain to our AG about the “worst things we’ve done” are almost always those people, because the honest people that just made a mistake reading a sign, or bring up the sign that show that we made a mistake- we always honor it. I have not yet seen (and I say seen because it’s possible I haven’t seen a few injustices) someone come up with an honest to goodness UPC error that we don’t correct.

Then you have to consider another factor of this law. We’ve had half of the Metro working at this store- or someone in their family. We’ve had pricing guns stolen from us, and we’ve had a few idiots work for us. We’ve actually caught people coming through and marking things the wrong price over where the right price is supposed to be. We’ve caught people carefully peeling up stickers from other items and gluing them faultlessly on something else. Sorry, but it’s unrealistic that we’re going to give someone a 15.00 retail bag of dog food for 90 cents. But we have people that will argue it.

Managers Attempt to Satisfy Customers Needs

On the other hand- our managers often say that they will gladly give that customer the lowest retail price on the object- what the store pays for it- so that we make no profit and they leave happy. That’s really the best we can do.

I’m hoping that the new provisions to the laws pass in Michigan. I think it’s high time that people begin looking a little closer at shelf tags, UPCs, and what an item is actually marked. In my tenure, it is exceedingly unlikely for any of us to find people come to us with scanning errors that are just complete errors in our system. Either they read the sign wrong, read the wrong sign, looked at the wrong shelf tag, or were pasting little tags on the wrong item to their own whim.

We try to deal with this as best we can. Service is the hardest section to work for, because every customer that comes through expects us to memorize the entire store and know the price of all 250,000 items or so that we have in the store at any given time.

Then you have to add in the given variables of thieves, daily switcheroos, and con-artists that come through on a more than regular basis. Every person that I have waited on or have heard about being waited on that had a genuine problem with pricing has brought up an item with at the most a five dollar difference between the price it came up at and the price it should be. And we always honor it. I’ve never had someone come up with a current, correct sign and a marked item that rang up for 100 dollars more than it was marked, that’s just not realistic.

Retail Bandit Reader Tips

Here are a few tips for the people on Retail Bandit, and a few scenarios from someone that has watched almost every con play out, and been conned by almost every con once. One, you have to prove the error. It is on your shoulders to do that. Just because a sign is misleading doesn’t mean we have to honor it. If the UPC is different, if it is expired- we do not have to honor it. If the sticker on it says $2.00 and it’s an X-box, we do not have to honor it.

Want to know why? Because it will work out like this- you will file a complaint, or you will file a law suit. If you file a law suit, you have to bear the burden of proving we were wrong. Then, in the very slim chance that you win, we pay for what? Your lawyer up to, I believe $300 or $500, and the difference in the price.

We do not pay for emotional suffering or the incredible loss of time in your life. In most cases, we’ll settle out of court for less IF someone has that much resolve- which 1 out of 10,000 won’t, or the Judge will ask how you were so stupid as to think you would get an X-Box for $2.00.

Don’t come in without the item, a week into your 30 days, and demand the price adjustment. First off, that sign is probably gone that you saw. Second, you don’t have a marked item with you. Just last week I had a guy come in and say that his beer rang up for 7.00 and the sign in the back said 5.00. Sure, that’s not a big deal, right?

Well, to begin… it’s against Michigan law to change prices on liquor. He didn’t bring his beer back in so I could verify how much it was supposed to ring at, or call back to see what brand it was so that Grocery could check for a sign. He just exclaimed this at me expecting me to jump to attention for him. Sorry, I’m a human too. And I’m paid by the hour.

You can piss and moan at me as long as you like, as long as you don’t touch me, because I get paid all the same. Actually, I’d be more than happy to have helped him. Help me, help you, and I’ll change the price for our mistake or make exceptions for likely cases of your mistake.

Getting More Flies With Honey

It’s usually all in the way people treat me. If you ask me nicely, I’ll do almost anything for you, I’ll bend over backwards trying to get someone somewhere with the authority to authorize it. But, even if you’re right, and you come to me with an attitude, I’m going to painstakingly draw out the proceedure, leisurely walking through the store in search for the object, making sure to call every department and manager possible before acceeding to giving you the adjustment.

Just like the guy I had tonight. I was called over to a lane to give an override to one of my cashiers so that they could make a price adjustment. The item was marked $3.99. But was ringing up $39.99. Which means someone misplaced a decimal. However, where he found the few things there was a huge sign. Because that item was on sale this week for $39.99, right above where he got them. He had to have seen that sign. There was no way to miss that near square foot of bright yellow paper. And the manager who came up said she would be more than glad to give it to him for $28.00, which was the lowest value. That guy just got $10.00 off a sales price for an item, but he wasn’t content. Come on.

Gentle Reminder

Again though, here is a reminder. Read the sign completely. It is not our job to read it to you. The sales paper and the sales signs may have slight differences in them. Usually not differences in what is on sale, but differences in the limits of what varieties or how many you may buy.

If the sign doesn’t list the varieties limited, we’ll almost always give them to you for sale price. If the sign doesn’t list a limit of 2 that’s in the paper, too bad. There’s a limit anyways. If the sign doesn’t have the same UPC, the same size, or the same brand, we do not have to give it to you, regardless of the placing of the sign. People move items, people move signs. We can’t be everywhere at once.

Just because something is marked does not mean we have to give it to you. If it is within reason we doubtlessly will, we do want your business and are glad for small sacrifices to keep you. If it’s not within reason, then you’re insane for thinking we’ll give it to you. Sorry. Perhaps the core of this is that I’m saying that maybe you should realize that a lot of your fellow shoppers are the reason your pleas for justice are met with suspicion. If we didn’t have 100 other people screwing us for every honest person, we wouldn’t question your ability to read a sign.

Last Thoughts

Also, in concern to one, Chuck with a complaint on our return policy- we always take returns with reciepts. If however you make more than three returns without a reciept, it’s obvious we’re not going to take it. We do not have to take returns without reciepts, period, and often do one or two just to be courteous. But there is a point where you move over into the suspicious category if you’re making a bunch of returns without one.

In regards to the scanning award, I was wrong in the suit department. You can get lawyer’s fees, up to $300 paid, and either damages done, or $250 for the suit, whichever comes first. Again, a drop in the bucket for Meijer if 1000 people were to sue them tomorrow night.

Name withheld by request