Illegal or just unethical?

[KandiB47]

I noticed a deal like this on Black Friday at a big department store in the mall. They had an ad for flameless candles, buy one, get one free. They were priced $15 each but I could see through to the sticker below it and they had been $12. I thought it was a deal until I saw they marked it up. Then I was just annoyed.

 

[marlynnp]

That's really really shady. I'd be complaining big time.

I agree!

 

[timmac]

Honestly, thought it might seem like bad business, or kind of tacky, I can't imagine there's anything illegal about it (though it may vary by jurisdiction)... even saying it's unethical would be overstating it, in my opinion.

You (or me, or anyone), as a consumer, are presented by the merchant with an item for sale at some price. It's our decision whether or not to make that purchase. Obviously you felt as though $4 each was a good enough price to warrant purchase, so you purchased.

Any advertisement of the situation as a SALE or BOGO or anything else is pure marketing gimmick. Sure, it might sting a bit to feel like you "fell" for their trap, but obviously you felt the deal was good enough to buy.

 

[jen22984]

I've never seen Cacique underwear originally priced $6.00, so I would assume it was a misprint and was supposed to say $16 (most Cacique undies I have were originally around $16).

 

[stitchlovestink]

Actually, I think it was a price increase. If you shop their regular store that sells Cacique, a LOT of their mds has had price increases. the lacey tanks were exactly as you described, with a price sticker over top of the original price on the tag. DD found one that they missed (and it was clear that the little sticky had not just been pulled off) and they sold it to her for the lesser price. But the mgr was 'reminding' everyone to be sure to put stickers on each and every item as they were unpacking the new stock. So I would bet $ that it was a legit price increase, since we have seen several regularly stocked items increasing in price in their store. It is frustrating though, esp since retail still isn't doing all that great. You'd think it'd be the other way around...

 

[Mickeyflower]

I've worked retail for over 17 years, and when merchandise is marked up, it is NOT for a sale, at least in the stored I worked in (Mervyn's, Target and other major retailers). For a large company, with stores in multiple states, it is a logistical nightmare to get ALL STORES to mark up, simply for one sale, then mark them back down. It is next to impossible, and illegal. There is a division called Weights and Measures that monitors this and other practices in regards to in store sale signage. If an item is marked up, the reason is an increase in cost. Since gas is going SKY HIGH, companies are having to pay more to get merchandise to proper locations. Yes, it is lazy to leave the old price on, but chances are that the crew doing that mark up, was up all night doing re-ticketing for multiple locations, or a re-ticketing thousands of pieces, and got lazy. Ive had to pull 2 all night shifts on one week marking up all gold jewelry because the cost of gold per oz was going up amazingly fast! No fun re-ticketing tiny earrings. We would place a new sticker over the old one because if we took the old one off, it would tear the weight and SKU numbers off.

 

[Shelby5514]

I agree with the previous posters that said it was indeed a MARKUP due to the price of cotton/gas/economy. I work at Macy's and since the beginning of the year we have re-marked almost the entire bedding and towel depts. All of the sterling silver jewelry went up anywhere from $5 to $50! All Levi's went up $10. Lingere went up a few bucks and I just got the paperwork for Hilfiger socks to go up $2 on May 2. We try to remove the orig. price before putting on the new sticker but there is only so much picking and peeling your fingers can take so I now try to line the price out with a sharpie marker before affixing the new sticker. I'm sure there are times where I've missed one or two.

I'm not sure how big the store you were in was, but I highly doubt they would waste the time to re-ticket every item, every time it was on sale. If they did re-ticket every time, I would think you would see a stack of price stickers and not just one.

 

[EKW]

They cover their fannies on this by putting a tiny disclaimer on their ads saying, "Product may or may not have been sold at the listed original retail price." When Outlet malls first started they were a place to get a deal. They quickly became a place to get ripped off. Some stores sell lower quality merchandise...stuff that never saw the light of day in their regular stores. Others pull what you experienced...fake "sales". This is one reason I don't shop at Outlets anymore!

 

[fireflymedic]

not sure why you did not mention the co.,

i think who-doo, you have been scamed, I'm sure in todays economey stores will do what ever it takes to move product.

I have no busness degree but I bet there is a chapter in a book at some college on this very subject. Because as you can see it works.

and $4 is less than 6 so you saved money, dont let this bother you to much, right the letter maybe they send you a discount coupon or something.

 

[sam_gordon]

I don't see it as illegal OR a scam.

You bought one pair of underwear for $8 and got another one free. So you spent $8 for two ($4 each).

If you would have paid "original" price ($6), it would have cost you $12. So you STILL saved money.

Even if they were supposed to be $6 & BOGO, you "overspent" a total of $2. You're getting this mad over $2? Yes, "every little bit counts", but if it was me, I'd let it go.

Also, I remember going to Circuit City's "going out of business sale". "Everything 70% off" said the flyers. Yea, that '70% off' was from the MSRP... making items NOT that much of a deal from what you could get from competitors.

 

[luvmyeor]

I do not think that you were scammed. I work for an inventory service and we assisted a store with their mark-ups a few months ago. Any clothing that contained cotton had a price increase from $.50 - $4.00. The store manager said they were expecting another increase later in the year.

I have noticed that some of the other stores we inventory have also had price changes due to the rising cost of cotton.

 

[bowne90]

Maybe you could email the company and tell them what happened. They might be able to explain what they did or at least they would be made aware of it.

 

[QVCshopper]

I wouldn't worry about it. You were happy with the price when you bought them, right?

The same thing happened at the Disney Store. The Rapunzel dress was $39.50 when it first appeared. A few weeks later, when the movie was getting popular, it was $49.50 and no discounts allowed. That annoyed me, but it's all supply and demand.

 

[LSchrow]

Not illegal at all. I know where I work we have been marking a lot of things up lately. The cost of cotton has gone way up, so we are marking many items that contain cotton up. As long as the markup was not done for the purpose of putting the item on sale for a different price, nothing illegal or unethical was done. Maybe the outlet store purchased them tagged that way.

exactly what i was going to say

many stores raised prices b/c of the "cotton crisis", including older stock to help absorb some of the price of the newer stock as well as to keep consistant pricing in styles.
it's not illegal to mark-up unless it was done only for the duration of the BOGO sale.

 

[GoofyMomInOhio]

I wouldn't worry about it. You were happy with the price when you bought them, right?

The same thing happened at the Disney Store. The Rapunzel dress was $29.50 when it first appeared. A few weeks later, when the movie was getting popular, it was $39.50 and no discounts allowed. That annoyed me, but it's all supply and demand.

I paid $49.50 a couple weeks ago for the Rapunzel dress at the Disney Store. After looking for months online, at Disney World, and at the Disney Store, I was soo thrilled to find a size 10 that I was willing to shell out the money. Needless to say, I had one very happy 7 year old.

 

[QVCshopper]

I paid $49.50 a couple weeks ago for the Rapunzel dress at the Disney Store. After looking for months online, at Disney World, and at the Disney Store, I was soo thrilled to find a size 10 that I was willing to shell out the money. Needless to say, I had one very happy 7 year old.

Maybe I have the prices off. I might have been $39.50 and then went up to $49.50. I just know it went up by $10 because I was kicking myself for not getting it. They had price stickers covering up the old price.

 

[ssawka]

They cover their fannies on this by putting a tiny disclaimer on their ads saying, "Product may or may not have been sold at the listed original retail price." When Outlet malls first started they were a place to get a deal. They quickly became a place to get ripped off. Some stores sell lower quality merchandise...stuff that never saw the light of day in their regular stores. Others pull what you experienced...fake "sales". This is one reason I don't shop at Outlets anymore!

Nice pun!

 

[Sorsha]

Yeah, I work at JoAnn fabrics and we do mark-ups every month. We never make a new price-tag (it would be impossible on some of our items, bolts of fabric, etc), usually just sticker right over top of the old one. Costs are going up on everything, cotton etc, also on the cost of gas to get the items to the store.

Then, of course, JoAnn's has sales all the time. We may have marked that item up, and then turned around and made it 50% off or B1G1 a couple of days later. Not intentionally shady or trying to rip anyone off, anyone who knows JoAnn Fabrics knows that about 70% of the store is on sale at any given time. Its just that we are having to do a lot of mark-ups right now, and unfortunatly a mark-up happened to coincide with a sale.

Feel free to contact the store if you like, I am sure it will do no harm, but they will probably just tell you it was a normal inventory mark-up.

 

[gina2000]

Happens all the time. Stores change prices and promotions. If you are a regular shopper at a particular store you will see an item priced one price with a discount one week....and then a different price (higher or lower) the next week.

My mom is a shopper and she observes the practice all the time. She might dog a particular item for weeks and watch it go on sale, off sale, marked down, marked up, discounted, full price, etc., etc., etc.

Personally I think it's a bit of a scam but it's legal. No one wants to pay full price for an item anymore and this is a way for prices to reflect "a discount" but not necessarily a substantial savings.

 

[Allison]

Neither illegal or unethical