one for the consumer avenger!

One of my besties, JenHeadJen, calls herself the "consumer avenger," and rightfully so. She studied fashion merchandising in college, and learned all the ins and outs of the responsibilities that retailers have to us, the consumers. She has blogged many times about her experiences (good and bad), and in my opinion, hits the "nail on the head" every time! I love reading what she has to say, and you will too, so check her out at www.jenheadjen.blogspot.com. In the meantime, I HAVE to share an experience that I just had, at the all-to-wonderful (NOT!) K-mart.

Yes, I did the unthinkable. I went to K-Mart. Why? Because it is closer to my house than their competition, if you can even call Target or Wal-mart their competition. I know. Not really a good enough excuse to go there. But hey, I guess I was lazy and didn't feel like driving that far. Well, guess what I got for being lazy...nothing but HASSLE!

You see, I am currently living in a cracker box, where we pretty much have no room for anything. My husband, as most of you know, has MS, and therefore has TONS of medicine bottles. We have an ENTIRE cabinet in the kitchen that is just medicines. But that wasn't enough. So we got a "lazy susan" to put my husband's meds on, so that they were easier for him to get to. Now I am taking many herbs, supplements, and allergy medications too, so I started using the lazy susan as well. And then the kids started needing allergy meds, so, well, now we are out of room and there are pill bottles all over the counter tops. Then I had this idea: "Why not buy a little stacking shelf for the counter top so that we can all have our daily meds on the counter, without taking up so much room?!" I thought it was a good idea. So I went to K-mart to look for a counter top shelf. I found one, and there were several under the $4.99 price tag. Yes, it seemed a little odd, but there were bigger shelves around it that were priced at $19.99, so I figured it must be right. There were a couple other options, but none as cool as this $4.99 one. So I said to my girls, "Let's get this one. I'm gonna hold them to this price, too." We went to checkout and of course, it rang up $19.99. WHAAAAAAT???!!! I immediately told the cashier that it was marked $4.99. She said "Oh, no, no, no," like I was a liar. She then ran around the front end looking for an ad. When she finally returned and started thumbing through it, I told her that I did not know if it was even in the ad, but that there were several on the shelf, all under the "wrong" price tag. So she wanted me to show her. We walked all the way back to the back of the store. She then rips off the tag, and starts comparing. Then she says "The skus don't match." I think "So?" Then she calls over a stocker, who agrees that the tags don't match and that I had the wrong item. Well, too bad for them I say. I asked for the $4.99 price anyway. She then says that we have to ask a manager, so we walk clear over to the other side of the store, looking for the manager. We found her, and she said "No." I said "Well, I did not see that the tags did not match. If there was only one there, I could understand. But there were several in that spot, so I want that price." She continued to say that I could have 10% off at the most, but I wasn't going to budge. It's not my fault they can't hire competent stockers. Finally, she agreed to give me the $4.99 price. Victory! We then went back to the register, where the cashier tried to ring me up but had to then call the manager over again to verify the override. What a pain! The whole thing took over 20 minutes, but in the end, it was well worth it.

I know I was a brat, and really could have seen that the skus didn't match myself, but as the consumer avenger would say, "It's the principality of the matter." I spent way too many years of my life working in a retail situation where the customer ALWAYS got what they wanted, and I feel that is mostly how it should be. They are in business for US. Without US, they would not exist. It is not that hard to put up a price tag, or stock an item as it should be.

Of course I won't expect this to happen all the time. Most times the consumer doesn't win. And I really won't be going back to K-mart any time soon. But I had to share my little victory dance. They are, after all, few and far between.