Good Lord it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here. This summer has been pretty crazy for me so far and I’ve been doing nothing but working. Today I am going on day 19 now and I’ve had 1 day off. To say the least, I am tired, my body aches, my head is filled with the HORRIBLE music they play at work and I’ve had no motivation to write about much of anything. On the upside, I have a vacation starting at 1PM on Friday and I’ll be off work for 10 days during which time I intend to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to strain my body any more than necessary.
So I’ve got one thing I want to bitch about tonight and I’ve written about it before. Michigan is really a fucked up state. The reason I’ve been working 60 hours a week for the past 3 weeks is because of an archaic law called the Michigan Consumer Protection Act which was passed with very little explanation some years ago to “protect” consumers from companies who might try to rip them off, primarily retailers. Michigan is the ONLY state in my company’s region that has to deal with this law, no other states have (or will ever) even consider it. It consists of 2 parts. The first part deals with price discrepancies. If a consumer exits the store and then identifies a price sticker that disagrees with the price rung up on his receipt, he is entitled to return to the store to receive back the difference times 10. That means, if you buy a candy bar and that candy bar has a price sticker for $1.00 but the cash register rings it up for $1.10, you are entitled to come in and the store must pay you 10 times the difference up to $5.00. In this case you would receive back $0.10 x 10 = $1.00. The rule is that before that is paid out, the transaction must be complete and you must have left the store and returned with your receipt and the item in question showing the incorrect price sticker. People routinely take advantage of this law and as a result, stores pay out. The second part of this law has to do with price stickers themselves. In Michigan, EVERYTHING that is for sale in a retail establishment (with some exceptions) must have a price sticker affixed to the product in addition to signs indicating what the price is on the shelf. We are the ONLY state that requires this of retailers and really, it does nothing other than prove that consumers are incapable of basic observation. If a shelf sticker below a can of soup says that can of soup of whatever flavor is $1.00, than that can of soup is $1.00! Really quite simple to look at the tag, look at the soup, and reach a logical conclusion that it is in fact that price. If you are paying attention at the cash register and find a problem, no retailer is going to ignore you, they are going to fix it and adjust the price right there to match the tag on the shelf. MOST stores in the country price sticker their products. This is a GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE and I don’t disagree with doing it. HOWEVER, I must inform you that this practice is extremely expensive to the retailer which in turns makes YOUR products more expensive. EVERY DAY when I go into work, I spend the first 2 hours of my day doing price changes. These changes are necessary because the price of EVERYTHING is fluid. Need I remind you that you do NOT pay the same for gas today as you did 10 years ago! Because we price sticker items, and because prices can and do change very often, I spend a great deal of money paying my employees to remove old price stickers, put new ones on and then make new signs. I’m not talking about 1 or 2 changes a day. I can have over 200 a day depending on the products that change when the market changes. THIS is the concept that consumers do not understand and this RESULTS in the payouts described in part one. Things get missed, signs don’t get updated quick enough etc. etc.
So what am I getting at. This law sucks for retailers and does very little to enhance or benefit the consumer. REALLY, what are you planning to do with that extra 5 cents? When you sell 6 million items in a store, humans miss things and there are really very few retailers interested in taking advantage of consumers. Whats in it for the retailer to do so? Why would we want to willingly piss off a potential customer? I’m sorry folks but THINGS COST MONEY. I’m sorry that you have to pay for your goods and services and I’m sorry that prices go up and down on a regular basis but thats how life works. Why not do YOUR part and simply pay attention when you are shopping? Why is it that EVERY OTHER STATE is permitted to simply use proper signs and shelf tags to sell their products and you don’t hear about issues with pricing in those states? Why are we paying out money to someone who happened to pick up one product in a bucket of 50 items where the price sticker has fallen off, and how is it that we must pay out because of DISHONEST customers who ROUTINELY peel off price stickers and replace them with stickers for a lesser price? Think this doesn’t happen? Think again. I see people do it on a regular basis, they will sit there in the aisle, remove price stickers and drop them on the floor and then go find a cheaper product and put that sticker on the item they want. Who’s being taken advantage of here?
OK, thats enough. In the end folks, this is a law I can’t change but just like you can bitch about stuff not being priced, I can bitch about those of you who find it perfectly acceptable to take advantage of the law and I can bitch about those you too simply to lazy or incapable of being and observant shopper.
Sometime this summer I will write a bit more about some different subjects if I can every get my ass out of work for any length of time. I WANT THIS SIGN for my store. Get OFF your fucking phone if you want my attention.
