Back-to-school shopping time for Christine!
This week, OfficeMax has their 15%-off-everything-you-can-stuff-in-a-paper-bag promotion going on.
It’s a standard sized brown paper grocery bag, and on my shopping safari yesterday I came nowhere near filling it. It can hold a deceivingly large volume of small pricey impulsive things, which is the nefarious plot that lies below the surface of the promotion.
In fact, I only bought about $10.15 worth of various things– a package of highlighters, some index cards, two three-ring binders (good price on the Avery “Durable” ones), a pencil pouch (so I can easily find my stuff, instead of digging around in my backpack for my eraser or pencil leads), and who knows what else. Restraint was used, anyway.
I pay for my loot, and check the receipt before I leave.
And do the math in my head, just to be sure.
There’s no sign of my 15% discount!
The whole ritual of putting-things-in-a-paper-bag-and-get-a-discount was the point of my visit!
Still overpriced, even at 15% off… but oh well.
I went back to the cashier and (sweetly as can be) pointed out the error.
She apologized and gave me my one dollar and fifty-two cents.
I felt a little silly, but I lived up to my end of the contract– I put things into a bag as they required!
Besides, that $1.52 could buy me several ounces of gasoline.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Always, always, always check to make sure you get any discount you’ve been promised!
Think about the big picture: If 100 people per store, times 1000 stores in the country, don’t get their $1.52 discount, that’s $152,000 that Office Max has stolen from the people of America.
3 Comments
August 7, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Good for you. I’ve walked out without checking my receipt a couple of times but now I definitely check. It wasn’t about the $1.52 but about the principle of the thing. More people need to hold companies accountable like you did.
August 8, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I give them the benefit of the doubt that it was an honest mistake. Still, we need to speak up when these things happen.
August 23, 2008 at 6:44 pm
My kids pick on me for always getting my discounts. I told them every penny counts. Like you said, we can always use the saved funds for a few ounces of gas. (very few)