Last night, we dropped by Shopwise Araneta to do grocery chores. It's very essential since it's Holy week already and we have to stack some fish for the no-meat-meals. So here's the scenario.
The lady in front of us had complained about the Cream Dory she was about to purchase. I was talking to mum so next thing I know, she left without purchasing anything and left all the items she took at the counter.
Our turn. When the cashier punched the Dory we took, mum was surprised that the price reflected on the screen was P109.00. There was a sticker type bar code on the left side portion of the item's label that indicates 85.00. (the bar code looks like the picture below.)
So this was the issue of the lady in front of us huh. The cashier called a supervisor who instructed her to just call someone from the "Fresh" section to have it weighed and stick another bar code. My mum asked the cashier,
Mum: "Ano yung 85.00? Akala ko naman yun yung price nung Dory" (So what's 85.00? I thought it was the price of the Dory).
Cashier: "Ma'am, manufacturer's bar code po yun" (Ma'am, that's the manufacturer's bar code)
Implying that the manufacturer's bar code is different from the supermarket's bar code. Right?
Then, that someone from the "Fresh" section came back with the Dory with a new bar code. It read "P91.00". So mum goes "Bakit 91.00 na? Akala ko naman ico-correct lang yung bar code to 85.00" (Why did it become 91.00? I thought you would just correct the bar code to reflect it was actually 85.00) The cashier told us that they already weighed the fillet and that was the actual price.
Holy smokes. We ended up with no Dory! :( My mother got pissed already.
What the eff?
1. The item had a sticker indicating 85.00 when in fact, it was not the price of the fillet. Why didn't they change it or cover it so consumers would not think that it was the actual price?
2. If it was the manufacturer's bar code, why did the cashier USE THE SAME BAR CODE and punched it on their system? Isn't it odd? The manufacturer's bar code is different from the Supermarket's bar code but you punch it anyway?
Some consumers may not look at the screen while the cashier inputs the items they are about to purchase. Say we didn't see it, we would've paid for 109.00 for a Dory my mum took from their fridge because she thinks it costs 85.00. Plus, every time a consumer notices that the price of Dory was actually not 85.00, the cashier would call a supervisor and let the customers wait? THAT'S A LOT OF HASSLE.
This isn't the first time we encountered such an incident at the said supermarket. Sometime last year, they had this Vegetable Oil on Sale. At Shopwise Araneta, sale items are on the middle of an isle with short bond sized papers reflecting prices plastered below the stack of goods. Again my mom took the veg oil because it was on sale. At the cashier, the price called by their system was still the old price of the item (which was 10.00 higher than the sale price). We didn't notice it until my mum reviewed the receipt. She was already done with signing the receipt for the credit card and stuff. She complained and they returned the 10.00 in coins. Yay. They said the system was not updated or had a problem or whatever.
I wonder how many trusting consumers paid for more than they expected because of the system error huh?
I think they should exert more effort in solving this problem. In the same way, consumers should never trust prices plastered on their goods cause some of them aren't read in their system/machines/computers thus, fake.
