Good way for a nursery to lose business

Yesterday I went to one particular nursery, which I love for it's garden art. I needed to buy perlite and saw the one size they offered and noticed all the bags (about 20 of them) were marked $1.49 and one had $4.49. I thought someone with a pen made a 4 out of the 1 so didn't select that bag. Got to the checkout and the lady said she'd have to check the price. Her assistant went over to the same display as I got out my two dollars. She informed me they all should have been $4.49. I left - no sale. I spend a lot of money there each year but that has now come to an end. When the local competition is so fierce I'd never have guessed the outcome.

I thought that the good business practice is to sell you the merchandise at the marked price, then make the corrections to the other bags! I bought 10 bottles of the pricey BBQ for 10 cents as marked...at the cash register it rang up for $2.10! However, they sold it to me for the price marked and scurried to correct the others. I even bought a water fountain price at $9.90 as marked instead of the $49.99 at Wal-mart . They obviously need some seminar training in good business etiquette! LOL! ;0)

I agree. I did get the perlite and did pay even more than the $4.49 price but it didn't bother me at all.

I know that I've never seen perlite for $1.49 a bag, but that's how it was marked. I've worked in retail for most of my life, and if we screw-up a price tag we need to sell it for the price that is marked. Then we run and fix the other ones before someone sees it.

In fact, several years ago I bought a large set of glasses from Macy's. They were open stock and on sale. When I got them home and unwrapped them, I noticed that some identical glasses had different prices on them. There were layers of price stickers on the glasses and since someone had obviously forgotten to re-sticker some of them. I took them back and pointed out the discrepancy along with my receipt which showed that I was charged different prices for the same item, and they gave them all to me for the lowest marked price. That is how a good business is run. I would also have walked out without my $1.49 perlite, and they would no longer have my business either. Pirl......if management/owner was not at the checkout, they should know about what happened. I'm sure that they would not want to loose a good customer.

I agree with you, Marie. Management was there and approved the way it was handled. Win some, lose some - they lost me. I'll still go back for ideas and to get names of plants that I can buy someplace else but I won't give them my business.

The last time I bought Perlite had to be in the 70's so I had no idea what it should cost. Jack uses Pro Mix and normally I do, too, but this time I was trying a new mix for containers and felt I wanted to follow the directions.

According to law businesses are supposed to sell products at their "marked" price.

Agreed, but they didn't agree.

That is just plain disgusting. Shame on them....and too bad that they will be loosing a good customer and gaining a lot of negative PR. Pirl, I am so proud of you that you walked out without the perlite.

It wasn't the money but the principle and the message to me and, as I said, I paid more but it was worth every cent.

I would have walked as well. And told everyone I know. Not a good marketing tact on their part...thats for sure. We own a small business..we would have FOR SURE ate that. Have to. Luckily, and to our amazement alot of the times, our competition doest always think so. Some of the stories our NEW customers bring to us are just crazy.

Uh--that stinks! In Michigan they have something called the...I think it's called the "bounty" law? If they don't sell at the sticker price and you mention the mistake after purchase they have to pay you like 3xs the difference. That was several years ago however. Since moving south and in recent years I've been to several places that wouldn't honor the price on the rack. Down here they don't individually sticker price items (except clothing) and it used to drive me nuts---the only price is on the rack....so when you are standing at the register and the UPC doesn't work they send someone allllll the way back in through the store to find the price on the shelf.

I don't know what it is about not honoring the price lately. So hard to find good help I guess.