It's a 7-Eleven. You don't go in expecting a lot. But I do expect to be charged the advertised price at the register. I mean, it's not that hard. Also, it's the law.
So when the clerk charged me $5.98 for two burritos that were advertised on the shelf as 2/$3.50, I asked the clerk to adjust the price to the lowest advertised price, because that's the law, and it's a good business practice, and it's the decent human thing to do.
The clerk told me that only the boss could make price adjustments, and that he (the clerk) had told him (the boss) several times about multiple pricing problems, and the boss just hadn't gotten around to fixing it yet. He also told me that if he charged me the price that was displayed on the shelf, then his register would be short at the end of his shift, and the boss would be pissed off at him.
So, I dunno: here's a franchisee that's knowingly and illegally overcharging people, probably because they're perfectly willing to prey on those who are tired, poor, not paying attention, in a hurry, or just bad at math; hoping that the customers don't notice that they're being overcharged; and, when someone does notice, trying to leverage sympathy for the underpaid employee in order to keep overcharging the customer.
Pretty shitty business practice. Pretty shitty customer experience.
EDIT. Stopped back by today, three days later, to get a cup of coffee. The problem has been "solved" by just taking the sticker off the shelf that advertised the discount price and going ahead and charging the sticker price for two burritos. Because we're all going to sit around and pretend that those burritos are TOTALLY WORTH $2.99 EACH and that that's what they should cost and no one's going to admit that the "discount when you buy two" price that's no longer on offer because the lazy fuck who programs the cash register can't be bothered to program in a "sale" price was always the price that THE BURRITOS WERE TOTALLY WORTH instead of being an outrageously marked up bullshit price to try to motivate you to buy two at a "discount."
Similarly, the stickers on several other shelves advertising "discounts" to prices that are actually reasonable for the low-grade food being sold when you buy more than one piece of said food have been removed, so now customers are just getting charged exorbitant prices on crap food instead of being able to buy a larger quantity and get the "discount" to a reasonable price.
I guess if someone complains to the state bureau of weights and measures about how customers are getting overcharged "inadvertently" at the register, the solution is not to ACTUALLY GO AHEAD AND REPROGRAM THE REGISTERS TO CHARGE PEOPLE CORRECTLY, WHICH IS TOTALLY A PAIN IN THE ASS, but rather just to overcharge people for crap food without actively deceiving them into thinking they'll get a discount. Which at least has the merit of not being profoundly dishonest on the face of it, though it IS still overcharging people for crap food. read more
