Many price tags gone from store shelves

There used to be tags on store shelves indicating the price of the item. They seem to be disappearing from one market. How are you supposed to know how much you're going to have to shell out for something? I inquired at the courtesy desk and was informed that since prices are changing on an almost daily basis, the stock clerks would be spending most of their time replacing the shelf tags, so they are phasing them out. (the tags, not the clerks)

Whaaaa......?
Beginning to see this on an intermittent basis here in Houston. Not everywhere and not all the time. But with enough frequency to not be the occasional oversight either. Possibly as a shopper I am expected to scan the price with my 'smartphone' (which by the way I detest and generally leave in the truck powered down for emergency use only).

If that is indeed the case, then as a shopper I must rely on the honesty of the checkout clerk and the store to charge me fairly. Yeah, right.

Along similar lines, I am finding paper coupons have mostly disappeared. Be they by postal mail or at grocery store shelves. There is some gimmicky catch phrase name attached to it-can't remember-but basically, again scan and save to a smartphone for use at checkout. Pay by phone coming next and more jobs lost to checkout clerks?

It is becoming a matter of adapt to survive on the shopping scene. I'm not so quick to adapt these days. Part because of being a senior. Part because I am suspect of the nature of all this headlong downhill full pace plunge to embrace digital technology for any reason or for no reason at all.

Anyway, that's my 2cents. Arnold
 

Dunno how to use a smartphone to get a coupon price. Sticker says to "just take a picture". Have no interest in doing that, so looked into it no further. Arnold
 
Our stores still have the prices clearly marked on most items. However, it seems that hardly a week goes by without an increase in those prices. We did our weekly shopping yesterday, and I found very few items that weren't a few cents higher than what we paid a week or two ago. From what I'm seeing, the "official" inflation rate of around 8% has little relationship with what is happening at the grocery stores.
 
Not knowing unit pricing in a store is like going to a restaurant that doesn't put the cost of their meals on the menu.
"Unit Pricing"....cents per oz....is what I try to pay attention to. With all the "shrinkflation" in the past year, the size of the box is of little importance if the manufactures are putting less product in the previous/same size box. Breakfast cereal I like, for example, used to have 24oz. in the box....now, its 18oz., for the same price....an increase of 25%.
 
Here in Canada there is a national program that regulates the pricing of retail items, including at supermarkets. This link will be interesting reading for American consumers, especially the part where the consumer gets the item for FREE, if the shelf price and the scanner price are different up to individual price of $10. Here is the link. READ and learn. Scanner Price Accuracy Code - Retail Council of Canada JImB. In Toronto.
 
Stores use any excuse to raise prices. No prices means that the item costs more than expected. It is high. So I don't buy anything without a price. Small stores do this and nothing is priced where I live. Let them go bankrupt. Or the prices are in very small print. Many customers don't care what it costs! Once you hold an item people are more likely to buy it even if it is not priced. A marketing strategy studied.
I prefer large corporate stores anyway with standard ethical practices. Yeah coupons disappeared after pandemic
 
Misa has been working at a Dollar General for about 6 months. She tells me stories about the insane ways the company tags items for sale. They also put electronic devices in almost every item that tracks it if try to steal it. Many of the items the costumers purchase are with coupons, and they all have elaborate schemes. The registers do not work all the time, and everything is ready to go if it is a digital transaction.
( except it messes up 1/4 of the time. ) Cash? She has trouble making change because cash is not being used as much anymore. I think this leaves the consumer open to being taken advantage of by the company. If the digital transactions do work they are making a large profit, and if they do not work the customer just has to put up with the new cooperate policy of " it sucks to be you". Then they are stuck, and usually taken care of by buying more unnecessary stuff. Going to the market now is very different than when we could make our own choices. It is more like waiting for our "feeder " to come a throw the seeds we all have to run around at peck at.
 
Not knowing unit pricing in a store is like going to a restaurant that doesn't put the cost of their meals on the menu.
Reminds me of a scene is some TV sit-com or movie I once saw. Some people went into a restaurant and when they opened the menus, there were no prices. One called the waiter over and asked about the prices. The waiter snootily said, "Sir, if you have to ask, you can't afford it."
 
Many years ago we learned to always ask the price in a restaurant. It was a fancy establishment; the prices were on everything except the special. One special was almost the same an item on the menu, except when we got the bill it was about $10 higher each.
 

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