I had a really novel experience at a local hobby shop recently. This place has a huge inventory of model train goods, some of which has been there since the late medieval era. I found an older P2K geep with a price sticker of $59.98. That looked pretty tempting since it was done up in my prototype's colors and was new. I also picked up ten envelopes of Champ decals priced at $.35 a pack. Looked to me like a total of around of $63.50 plus tax, maybe $70 total.
well, I went to the checkout and the clerk rings it up and tells me, "yeah, that's a total of $226.50".
"What? Must be a mistake somewhere. The geep's sixty bucks and the decals are like $3.50", I said.
"You got it wrong", he replies, "Walthers charges $180 for that engine now and Champ's last price was $3 a pack. I rang it up right."
I kind of grimaced and shook my head. "No thanks" was about all I could say as I put my wallet away and took off. Now I've got a business degree from a Big Ten school and worked in the finance branch of one of America's largest employers for 31 years, but this new marketing model is just beyond me. Maybe a guy should look for a new LHS that's a bit more traditional in their pricing.
Benny Peters
That is literally illegal.
There's nothing wrong with changing prices on a minute by minute basis. Most businesses just don't go through the effort of it. You see it all the time when you're driving past a gas station in the morning and think $3.56 huh...well I'm a bite late for work already so I'll stop on the way home and then pow $3.65.
That's not marketing. That's...there's no other way to say it: it's against the law in most states (I say most because I don't know for sure in all). While there's entirely reasonable times where the shelf price is outright wrong through mistakes of the store, the store is obligated to go by the shelf price (again, in the states that I'm familiar with). But not updating the price and then just saying "oh, volatility of the market so scanned price is the real price" is not something you can legally do.
Big Ten business schools aren't what they used to be if they're not teaching that pricing model. When I got my MBA at Penn State in '85, that was the oldest pricing model in the book, it's called caveat emptor, or "Whatever price the market will bear."
He obviously mistook you for a sucker. You did the right thing by walking out. That kind of thing is illegal in many places, and unethical everywhere. A short note to your area's AG or Consumer Advocate might cause him some grief.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
b60bp total of $226.50". "What? Must be a mistake somewhere. The geep's sixty bucks and the decals are like $3.50", I said. "You got it wrong", he replies, "Walthers charges $180 for that engine now and Champ's last price was $3 a pack. I rang it up right." ... Benny Peters
total of $226.50".
...
Whats bad is the guy at the register was lying to you. If it is an older P2K loco, they are not selling for the claimed price. The newer upgraded Proto are improved and a totally different run under a different economic system of manufacture and in a newer packaging. What that shop guy was doing was probably illegal and certainly falsely representing his product trying to scam you.
At minimum I'd report that shop to the Better Business Bureau and certainly let everyone know what kind of chicanery they practice there or rather lying to the customer and trying to scam them. Thats bad. I hope that guy never sells anything again after the word gets out if what you say is true.
I was in a shop in Schenectady NY once and had a small version of that happen to me there. I saw an MDC Railgon gondola and knew from experience what they sold for. The guy had marked it up above it's original MSRP by several more dollars and stated it's what they were selling for now-a-days. Knowing that sounds similarly shady, I said no thanks. The shop was always stinking of cigar smoke and now it stunk of scam. I believe it is long shut now.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Riogrand,
I saw something similar at the Amherst show for the past two years. Two years ago, I had just purchased a MRC Prodigy Wireless cab at a deep discount $115 on an MSRP of $185. Some guy at the show had a stack of MRC products with the words "Special Show Pricing" on it. The wireless cab had a new price tag, which was crossed out and a different price written in. The crossed out price was $225, the special price was $185. Nice!
Last January, the same guy had the same deal going, an obviously inflated price "discounted" to MSRP. In fairness, though, the pricing WAS special.... Can't argue with that.
Call the state board, in California they would be in big trouble and the state can make them honor the price, or shut them down!
I went to one well stock shop years ago that was owned by a guy we called "Bubba"..
Now old "Bubba" didn't bother to change price tags on his stuff and when you checked out you paid what ever the price was on the tag.
The shop smelled of cigarette smoke and dog smell from the "welcoming dog" that would stand up on you and look you in the eye just before planting a big lick on your face.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I actually ran into a dealer at a train show whose policy was to mark the retail price on the items when he got them and when he got more at a higher price he continued to sell the first lot at his orginal price, while marking the new higher price on the second lot.
I pointed out his freight car trucks had different prices and he told me the above. He said it was a way of giving the customer a break since he was still getting his markup. Needless to say I bought the older ones first.
Enjoy
Paul
Wow. Particularly for that older P2K engine where you'd be paying for the "privilege" of scraping out the rock hard old lubricant which makes the oldest LifeLike P2K engines literally unoperable if they have been sitting in the packaging since first release, but also for the honor of having to change out all the geared axles due to the infamous gear cracking problem == with the days long past when LifeLike and later Walthers would exchange the wheel sets for free.
We lament the passing of the LHS but often forget that some of them are best closed.
Dave Nelson
I was in a REAL model RR shop in Portland OR last week. Already paid for my stuff, my wife spotted a pink engineers hat for our little girl. I asked how much? He said "8.99, I think" So i picked it up to buy it, the tag said 9.99 No prob, what's a buck, and he'd said I think... But he cheerfully said "well it's 8.99 now" And he even brought up that it's illegal in Oregon to mark one price and charge higher. (not exactly what happened). I already planned to come back, but it was a nice gesture. She looks adorable in the hat.
I don't know if I can reccomend a shop by name on this forum, but they're on Division, and make my occasional 3 hour business drive a fun trip. Dan
ndbprrThere are two accounting methods fifo and lifo. They stand for first in first out and last in first out. Most business uses lifo for a number of reasons but in this case a marked product selling for a different price usually falls under the bait and switch laws in the state. It is illegal.
I think this shop was using the sifo method: stick it to others.
Regards,
Benny P.
You walk into a store and see the price marked on an item- that is a legal contractual offer to sell that item at that price by the store. You selected the item and were prepared to make payment at the counter- that is a valid and legal acceptance of the price for the item by you as the other party to the contract. At that point, a legal contract is formed and is enforceable (UCC). Any change in terms subsequent (the store clerk/owner telling you the item has a different price) is an alteration of the intial contract, rendering the contract void on its face.
I would make a more serious presentation of this situation in the form of a formal complaint to your state's business license office or secretary of state. If another shopper was tricked by this artifice, then it becomes not just a small matter but a community issue. As much as I mourn the demise of LHS's, this would be one that could "disappear without a tear"!
Cedarwoodron
Chasing away customers is a new marketing model? Nah, it's been going on for years. Why do you think he has shelves of ancient inventory?
I've bought a lot of old inventory at my LHS, stuff that had probably been there since the shop's previous owner. It was all good and there was never any question. The marked price was the price, and then he gave me a discount on top of that. At one point, I found a new item that was mis-marked, so I brought it to his attention. It works both ways sometimes.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Before I left the store, I would have said to him these words loud enough so that anyone else in the store would be sure to hear:
"You are a liar and a thief. You misrepresented a price right in your own store (it constitutes an offer of sale or a contract offer), and you stole my respect for you, such as it was at the time, when you claimed that it's a reasonable policy. Have a great one."
-Crandell
I would have walked out and never gone back. Some things just aren't worth getting all worked up about.
He's apparently on the FISH inventory accounting system . . . First In Still Here . . .
I had a similar experience at a rather famous Southern California hobby shop. They had taken in a collection of HO scale items and had it laid out on tables near the store entrance. Everything had price tags on it and the prices were invitingly good. I only had $20 bucks on me (my boss wanted to stop in on the way back from a job site), so I picked through the collection to find the best bang for my buck. I went up to make my purchases only to have the guy behind the checkout counter frown at the price tags and mumble, "These aren't right." He then started ringing up the sale at double to triple the tag prices. When I simply said, "No thank you," and put my money away, the guy got all pissy and started to stomp around behind the counter. His behavior became so aggresive I decided to wait for my boss outside.
Hornblower
Well...if they're going to charge current prices.....then they shouldn't be so LAZY and should remark the products with current price tags. The owner should stay late and pay a few people to stay late a few nights.
- Douglas
Swedish Custom painter and model maker. My Website:
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Bottom line: It's illegal. If an item is marked a certain price with no other stickers on it then that price is to be honored. If that is truly the policy of the LHS owner then I would never shop there; nor would I encourage anyone else to do so. And I would look forward to the day when the "Space Available" sign goes up in front of the LHS owner's store becaue he's forced to go out of business.
Treat your customer right and he/she will return and support you, as well as tell others to do the same. Word of mouth is still the best advertisment for any business.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
The Better Business Bureau if I remember correctly states that the item will be sold for the price marked.One of my next stops would have been the BBB office or contact them online and report it.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
We had a local shop in the 80's and 90's that charged 110 to 125% of retail price on everything train related. I suspect he marked up prices on old inventory when prices went up; but I don't know that for a fact.
He sold his train inventory to me about a year after I opened; even at a steep discount; he had less than $1,000.00 in inventory.
I came across my year end inventory from 1999 this week end; I carried $6500 in Athearn inventory alone (retail). That was at the tail end of the blue box era; Genesis was just starting...
And in Texas, the practice described by the original poster is illegal; you have to sell merchandise at the price at which it is marked...
Yeah, as others have noted, that's just really low, as well as illegal in most states.
What is desireable to find is a shop that sells at MSRP, but always at the original price. I haven't been there in years, but that's how Hawkins in Lafayette, IN was when I used to get over that way semi-regularly. His stock is deep, very deep. No real deals on current stuff at full MSRP, but give it a few years to age and some of those prices start looking pretty good. When folks ask about some item from the past they can't find, I still send them to Hawkins, where he just may have it and at a very reasonable price.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hawkins is still that way. His stock of parts is legendary. As I generally know when I am going to West Lafayette, I'll shoot him an email of the things I'm looking for, and he will have them set aside for me. I love going to that shop...
Well, youse guys said it all. The LOWEST price displayed for an item is to be the sale price. If I have a sign on a bottle of wine saying that the price is $6.00, and my brochure says that it is $5.00, it is sold for $5.00. More often I will put a lower price on the shelf on some stuff that I want to move.
The shopkeeper does have to watch out for people switching tags or lables and then claiming a lower price.
Gas stations in North Dakota are permitted to change their prices only ONCE a day. There is no saying when that change will happen. Mostly when the guy across the street raises or lowers his price.
When the big sign outside of the gas station says $3.75, you have to look at the small print to see if that price is for the gasoline or for the cigaretts.
ROAR
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