Has anyone else noticed an increase in bait and switch tactics in the retail stores this year? It seems that most of the advertised merchandise is off the shelves the same day the ads come out! Im not talking about the doorbuster sales either.. But they are always happy to point you to something 4-5 times the price. Plenty of those in stock...:sad:

It hannens year round, Just more prevalent this time of year. Wallyworld is notorious for that. "35" color TV $99.96". They don't tell you that they have 5 at that price and if your not there at 5am to race to the rack, Your SOL.

I saw some "funny" fine print in an ad today. It was a sale ad and it said "except for $.94 and $.97 end price items" or something like that. So, any product that wasn't $xxx.99, wasn't on sale.

Sometimes those deep discounted items are available for order on-line. We got a new computer at an outstanding price from Office Max that way. Only had two in the store and we got one of them at 5AM Black Friday, but it was damaged. We ordered the replacement ourselves and received it 3 business days later.

I saw some "funny" fine print in an ad today. It was a sale ad and it said "except for $.94 and $.97 end price items" or something like that. So, any product that wasn't $xxx.99, wasn't on sale.


This isnt just at discount stores. the .94 and .96 extensions are used to denote discontinued, or last years models. When I used to work retail that was told to us so that we know how much we could mark down damaged items. I along with lots of other people found out about the online shopping on black friday, most of the same items found in the store were found online at the same price, no long lines and no idiots to deal with. They were available 5am EST. :beers:

I have seen some now say "at least xxx units in each store".

Has anyone else noticed an increase in bait and switch tactics in the retail stores this year? It seems that most of the advertised merchandise is off the shelves the same day the ads come out! Im not talking about the doorbuster sales either.. But they are always happy to point you to something 4-5 times the price. Plenty of those in stock...:sad:

Who the heck wants to walk into an actual store to buy gifts anyway?

Home Depot had a sign in their lighting department that said "20 percent off." It looked like everything there was 20 percent off. Got to the checkout with light fixture and found out, "..that one is not 20 percent off." "Ok, which ones are?" I asked. Went back to the department with the store manager. "None of these are 20 percent off," he finally said after looking at all the shelves. "So what's the sign here for?" I requested. "It's a promotion," he answered, before walking away.