Customer Goes Out Of Their Way To Show Staff Their Grill Thermometers Are Wrongly Priced, They Don’t Care, Customer Ends Up Making $650
What is the scariest feeling on Earth? Hatred? Anger? Envy? Greed? Yes, of course, all of them are terrible and dangerous, both for one person and for the entire human race, but for all the thousands of years that our civilization has existed, there is a more terrible feeling. At least the fact that it is completely innocent at first glance.
Almost a hundred years ago, the Polish writer and philosopher Bruno Jasienski wrote: “Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care – they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent.” Years have passed – and nothing has changed, indifference still rules this world and damages us – no matter whether physical or financial.
Want a good example? Voila – this story just appeared in the Reddit Malicious Compliance community and has received almost 8.7K upvotes and over 500 different comments as of today. Admittedly, nothing terrible actually happens here – neither for the author of the post, nor vice versa, but we see what ordinary human indifference and negligence can lead to.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post once went to a huge department store and found food thermometers wrongly priced over seven times cheaper
Image credits: U.S. Department of Agriculture (not the actual image)
So, this story happened in the summer of 2021, when the author of the post was shopping for new grilling tools in a large department store. At one point, the original poster found some wonderful digital food thermometers in one of the departments, which, in their own words, can be bought online for $14.99 apiece.
Image credits: u/deddunc
The original poster looked closer and was surprised to find that the thermometers were priced at $1.99. But the sticker near the shelf where the thermometers lay indicated the correct price – $14.99. Apparently, the OP suggests, someone on the staff responsible for entering prices into the store database allowed the typo by missing a 4. So the price turned out to be more than seven times less than the actual one.
Image credits: u/deddunc
The author tried to draw employees’ attention to their colleagues’ mistake, but they just didn’t care
Let’s pay tribute to the author’s honesty – instead of insidiously taking advantage of an employee’s mistake, they called someone from the staff and asked them to check the tag. The employee scanned the barcode – and the device showed a price of $1.99. Then the OP just jabbed their finger at the sticker with “$14.99” on the shelf. “Whatever,” the store employee muttered, and left to do their own thing.
Image credits: Kampus Production (not the actual image)
The customer simply bought all the thermometers and resold them online for $8 apiece, making a nice profit
Well, now it would be a sin not to take advantage of the opportunity. The author bought all 27 thermometers, paying approximately $65-70 after tax for everything. They gave a few as gifts to relatives and friends, and sold the rest online for $8 each, earning about $200. Great deal, don’t you think?
Image credits: u/deddunc
Several days later, the person went over to that store again, and the same pricing mistake occurred
They say that criminals are attracted by the place of the crime they committed, and although the OP did not do anything illegal, after five days, they returned to the same department store again. The thermometers were on the same shelf, but now each had the correct price, $14.99. But the OP, taught by experience, called the department manager – and lo and behold, the scanner again showed $1.99!
Image credits: u/deddunc
The original poster once more attempted to draw the attention of the staff to the glaring mistake, but achieved only the manager’s averted eyes and an expression on her face that clearly said something like: “I’m so tired of you, dude! Why are you clinging to me?” After that, the manager also left for some urgent managerial business.
Image credits: u/deddunc
This time the manager neglected the mistake as well so the author repeated their deal, making even more after reselling the items
The OP just repeated their actions from the previous visit to the store, this time taking forty-one thermometers and forking out about a hundred dollars at the checkout. They then sold them online for ten dollars apiece and made $410. Having spent $170 in total, the original poster, in their own words, made about $650 due to two employees’ lack of engagement. Moreover, the OP notes that they have never seen the same thermometers in stock at any location since.
Image credits: u/deddunc
By the way, according to people in the comments, this situation is far from being uncommon. For example, one commenter once ordered a $660 BBQ at a big Australian hardware store – and the employee came out with a $2600 model! When told it was the wrong one, she literally said: “This one is here now,” shrugged and walked off, hence framing the store for almost $2K.
Image credits: Alexander Grey (not the actual image)
Some people in the comments tried to shame the author for being too cunning, yet most commenters simply enjoyed the tale
Some commenters have suggested that since the original poster didn’t see these thermometers for sale anywhere else, they were probably on clearance. However, now no one will check this. By the way, one of the people in the comments tried to shame the author, saying that because of people like them, for example, Walmart has been posting $2 billion losses and is threatening to close stores. However, most of the people did not engage in macroeconomic calculations, but simply enjoyed the tale, which they honestly wrote about in the comments.
If you have also been through or witnessed a similar experience in your life, we would love to know your own interesting story. But even if not, comments under this post, as always, are highly appreciated.
I love how he acts like retail workers should give a d@mn. Why? Overworked, underpaid, and if you care it only blows up in your face - if the workers had tried to "fix" the pricing they'd have probably been snapped at for any number of reaons.
I remember buying a £99 fold out table. Got to the check-out and it came up £1. I asked about it and the lady on the till said with the biggest evil grin I ever saw, "We were told to honour the price because our tills always show the correct price despite what it says on the shelf. Enjoy your new table" I don't know what the story is there, but I can definitely smell the distinct aroma of malicious compliance
Guy went out of his way to shame retail workers because he didn't understand the concept of a discontinued item being on clearance. Ok.
I work big box retail. Instant read thermometers cost about $6 to buy for the store, so it wouldn't be on clearance for that much. It was likely an internal computer error where a different product was erroneously assigned to that UPC. The manager should have removed the product, taken the tag to the office where the product control personnel would have been able to look up what was going on in the system and correct it. I've seen this happen myself, but sadly it's always been for more money not less and I find it when I'm putting out sales tags.
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I love how he acts like retail workers should give a d@mn. Why? Overworked, underpaid, and if you care it only blows up in your face - if the workers had tried to "fix" the pricing they'd have probably been snapped at for any number of reaons.
I remember buying a £99 fold out table. Got to the check-out and it came up £1. I asked about it and the lady on the till said with the biggest evil grin I ever saw, "We were told to honour the price because our tills always show the correct price despite what it says on the shelf. Enjoy your new table" I don't know what the story is there, but I can definitely smell the distinct aroma of malicious compliance
Guy went out of his way to shame retail workers because he didn't understand the concept of a discontinued item being on clearance. Ok.
I work big box retail. Instant read thermometers cost about $6 to buy for the store, so it wouldn't be on clearance for that much. It was likely an internal computer error where a different product was erroneously assigned to that UPC. The manager should have removed the product, taken the tag to the office where the product control personnel would have been able to look up what was going on in the system and correct it. I've seen this happen myself, but sadly it's always been for more money not less and I find it when I'm putting out sales tags.
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