Wing And A Miss

Earlier this week, I went to the hypermarket (superstore) to buy groceries and decided to browse the meat aisle for anything good marked down due to being about to expire, and found a 1.3kg box of chicken wings with a big, bold “6.46” on the price tag’s right-hand side, this one box marked down 30%. 

I didn’t notice the tag didn’t say the usual “pkt” (“package”) nor “kg” below the price, nor did I take notice that it was the only product with its price displayed in such a way (this detail is relevant to the story).

After calculating the marked-down price and agreeing that it’s a good deal, I grabbed the box and headed to the self-checkouts, scanned my things without paying attention to the prices shown, called an employee to enter the 30% discount, and just as I was about to pay I noticed the total was way off, and then I noticed the price of the wings was way off, I opened the store chain’s app and scanned the bar code to find the product, and it clearly stated the 6.46 price for “spicy wings approx. 1.3kg”, but it ALSO stated that 6.46 was “1kg” 

Annoyed and knowing how the cashiers do things in this chain, I said nothing, cancelled the transaction, put everything back in the basket, and went to take a photo of the tag. This is so that I would have something to show to the cashier when she calls someone else to go check the tag and then tells me condescendingly how the tag says the price is “per kg” and not per package, despite the fact that the tag clearly states in big bold letters “approx. 1.3kg” and “6.46” with no mention of that “per kg”.

I went back to the meat aisle, located the tag, and after confirming the price, I took a photo of it (I did find it curious that the space under the price that usually shows the unit, i.e. “kg” or “liter” or “package” or “bag” etc., was empty) and went back to the checkouts.

Me: “There’s a very different price shown for this on the tag than what these self-checkouts say, look.”

I showed her the difference.

Cashier: “One moment.”

The cashier calls on her radio for someone to go check the tag.

Cashier: “Yeah, the tag says 6.46 is for one kilogram, see how it says this contains 1.31kg?”

Me: “It states “approx. 1.3kg” and “6.46” in bold lettering, no mention of unit price “per kg” under the price where it belongs.”

Cashier: “Well, if you look at the very left edge of your photo, you can see where it says 1kg.”

Sure enough, there it is, in tiny font, certainly not bolded like the “Spicy wings approx. 1.3kg” and “6.46” both of which are. No doubt this had been done deliberately.

Me: “So, your tag puts the mention of the unit price in small font at the LEFT edge of the tag when the price is on the RIGHT edge of the tag, in a big, bolded font? You do realize that is clearly meant to deceive customers, right?”

Cashier: “…So do you still want this?” *Holds the box up.*

Me: “At that price? No way!”

I paid for the rest of my things and then went back to look for something to replace the wings on my plate that day. While I was browsing, I noticed that literally every other product in that aisle had the unit price in its proper place under the big, bolded price, except the “spicy wings approx. 1.3kg”, and for all the wing boxes from OTHER brands, the actual price for each box was printed on the box right under the bar code.

All brands of wings except for one… guess which?