Cunning and Connivery at the Checkout Counter?

Just recently, I've been in pie-making mode.  My first attempt was a pumpkin pie, sugar-free for my husband. I figured pumpkin is healthy.  It's squash, right?  Fiber? Vitamin A?

Keeping health considerations in mind, I went down the aisle at my local grocery store the other day to get the fat free evaporated milk. The national name brand had a price posted, and hey, it was on sale! The store brand had no price posted.

I first went for the national brand, on sale at $1.39, but grabbed the store brand, too, just to see what the non-posted price was.

It was 99 cents.  I told them to keep the 'sale' national brand and I'd take the one for 40 cents less.

A couple of days later, Iwent to the same store, looking for French bread rolls for French dip beef sandwiches (OK, so, we took a break from the healthy stuff!), and on a table in the back of the store, there I saw just what I wanted, and hey, they were on sale! Next to these rolls I saw another brand, no price. 

I took both packages to the front, and once again, the sale brand was more expensive, by quite a bit, than was the similar product (lower in fat and carbs, by the way!) that had no price posted.

I am starting to think they do this on purpose.

Today, while shopping at a clothing retailer, I went through checkout with a nice, chatty cashier who asked me whether I wanted my receipt in the bag.  Sure!  And then, I stopped. I pulled out the receipt and noticed she had overcharged me for one item by $8.00 and charged me TWICE for the ONE cute coral straw hat I bought to wear out in my backyard while gardening. It took her a while,but she fixed it. 

And finally, in my last shopping foray of the day, I ended up back at the local grocery store, where I was going to save another 50 cents per item if I bought 8 'mix and match' items.   I watched that register tape and didn't see the discounts. The 'helper' at the self checkout couldn't figure out how much we were supposed to get back; she didn't have a calculator handy to help her figure out how much 8 x $.50 was going to be, so she sent us to customer service.

We got back our $4.00.  On one hand, I think, "These people have jobs?" And on the other, I see why they do.  If they make enough mistakes or yack at us enough to distract us, we may get home and never realize that we've been overcharged.

I try not to be any more paranoid than I have to be, but I really do wonder . . . and I have learned to watch the prices.

As my Granny would say, "Thievers!  They're all thievers!" :-)