Lured in by Bogus Sale at Walmart

Bait-and-switch...

That's when a store advertises item XX at price X...but they never had
it in stock to begin with and try to "upsell" you to item Y at an even
higher price.

The most classic cases were for car dealers when someone would call
them up from right outside the lot. The dealer would say, "Sure we
have car Z! Come on in." Then the person would walk in less than 5
minutes later and be told, "No car Z was *just* sold, but you can buy
car AA for just a little more."... and of course they never had car
Z for sale to begin with.



However... running a candy bar sale and having other customers buy up
all the items? That isn't far-fetched.

In fact... although you might be upset that you didn't get to buy the
items before they ran out, but that doesn't entitle you to a free $20
from them. Sure you're upset, but that's part of life... sometimes
other people get there first and buy the last item.

Heck... do stores often not carry items I want? Sure. That just
means I either look for other items that are similar enough, go
somewhere else, or I go without. Demanding freebies from the company
just because I wasn't fast enough? No. Maybe when I was a little
school girl, but no not as an adult.

Its hard to say if it was Bait-and-Switch or if they just ran out of
the item. I say this because I worked at a toy store a couple of years
ago around the holidays to make some extra money for Christmas. The
store I was working for had this policy that if a customer brought in
a flyer saying that something we had was cheaper somewhere else we
would give the item to them for the lesser price. On Black Friday we
had a very popular item on sale for $49.99 and another store had it
for $39.99. A customer brought in the flyer and my manager gave her
the item for $39.99 and then had some of the employees go remove the
item from the shelf and hide them in the back stock room so he wouldnt
have to honor any more of those sales. I dont know I'm just putting it
out ther that you really dont know the truth unless you work at the
store.

It wasn't a bogus sale. I took advantage of the price and bought four
large bags. As I'm sure a LOT of other people did. So, it wasn't
bogus. It was a case of you not having your act together in time to
get some, too.

Most likely these were put out on the floor DAYS ahead of the ad.
Which would account for the lack of inventory.

It's interesting how you all have a working knowledge of the inner
workings of these locations. I imply that there was a bait and switch
and you steadfastly tell me I'm wrong, obviously knowing for a FACT
that the items were initially available. As this must be the case I
have to applaud all employees of the Scarborough location. Upon
further review I have learned that the items were actually "sold out"
within the first hour of the store opening the day of the sale (or
rollback, or regular price, or lower price, or whatever variation of
"sale" that their advertisers are currently using). Not only were the
employees able to serve the hundreds/thousands of customers who
cleaned out the stock, leaving only a sparse dozen customers left in
the store. This admirable feat was accomplished by the only two
cashiers whose tills were open at that early hour. On top of that,
within this first hour, in the midst of the obvious mad rush, they had
managed to re-stock the floor with the higher priced (per unit) item.
This performance is highly impressive.


With that off my chest, I know I'm making a ridiculous request but
nothing ventured, nothing gained. They piss me off, I spend five
minutes to see if I can get something for it, they ignore me, I get on
with my life.

I'm surprised to see common sense reigning at P.Feedback. I learned
of the site by laughing at letters so ridiculous that mine pales in
comparison. Is intelligence a new trend here or has it been going on
for a while?

So...what you're saying is that a better deal sold out...BEFORE a less
good one?

*gasp*

The horror...the horror...

Come on.

Running out of a sale item is not bait & switch.

Work retail for awhile and you will understand that nobody was trying
to cheat you--stores run out of sale items. It is not always easy to
predict which ones will run out at which times, and most employees
have no control over the situation. It's candy; chill.

It looks to me like Wal-Mart did you a favor. If you were planning on
spending $100, but you evidently did not NEED any of the items badly
enough to buy them, they already saved you $100! Turn that frowny
face into a smiley!

If you intended to buy $100 worth of other items at Walmart, then you
weren't going there only because of the candy sale. Forget the gift
card.

...how those who want something usually say they intended to spend X
large amount of dollars in the store that day but didn't because of
their anger. What you were going to do and what you would've actually
done ...you'll never know and it's pointless to add that to your
letter.

It is possible to run out of items rather quickly. No bait and switch
here.

Most of this is moot since WalMart doesn't have "sales". A sale is
when an item's price temporarily goes down in order to get more
purchases. After a set amount of time the item's price returns to
"regular". This doesn't occur at WalMart. They have what they call
"rollbacks". You are correct that their flyer is an advertisement, but
that is all it is. A glossy brochure to remind you that they have
these items.

Even if this was a store that does traditional sales, since it was the
second day, I still would have just figured that they sold out
quickly. It seems like retailers no longer understand the concept of
having sales on items that are overstocked to get them moved out the
door...

...or does this item not sound like such a bargain? It would be
approx. $1.00 a candy bar, and if they were the small size then it's
actually an expensive item.

I think if the OP was there to purchase other things anyway and didn't
then THAT would be the waste of time.

The way it works in Retail is that the store get x amount of product.
They put it out on the floor. It is out for a while and people buy
them. Then, months/weeks later, someone High up says "We need to put x
on sale". And they print out the ad. When the ad comes out Store A
and B have all ready sold out. Or just have one or two left. Someone
gets there when the store opens and buys the last. You are there an
hour later. Too bad! They are gone. The stores have NO control when
something goes on sale. I bet if you look at the bottom of the ad
there will something along the lines of "Subject to availability".
That covers them for when they are sold out.

When I worked in Retail, there were sale ads that came out that we had
sold out of WEEKS before. The Higher ups, have no clue what is in
each store. The ads are put out by them and NOT the individual
stores.

..in the retail business. I went to 2 Kmarts yesterday to buy a toy
for my son for Christmas and each store was sold out. It was on sale
for 24.99 and I have to say I wasn't surprised it was sold out. I'm
sure they probably had 20 in stock and it was sold out that same
Sunday the ad came out.

Stuff on sale sells out, it's the just way it is.

It is freaking Wal-Mart. They get 1000's of people looking for
bargains in a store a day. "Ooh boy, Halloween candy on sale! Let's
grab two bags and eat the remainder ourselves." Of course they are
going to sell out quickly.

You may want to research the term bait and switch. This isn't it.

Absolutely ridiculous for you to think they owe you anything, much
less a $20 gift card. Seems you want them to pay for the fact that you
were simply too late.

Lesson learned.

"I understand that sale items do sell out, but for it to happen by the
early morning of the second day..."
I would have been very surprised if there were ANY available after
11am on the 24th.
And, the 70 piece bag for $9.62 is their regular price for this item,
but still a good deal.

Your asking for a $20 gift card just because a sale item was out of
stock is not reasonable. If this were the case then everyone should
receive a $20 gift card for ANY sale item that has been out of stock
at Walmart.
Sale items are bought up quickly and no store can anticipate how many
people will be purchasing these sale items. And you have no idea how
many cases they had to sell...but I can imagine no matter how many
they still would have been out of stock by the second day.

I hate having to defend Walmart, but I suppose I have to. Holiday
candy is purchased by most retailers about 9 months in advance --
which means Walmart had their complete order in sometime around
February. Once its gone, it's gone. There's no mystical warehouse of
extra halloween candy that they can tap into.

Advertising is set about 3 or 4 months in advance, and it's amazingly
expensive to change it -- especially when you're talking about the
coverage of the WM advertising.

WM probably didn't anticipate when they ordered candy and when the set
their advertising that the economy would tank around everyone. Lots
of retailers are seeing that folks are waiting for a candy sale and
jumping on it, so that supplies run out very, very quickly of the sale
stuff, and non-sale stuff which used to move is sitting on the
shelves.

This is not bait and switch, please learn what that term means. This
is a case of a popular item being sold out. This is Halloween week
and that will happen. They do not owe you anything.

BTW, I got the 100 piece at Rite Aid for $7.99.

Once again, this is not Bait and Switch. For the definition of Bait
and Switch, go to Wikipedia.

I also highly doubt the sale was "bogus." I can easily see a good deal
like this being sold out on the second day of the advertisement,
considering this IS Halloween season. Just wait until Christmas, when
stores are sold out of the hot toy of the season within hours of
opening their doors.

Based on my answers, I'm sure you can guess what I think of the
request for a $20 gift card. Good luck with that.

Ok... So they had a sale and sold out. This is the season for
halloween candy, and if people were buying it, and saw that one was on
sale, I think that they would go for it whether or not they saw the
ad. They very well could have ordered a limited quantity, but they
reserve the right to order whatever quantity they want. Even if they
had at least 1 bag per store, it would not be bait and switch
advertising... The most you are owed is a raincheck. Not a giftcard.

It's obviously a great deal - you went to two locations to try and
score it. I can absolutely imagine other people also going for that
deal, and them selling out. Your accusation of "illegal bait and
switch" is unfounded. You are not owed anything because they ran a
successful sale, but you should go ahead and boycott them for life
anyway. I will join you in sympathy.

Did you ask for a raincheck at customer service? Walmart being out of
sale candy less than a week before Halloween is not a big surprise.

You're not out any money, I don't see how they owe you anything.