First World Problems: post yours!

[couponmummy]

My Maxi is becoming a real Sneaky Pete.

We wanted to price match mushrooms from Walmart for .94. DD has 2 personal offers making them .69 each

There were none on the shelf so I asked a vegetable stocker where are the white mushrooms, he says over there, I say there are only brown ones, and he kept saying over there. So we asked another stocker. She said they are in the back and she's not allowed to bring them out but she can get us some. She brings a box full and we chose 4. When we looked back, it looks like she brought them back to the back.

We think someone is going through the flyers and see what's on sale and then not put them out because they don't want people to price match.

[HermanH]

We think someone is going through the flyers and see what's on sale and then not put them out because they don't want people to price match.

That does not seem very logical for them to do. They want to add/reduce an additional week of shelf-life on a perishable product to save a few cents?

[bhlombardy]

My Maxi is becoming a real Sneaky Pete.
We think someone is going through the flyers and see what's on sale and then not put them out because they don't want people to price match.

No offense, but I doubt that's the reason. Of the general shopping public, there aren't THAT many people doing price matches (and for 25 cents at that) to warrant hiding their entire inventory of that product.

They'd lose MORE money by not selling ANY of the product than the small percentage of customers who would shave off 25c off the price.

There must be another reason.

[Shwa Girl]

My Maxi is becoming a real Sneaky Pete.

We wanted to price match mushrooms from Walmart for .94. DD has 2 personal offers making them .69 each

There were none on the shelf so I asked a vegetable stocker where are the white mushrooms, he says over there, I say there are only brown ones, and he kept saying over there. So we asked another stocker. She said they are in the back and she's not allowed to bring them out but she can get us some. She brings a box full and we chose 4. When we looked back, it looks like she brought them back to the back.

We think someone is going through the flyers and see what's on sale and then not put them out because they don't want people to price match.

Sorry to hear about the service from the first vegetable stocker. I thought they were trained to take the customer to the product when asked for assistance. At least the second stocker demonstrated better customer service and even provided an explanation to you.
Glad you got the deal

[GeorgiaK]

Those mushrooms were probably not President's Choice branded ones. My Maxi won't allow price matching of produce with the President's Choice brands. I am almost convinced something is going on.

My Maxi is becoming a real Sneaky Pete.

We wanted to price match mushrooms from Walmart for .94. DD has 2 personal offers making them .69 each

There were none on the shelf so I asked a vegetable stocker where are the white mushrooms, he says over there, I say there are only brown ones, and he kept saying over there. So we asked another stocker. She said they are in the back and she's not allowed to bring them out but she can get us some. She brings a box full and we chose 4. When we looked back, it looks like she brought them back to the back.

We think someone is going through the flyers and see what's on sale and then not put them out because they don't want people to price match.

[HermanH]

Those mushrooms were probably not President's Choice branded ones. My Maxi won't allow price matching of produce with the President's Choice brands. I am almost convinced something is going on.

I have had similar experiences with other brands, too. Some stores refused to match a competitor's price; claiming that they were not equivalent.

[GeorgiaK]

I have even been told by Maxi that I could not price match blueberries to Walmart because they are from Mexico.
WTF?! Seriously has gotten so freakin' complicated.

I have had similar experiences with other brands, too. Some stores refused to match a competitor's price; claiming that they were not equivalent.

[HermanH]

RCSS used to have a policy for their dairy and produce whereby they would price-match with the most similar product, because there were simply so many brands out there. For example, they would price-match their Dairyland brand 4L milk against other brands such as Lucerne. I wonder if they still do that. I'll have to check. I'll bet they don't do it anymore.

[walkonby]

o.k. I cannot resist, I'll add my mind boggling experience wrt price matching here.
At GT cashier said I couldn't PM the bag of mandarins ( or oranges, I forget now ) because their bag said they were from
Peru and the flyer I was PM-ing with said product of South America!
Now remember I am NOT a geography whiz but I queried to the cashier " isn't Peru IN South America? " It took the
guy in back to confirm I could PM.

[HermanH]

RCSS used to have a policy for their dairy and produce whereby they would price-match with the most similar product, because there were simply so many brands out there. For example, they would price-match their Dairyland brand 4L milk against other brands such as Lucerne. I wonder if they still do that. I'll have to check. I'll bet they don't do it anymore.

I just checked with RCSS and I am correct; they are no longer willing to substitute brands to match competitor offers for dairy. You must have an exact match to qualify. However, I did ask about a generic 3-pound offer for onions and she said that it should be no problem, since no specific brand was named. I bet that they'll try to pull a fast one and claim that it claim from a different province and thus disqualify it.

[SassyAshley]

This is from No Frills Price Matching Policy:

We match identical items defined as same brand, item type (in the case of produce, meat and bakery), size and attributes, or comparable items in the case of private label.

I was denied Price Matching Compliment Mushrooms to PC Mushrooms, which I had done many times in the past with no issue. I asked them about this exact section of their policy and was told No Name is their Private Label brand, not PC, PC is a brand and I only Price Match PC to PC. This was a couple of years ago and I have not tried since.

For the past year, maybe a year and a half produce has to be same place.

Now I have found Mushrooms are an issue because everyone has a "brand" on them but for items like Lemons because other stores just say 3lb bag and do not list a Brand they will let me Price Match to the Farmer's Market as long as they are from the same location.

The one that got me was earlier this year they tried to deny my Price Match for Peaches, both the Flyer and their Peaches were 3Litres both were from Ontario, the "issue" was No Frills were in a Plastic Container and Zhers (who I was trying to Price Match) showed theirs in a Basket. Luckily the produce manager came over and said "Give it to her theirs are probably in a plastic container they just use a basket in the flyer to make it look pretty."

But to be honest, it isn't only Loblaw Banner stores that have "issues" with their Price Matching Policy.

Freshco which is under the Sobeys brand Price Matches, BUT they will not Price Match Zehrs which is probably a 3 to 5-minute drive because as per Freshco Zhers is not their competition because Zehrs is a high-end Supermarket same as Sobeys (who owns them) and Metro. The cashier gave me a long speech about how their prices are higher so they are not competition because Freshco is a "Discount Grocery Store" that offers lower prices without the frills, which made no sense since Zhers was offering a cheaper price so Freshco is not always lower, just saying.

Don't get me wrong, I love Price Matching but there are a lot of rules to follow but I will admit I do my best to follow all of them as I hate that moment at cash when they refuse a Price Match.

[couponmummy]

I bet that they'll try to pull a fast one and claim that it claim from a different province and thus disqualify it.

There is one Pharmaprix that won't take English coupons because you can only use those coupons in Canada. We said, isn't Quebec in Canada and she still won't let us use the coupons and this is the manager.

[HermanH]

There is one Pharmaprix that won't take English coupons because you can only use those coupons in Canada. We said, isn't Quebec in Canada and she still won't let us use the coupons and this is the manager.

I'm sure that they'll have a catch-all excuse to deny price-matching by simply saying that the Best Before dates are different!

[HermanH]

This is from No Frills Price Matching Policy:
But to be honest, it isn't only Loblaw Banner stores that have "issues" with their Price Matching Policy.

It used to be that they would do most anything to get your money. i.e. "Do everything you can to get the $$"
Now, it seems like they try to "Do just enough to still claim/pretend to 'match prices' while not doing anything."

We match prices! (On dates divisible by 7, between the hours of 0800-0900, and days with a W in the name.)

[GeorgiaK]

I have had this one before and I stood my ground and asked for the store manager. I had to argue a bit but I made my point and they accepted the coupons. There was a Jean-Coutu cashier that only spoke French and I had a company mailed out coupon that was in English only. I just had to translate the coupon for her, and she accepted it. Good thing that I am bilingual.

There is one Pharmaprix that won't take English coupons because you can only use those coupons in Canada. We said, isn't Quebec in Canada and she still won't let us use the coupons and this is the manager.