Ordinary scams

But lately, it's just the sneaky, downright dishonest stuff that is bugging me. The Ballard Safeway commonly offers items that are marked down on special of some sort or other, but then does not honor the discount at the register. Because of the way the Safeway discounts work (you have to plug in a member card or number before the discount is given; the price rings up initially as the regular price) it is more difficult than usual to notice when this happens, and over the past year I have gotten home and gone to plug the receipt into our budget spreadsheet many times to find that I have paid more than I intended and more than was advertised for certain products.

It's possible that this is simply oversight of some sort, but I increasingly think that it is an intentional scam. When I have caught the discrepancy at the register, the managers make a production out of stopping everything, marching back and personally verifying what the price tag says on the shelf. Considering how often this happens, you would think they would either be aware, or be willing to take your word for it, instead of treating you like you are the guilty party, and not they. I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that where incentives are in place, employees will follow them, and corporate officers are well aware of how that works. I think that even if they haven't explicitly designed this system (and who does, these days? everything is more subtle than that... "will no one rid me of one troublesome priest?") it's not in their interest to fix it. Most people probably don't notice the discrepancy; those who do, and complain, are probably discouraged by their treatment, and don't bring it up again. Hey, it's only fifty cents, right?

I used to laugh at my mother for running down her credit card statements and comparing the charges against bills from gas stations and such. She said sometimes she found that the receipt she would get from the station wouldn't match what they actually charge the account. I am not laughing anymore; that seems like exactly the sort of thing corporations would do to squeeze a few extra cents per transaction out of people.

Overpromising and underdelivering seems to be the new norm. Mandy and I talk about this all the time with respect to boating gear. It's twice as expensive as anything else, and half as reliable. Money just doesn't buy quality anymore. Perhaps nothing does; maybe there just isn't quality. Planned obsolescence works for the corporations.

It often seems that you can't win, and maybe you really can't. The only way to come out ahead in such a system is to try to scam it yourself, but then you are just as bad as all the rest. I freely admit that I have long since joined those ranks. I try to conduct myself honorably and forthrightly with other individuals, but when it comes to large, or even mid-sized organizations, all bets are off. It's a business relationship on both ends. But it has to be asymmetric; I will only ever lose on their terms, and they set all the terms. So I have to take my advantages where I can. With Safeway, I don't have a lot of control over it, but you had better believe I won't be mentioning it if they happen to ring something up for less than it's marked; and I fully intend to check all my receipts while standing their in line, right in front of the checker, holding things up and generally inconveniencing everyone until I am satisfied they are correct. If they start losing more money because people are tying up their checkers than they are making by scamming us on prices, maybe they'll have to look for another scam.