Unmarked Prices, Argh!

I can get a 12-er of Black Butte for 13.50 out the door...
you are being robbed.

 

My local shops do this some time and I hate it. If you can't be bothered to put a price on it then I can't be bothered to buy it.

 

They're not my products. I just work there. And again, all they have to do is ask me or any of the other employees to look up the price. We won't judge them. We won't snap at them. We'll happily tell them the price. People do it all the time and they don't seem to be all that ashamed or put out by it.

I'm simply a clerk at the store. We don't have access to the computers on which the labels are printed. Simple as that. We can give them a list of items that need tags, but it falls low on the list of things to do in a seven hour shift when only one of us is on stock.

Yeah! You show that fuckface clerk (that's potentially overworked and underpaid) that's just trying to pay their bills!

 

Nebraska 750ml around here go for $19.99 & we still bitch about it, wow, I guess it gets worse. I can only imagine how much keg prices are in your area. That brewery annoys me, very average barrel aged beers in many cases more expensive that better Belgian imports. Whatever, not gonna knock another man's hustle.

 

It's Pennsylvania. I needn't explain any further.

 

Yup. Whenever I go to a store that doesn't have price tags, I bring what I want up to the register and tell the clerk up front to scan it and tell me the price before it's rung up. If I get a dirty look, I either say "if the prices were on there, I wouldn't have to ask" or just walk out if it's something I can get elsewhere. Simple solution for me.

 

Thanks for the insight. I just find it a little odd that they go through all the trouble of setting up a display of a new beer and don't bother to put a price tag on it. It's not exactly a corner bodega. If shelf tags are too much effort, they should figure out a more efficient process. Wegmans does a much better job labeling everything.

 

Perhaps keep in mind beer+wine is the same team/dept as cheese at a WF. The priority is often keeping top items like Reggiano, Parrano etc sliced > wrapped > priced > on display... those CAN'T be sold unless they have a price. Beer will at least scan, and if you take it to check out, if you don't like the price you can just leave it with the cashier. People just walk away if the cheese they want isn't already wrapped and priced, it can take 15 minutes to find a wheel and get even one piece ready to sell.

Never been to a Wegman's so can't comment there. Wouldn't be surprised if they have a much different/ potentially more efficient structure. I'll check a store out someday.

 

I haven't been to one out of state, but I think our WF's in PA are different. Due to our laws, the beer section is its own separate area with its own staff and separate cash registers. They only sell draft beer, takeout beer, and wine by-the-glass (no takeout). I don't know for sure what their employee structure is there but it doesn't appear that the guys who stock the beer cooler and pour drafts have any concurrent responsibilities during a their shifts.

Do we have any PA Whole Foods employees here who could comment?

 

Oooo good point, I forgot about the PA setup.

I'd put a note on one of those "We'd love to hear from you" cards they have at customer service. Team leaders definitely read them and make changes.

 

There's a place I go to in Brooklyn (different from your places) that doesn't put prices on ANYTHING, not even the milk. It isn't a hole in the wall, they've got a great selection (including imports and bottles you don't see other places). They tell me they are working on price tags. They aren't really working on it.

When I bring an assortment of bottles to the counter, I ask what each one costs. They guesstimate first, then tediously look each one up in a book while I wait (and they do this with a look of such uncertainty). I have no problems leaving bottles and not purchasing them. It's their system. Sometimes I get a dirty look for doing so (but maybe it's my imagination). I've got a good enough idea how much I'm willing to pay on any beer I'd bring to the counter, but the whole process is terrible. I wouldn't bother going there if not for the fact that I am running errands right there every week.

I've got no problems with stores that have a few bottles w/o prices. Some of the best stores I've ever been to fall into this category.

 

Newsflash: its not about you.

 

Here is a classic experience that I had at a pretty well known beer shop in Long Beach, where most of their beers have no prices. I saw a Lost Abbey Mayan Apocalypse Judgement Day 375ml bottle. I was just curious about this enough to ask and if it was cheap enough (basically judgement day, which is already relatively cheap, with cinnamon and cacao...if I am remembering correctly). So I asked for a price check on it and the guy came back and said that he couldn't sell it to me because it wasn't in the system correctly and the "beer guy" was out of town so he couldn't check it. I asked what that meant and he said that it was coming up at $5.99, which to me seemed about right for the beer and the size, but he said that the LA beers in those bottles are supposed to be quite a bit more (probably thinking of Angel's Share). So he pulled the bottles and put them in the back, including the one that I had handed him to check.

I am pretty sure that this price was probably correct for the bottle, but because there were no tags on the bottles and the beer guy was out of town, those beers intended as a special release for the Mayan Apocalypse, all went into a back room probably until sometime after 12/21/12 (it was only two days before when this happened).

So not only did that piss off the customer (me) first for not having the product priced, but then a second time for not selling me the product for what the system said that it was, there were also the lost sales for the store for pulling this special release for the days leading up to the date that it was specifically brewed for. Probably one of the all time dumb ass moments that I have ever experienced in a beer shop.

 

No, that's just laziness/bad business. I worked in retail for a long time and you can't sell something without a price on it. I'd find another shop to support.

 

This annoys me too. There is a good store within 2 miles from my house that doesn't price anything. Very friendly staff and over 500 bottles to choose from. I don't go there much just because they don't price their bottles. I hope they change and start pricing things. Pretty sure I would be more of a regular.

 

One of my local stores has the same problem. Somehow they manage to go through the trouble of posting BA ratings, but not prices. Drives me crazy.

 

Hmm, I wonder which place you are talking about?

 

That would have been even more annoying if the apocalypse had actually happened and your biggest regret would have been that you didn't get to try the beer. :-)