CAG ethics question: is this okay?

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boagman

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So I went to the local K-Mart by my brother's house tonight, and checked out their $19.99 and under section. I found two games there that I'd been thinking about for the PSP: Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Gripshift. I was dead-shocked to find the both of them marked at $2.00 each, and promptly swiped them up, happy as a clam.

I got to thinking, though, and took a longer look at the games, and from what I could observe, they were, at one point, front lane-type games with the stickers placed over the original UPC codes, meaning that they were probably priced at either $9.99 or $14.99 recently. There really was no doubt in my mind that someone had removed those stickers at an earlier time, and left them. Since this K-Mart had moved the $19.99 and under games from one shelf to another shelf two shelves away, they'd obviously found these two games without prices, scanned them, and marked them for what the system found them at: $2.00. I bought both.

Now, I had *nothing* to do with the removal of those stickers. There were other copies of the same games that were front lane priced, and these were the only odd balls of the bunch. However, they *did* have a new, legitimate K-Mart price tag on them, albeit at $2.00, which is a joke/pittance.

Should I have said something, or would it just have been useless, and shooting myself in the foot? It's criminal to remove those stickers or change price tags (read: fraud), but I had nothing to do with it, and they'd relabeled the games completely on their own.

Was this kosher?
 
Price mistakes happen. So they're losing a few bucks on two titles...you say you're not the one that altered the price, then I don't see anything wrong with it. Then again, it could be some whacky manager's special that you just happend to luck out on :)

Either way, from my POV, you did nothing wrong.
 
Yeah, no kidding - not only did you not remove the frontlane UPC's, but a Kmart employee retagged them at $2 (what their system shows for those games with the original UPC). I don't even know why you are having the slightest problem with this! :lol:

Are you saying you are sure these were frontlane games because there is sticker residue or something? Otherwise, how can you even be sure of that? Kmarts had those games originally in "non-frontlane" form and maybe these were just left over from original stock. It is appropriate, in that case, that they be $2. Heck, the whole Kmart clearance thread is based on the low prices you can get there if you find original (non-stickered) games in the back of a Kmart game case ;).
 
You didn't do anything wrong.

Look at it this way, if you didn't buy them, somebody else who wouldn't have realized they were front row games would have no problem, and KMart would have taken the same hit.
 
Only if you also think it's wrong for people to post pricing errors for online retailers, like CC and the Matrix goof (and countless, countless others).

Which, by comparison, are far worse, since they get posted all over the net and cost those companies thousands of dollars.

It's the same thing, though. If it's their advertised price and you're able to purchase it for that price, then just consider yourself lucky.

The fact that you're even wondering about it means you're a better person than 90% of the people on this planet :)
 
[quote name='io']Are you saying you are sure these were frontlane games because there is sticker residue or something?[/QUOTE]

Exactly. One even had a small sliver of the sticker paper backing over the UPC code from the previous front lane sticker covering. Using the reflection of the light, I can clearly see that there is front lane sticker residue on both sides of both games, in the traditional spots for the UPC sticker and the price tag sticker. So these were definitely front lane games that were part of the same batch marked at $14.99.

I just wanted to be sure that, ethically speaking, I was on the up and up. Heck, who knows? It's quite possible that they still turned a profit on the games, even at that price.

Thanks for the replies, folks!
 
[quote name='drfunk85']You didn't do anything wrong.

Look at it this way, if you didn't buy them, somebody else who wouldn't have realized they were front row games would have no problem, and KMart would have taken the same hit.[/QUOTE]


And that's kind of how I saw it, too. I'd rather be able to get them at this price through no fault of my own, than let some soccer mom buy them for their brat because, "Hey, it's just $2."

And, I mean, it's a Capcom action game for heaven's sake. FOR TWO DOLLARS! :)
 
I love it when there's a computer error or an idiot store clerk, I just hate it to all hell when I miss out on a chance to cash in on it.

It's like music artist... not like they're life depends on the sale of an item being wrong. :roll:

It's their fucking bad...
 
[quote name='wubb']The store marked them at $2, you bought them for $2. I wouldn't have a problem with it at all.[/quote]

I agree. What is the alternative? I guess you could have gone up to the register and been like "$2 is great and all but I'd pay up to $25 for both of them so here you go!"
 
You know, I shop at used places, and sometimes the same thing in the same condition will be priced $5 different from each other. I would be an idiot to buy the more expensive one... sleep with no problem and enjoy your $2 games as you did nothing wrong.
 
I work at sears, which is part of the same company as K-Mart. Its our company policy that if there is a signing issue we have to give the price marked. Even if you try to take the games back, K-Mart is supposed to refuse to charge you the amount the games were supposed to cost.
 
You did nothing wrong from what I read, the store marked it as $2.00 and you bought it for that price. It's not your job to fix their mistakes.
 
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