Cheapass ethical question

The_Continental

The_Continental

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Is it ethical to hide games in the store, with the hope that they'll be even cheaper in the future?

Furthermore, is it ethical to buy a game that someone else hid that you *discovered*?

At target tonight I found a cheapass Wario Ware, obviously hidden, behind the Chapelle's Show DVD's. Perhaps I should have left it for the cheapass that hid it there, but I bought it instead.

Anyways, what are other CAGers thoughts on the "hiding" issue?
 
What you have there is a very poor attempt at hiding. See he should of been up in the foreign section dvd's with that . His lose your gain I say. As for hiding I've done it in the past not so much now. If I find something I want usually get it then again I don't have expensive tastes.

r1s3n
 
I think ethics are a person to person thing. If you feel that it is ethical and ok, then go for it. If not don't do it.
 
Nothing against it. I look at it like you are paying money for it they were or is going to. We all know hiding does not work I think it has worked like 3 times in my life. becuase I am sure you do what I do lets say a popular game is out of stock so you walk around the story looking for it thinking maybe someone hide it and I will find it. It not like someone was giving away free food to homeless people and you took it all like most stores first come first serve.
 
i say go for it...i've never really done it but i live in an area where i really don't need to do that...
 
Maybe he didn't hide it. Maybe it was some kid who wanted it, and when mommy and daddy told him "Put it back", he just stuck it behind something. Kids do that shit all the time. I should hide games though; I was at target a week or two ago and they had 2 copies of warioware for the GBA left for 13 bucks each. I was broke, and decided to come back the next day. Both were gone......
 
Ive only hid stuff at Blockbuster when i wanted to rent some games. I put it in the disney/family section :D. This was a long time ago however.
 
Come to think of it, you might be right. I think that might account for some of the residual 4.99 games that people seem to be finding at Best Buy. I don't think they're restocking. . . Games just slowly get returned to their normal shelf spot after a few weeks.

 
Hiding's not exactly 'ethical', but then it becomes fair game to whomever finds it.
Bigger picture, though--that kind of stuff is really just being a pain in the ass. Some 8.00/hr redshirt is going to be straightening those shelves sometime, and find one more thing out of place that he's got to put back. That wastes his time, and ends up costing every customer money.
Or the manager or auditor is going to be doing inventory, and show short because stuff isn't in its correct place. Or he'll place an order based on his percieved stock levels, which are not accurate because of the hiding situation [not as much an issue for the computerized store. Then they'll just be on a quest when the computer says 4 in stock, and they can only find 3.]
It could be argued that you are stealing from the company, or preventing them from making a profit. If the item sells at 30 bucks, but you just don't want to pay that, but you hide it, you're preventing someone else from buying it at the 30 dollar price which they were willing to pay. Later on the store finally finds it and maybe drops the price or puts it on clearance, and they have to write that difference in price off. Ultimately that hurts their bottom line, which means they have to recoup in one or both of two ways-increase prices or lower costs [labor].
Some morals/ethics are situational or relative, some are absolute; some can be debated. I'm not going to say this is ethical or unethical; I will just suggest trying to see the big picture, and realize that sometimes seemingly small actions can have far-reaching impact.

Price switching is definitely unethical, immoral, and probably fits the legal definition of fraud/theft as well.
 
The 'store' doesn't lose any money. The 'store' is an amorphous legal entity. Only people lose money.
Managers, employees, stockholders lose money and get shaq-fued. That could be your neighbor, or your company's 401k plan investment, or your community that loses money.
 
[quote name='snotnose_colossal']I dont care, publishers and developers get paid before i ever buy it. The only one getting shaq-fued is the store, that doesnt bother me too much[/quote]

Part of me wants to try to be polite, and part of me wants to say "You do not belong here. Go away." I am conflicted. If you engage in this activity, you are breaking the law. Breaking the law and bragging about it is pretty stupid. Bragging about it, and potentially encouraging others to do so, is something that does not belong in this forum. Don't drag others down with you.
 
As someone who works at one of these stores...don't hide 'em. When we find 'em, and those of us who do our jobs know where to look, it pisses us off to have to straighten up your shit. If your'e cool about it, we'll often be able to hide it FOR you.

dtcarson's right...although some of us aren't even at the $8 mark yet.
 
No, not really, but that's not really the type of palce you can get away with that type of action easily. Mainly because they have a computerized database. People used to pul that shit with me at Target. The truth is, REAL discrepancies in pricing only happen once in a great while thanks to the magic of electronic inventory control. Now, the only place I can see this working regularly is at some mom and pop store where they still mark things with actual price tags (not ones that are under the item on the shelf) in which case; That's really lame of you, they have a hard enough time competeing without bullshit like that.
 
it's a grey area, I remember doing this as a kid when I didn't have money and saw a cool action figure I wanted but knew that it would be snatched up by someone else. It worked a few times. Also I have found someone else's "stash" and raided it.
 
Do enough of it and you'll encourage a return to the days when you had to get a slip of paper for the check out stand then go to the cage for your products ala TRU until a few years ago.

Hidden products play havoc with inventory and create the illusion of greater shrinkage AKA theft and makes them more paranoid than warranted.

In a bookstore I worked in long aog most of the hidden stuff was porn that people chickened out of shoplifting. sometimes it wasn't. After the Northridge earthquake the store was complete mess. There was no structural dame but the entire inventory was tossed off the shelves. We had to gatther it all up and see what was still sellable, what paperbacks to strip, and others to list for the insurance claim. In the process we had to move a lot of shelving and expose sections of floor that had been hidden for almost twenty years. One of the items that turned up was a copy of 'The Hunt For Red October' that based on the cover price and print date had been hidden there for eight years.
 
[quote name='snotnose_colossal']does any really think walmart needs more money[/quote]

You can choose not to shop at Wal-Mart. Actvely interfering with their operations within the store is not acceptable.
 
Whether or not Wal-Mart needs more money isn't for you to judge. Sam Walton worked his ass off to get that corporation to where it is today.

The best you can do is fuckin' judge whether or not his company deserves to be a victim of theft. Shame on you.

[quote name='snotnose_colossal']does any really think walmart needs more money[/quote]
 
[quote name='snotnose_colossal']Thats nothing, I switch the price on the game any time I can.[/quote]

you WOULD NOT believe how many old women do this at thrift stores.
old women steal more than teenagers, and if u call them on it they act so innocent...its funny ^^
 
[quote name='dtcarson']The 'store' doesn't lose any money. The 'store' is an amorphous legal entity. Only people lose money.
Managers, employees, stockholders lose money and get shaq-fued. That could be your neighbor, or your company's 401k plan investment, or your community that loses money.[/quote]

youre wrong, because stores have a certin amount of "shrinkage" figured into their yearly budgets and whatnot. if EVERYONE did it, it would cost more, but they know people steal, and have that figured in with all other expenses
 
You're probably right.
But if they didn't have to account for that 'shrinkage'/theivery, they could spend that money where it'd be more useful--lowering prices, higher wages, better benefits.
Anyone who thinks 'I'll steal from WalMart [or whomever] because they're so rich they won't notice' and then complains about how WM pays their people squat is part of the problem.
 
[quote name='dtcarson']You're probably right.
But if they didn't have to account for that 'shrinkage'/theivery, they could spend that money where it'd be more useful--lowering prices, higher wages, better benefits.
Anyone who thinks 'I'll steal from WalMart [or whomever] because they're so rich they won't notice' and then complains about how WM pays their people squat is part of the problem.[/quote]

im not saying "go steal from walmart" but i doubt if they had less theft, their employees would feel it at all. unless they were very high level.
 
[quote name='punqsux'][quote name='dtcarson']You're probably right.
But if they didn't have to account for that 'shrinkage'/theivery, they could spend that money where it'd be more useful--lowering prices, higher wages, better benefits.
Anyone who thinks 'I'll steal from WalMart [or whomever] because they're so rich they won't notice' and then complains about how WM pays their people squat is part of the problem.[/quote]

im not saying "go steal from walmart" but i doubt if they had less theft, their employees would feel it at all. unless they were very high level.[/quote]
I agree. Walmart would keep the money. It would make their bottom line bigger.
 
[quote name='Renzokuken']Ive only hid stuff at Blockbuster when i wanted to rent some games. I put it in the disney/family section :D. This was a long time ago however.[/quote]

Last weekend I went to rent Full Spectrum Warrior. Nothing. I ask behind the counter to see if one is in the return bin or something. The lady says the computer says there should be one on the shelf. Somehow it ended up behind a Chronicles of Riddick box. Scam, or just your usual Blockbuster employee screwup?

[quote name='snotnose_colossal']Thats nothing, I switch the price on the game any time I can.[/quote]

Forget morals or ethics, this is 100% illegal.
 
Well I don't believe Hiding is unethical. Yes it does cause more work for employees, which sucks. I tried it as a kid, but the funny thing was I never came back to get it. I don't do it now though. If I don't have the money at that time then it wasn't meant to be.

I also so Wario Ware GBA version at my local Target for like $13. I was going to get it, but something told me not to buy it. Oh well.
 
[quote name='snotnose_colossal']I dont care, publishers and developers get paid before i ever buy it. The only one getting shaq-fued is the store, that doesnt bother me too much[/quote]

I have no idea where you got that idea but it's completely wrong. I'm currently speaking with several studios about jobs and they told me publishers cut royalty deals with studios based upon not only how many copies are sold but at what price point. It's meant to be an incentive to produce quality work. What it really does is save the publisher from having to shell out a pile of cash when they give the all clear to drop the price or if a retailer puts it on clearence. The royalties are not very big per copy but when you have a 50 person team grinding out a title and they all get paid on every copy sold it can add up.
Of course, in response to royalty plans salaries have come down somewhat. It's the same concept as paying a waitress less than mininum wage and then expecting tips to make the bulk of their income. So by changing the price tag you are in fact damaging the very industry you enjoy at a very fundamental level. The less you pay through your deception the less the artists get paid that made the game you want.
 
Hiding is ok, because your intent is to purchase the the item. You are not stealing it, you are helping them to get rid of it, at the the price you want it to be. So little win, big win situation for all.
So:
YAY!!!

Go HIDING!!!!
 
Is it ethical to hide games in the store, with the hope that they'll be even cheaper in the future?
Click to expand...

Yes, if its a big store, and you know for a fact that a sale is coming, preferably the next day. Leave the mom+pop stores, and EB/Gamestop alone.

Furthermore, is it ethical to buy a game that someone else hid that you *discovered*?
Click to expand...

Yes. Finders Keepers. No one else bought it yet, and the store wants to sell it. And don't get mad if someone else finds your stash.
 
[quote name='BigNick'][quote name='punqsux'][quote name='dtcarson']You're probably right.
But if they didn't have to account for that 'shrinkage'/theivery, they could spend that money where it'd be more useful--lowering prices, higher wages, better benefits.
Anyone who thinks 'I'll steal from WalMart [or whomever] because they're so rich they won't notice' and then complains about how WM pays their people squat is part of the problem.[/quote]

im not saying "go steal from walmart" but i doubt if they had less theft, their employees would feel it at all. unless they were very high level.[/quote]
I agree. Walmart would keep the money. It would make their bottom line bigger.[/quote]

That's a very shortsighted analysis. When the bottom line of a publicly held company improves the stock price climbs. Wal-mart like many companies offers employees stock options at set prices. This is the primary means by which Microsoft employees become multi-millionaires. It isn't as dramatic for Wal-mart employees but it can be the difference between a decent retirement and a state funded dependent.
 
So it's apparently okay to steal from a big company, but not a little one? Or because it would only stay at the corporate level?
I'm old fashioned, I think stealing is stealing. Stealing 100 bucks from Bill Gates is just as wrong as stealing 5 bucks from a factory worker. You're still taking something that isn't yours.
And even if the money does stay with Sam Walton, [or his kin], he eventually either spends it [which gets it into the economy], invests it in his business, or sticks it in a bank, which allows the bank to use it for loans for people who don't make 42 million dollars.
 
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