I was having a talk with a person today where he was able to get a huge discount at a chain store because for one reason or another the company’s pricing system was not updated properly. Basically, $30 items would ring up at the cash register for about $5 only. Of course, he decided to buy a bunch and even went to different locations to do the same.

He was then saying in some ways he felt like he had robbed the store as the company must have lost a lot of money because of this error. This was interesting I thought because some would say it’s completely wrong whereas others would say you are simply taking advantage of what the business is offering.
In some ways I would say it is no different than being savvy shopper where you hunt down for certain products at particular store where on top of using coupons you would literally walk away with the item for free. I personally think it is wrong if you are specifically trying to fight for the discount when the business itself clearly recognizes that it is a pricing error where you try to use every technicality in the world to get it after.

Example, if you bought five of those items and they offer to sell you one at the incorrect price then that is usually satisfactory I would say. Trying to push it further is just a little too greedy I think even if you do save a lot. Kind of reminds me in like cartoons where people forget to write a “One free item per customer” clause and then you see this guy trying to get like a thousand free products which puts the company out of business.

I was reading a post about an item that seemed to be a price error where a product that could easily be in the $500 range was selling for $50. Basically, it’s like someone forgot to add an extra zero at the end of the price. Of course there were people that insisted in trying to buy say five quantities of it since it is such a good deal. This usually results in people getting blasted for trying to horde the items.

For me I would usually only buy multiple quantities if I know that I would be giving it to someone else that wants one too or if I can realistically sell the product to someone else to simply make my money back where it is as if I am getting the item for free. Example, if the item is normally $500 and is selling for $50 then I would simply buy two of them where it’s not farfetched to sell the extra one for $100.

I usually find that as a perfect balance where it’s not like you are trying to get everything for yourself but rather you are trying to be smart about saving and making money. I would personally only buy a ton and sell them for a high price if I was specifically in that type of business when it comes to earning an income. At the same time a habit of buying more than you need can usually end up as a waste.

To me it’s more of a habit development where you always want to think of ways to at least break even whenever money is going out of your account. Again, I personally see the real savings when it comes to shopping is how much money you have left in the savings account and not how much you necessarily saved on the item.