sale item

[scarymary]

can an item that has been in a sale with 50% off then be put back to its original price after the sale has finished ?

[buildersmate]

Of course.

[Ethel]

Yes, or more than the original price, less than the sale price, or any price the store wants to charge

[Buenchico]

As long as he avoids such things as racial discrimination, any trader is free to charge what he likes, to whom he likes (or dislikes), when he likes and with whatever conditions he likes.

You might see something in a shop window advertised at "Was �100, now �50". As you get to the counter, the person purchases one of the items for �50. When you ask for one, the trader says, "Certainly, that'll be one million pounds, please?" That's perfectly lawful. While you're still standing at the counter, someone else might ask for one. The trader could then say "The price is just 1p to you, but only on condition that you hand over the money while standing on your head, stark naked, singing the Larvian national anthem backwards". That's also perfectly legal.

I've worked in a pub where the prices were raised (dramatically and without warning) mid-way through a Sunday lunchtime session. (One of the two brothers who ran the place was annoyed when he found out how little his brother was charging). Half an hour later the other brother put the prices back down again. That only lasted for 15 minutes, before the first brother put them up again. It was all perfectly legal. It would have been just as legal if they'd charged one customer the lower prices all of the time and another customer the higher prices all of the time.

A trader makes an offer to sell an item at whatever price he chooses. The trader can withdraw or modify that offer at any time prior to purchase. It's up to the potential purchaser to decide whether the offer he (or she) receives (which might be totally different to any offer made previously) is acceptable or not.

Chris

[Skyline D]

I don't think a pub could arbitrarily change it's prices between customers Chris (though a shop most definitely can)? As I understand it under licensing laws and weights and measures legislation they have to have a correctly displayed price list at all times. Technically I suppose they could change their prices backwards and forward between transactions with different customers but that would mean an awful lot of work .

[WoWo]

I'm always wary to challenge Buenchico, but my understanding is under the sale of goods act a retailer cannot just change prices when they fancy.

If an item is ticketed at price X that is what the customer pays.

They do indeed have the right to charge what they fancy but can't advertise one price and then charge a higher one.

[Skyline D]

No, price tickets are merely an invitation to deal in practice. The contractual price is agreed at the till and not before. A shop can change its prices arbirarily and, provided it isn't discrimination on the grounds of sex or race, charge different prices to different customers as they see fit. Chris is absolutely right on that point and knows more about it than me anyway.

I'm merely querying the example of a pub which I think is slightly different, or at least is in Scotland so far as I am aware. It may not be in England.

[Oneeyedvic]

Charging two people two different prices would leave you open to an allegation of discrimination - be it sexual, racial, disability etc. It would be very difficult in court to prove that you were not discriminating against one of the parties.

It is also illegal to show misleading prices*, so Buenchico's second paragraph (Advertising for �50 and attempting to sell for �1000000) is also incorrect.

Finally, there is no legislation to what happens to a price after the sale, but there is legislation to the price before the sale - it must have been on sale for at least 28 days in that store unless advertised differently (eg you will often see the term: This item was on sale in at least 6 of our stores nationwide).

B&Q are masters at this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news /you-could-rue-it-if-you-bq-it-1418239.html


* Consumer Protection Act 1987 Part lll

[WoWo]

Thanks for doing the donkey work Oneeyedvic, I did have a look around but thought it was in the sale of goods act.

In particular I was refering to section 21

(a) that the price is less than in fact it is;

For example saying it's �10 when it is in fact �20.

I know this having worked in a number of retail stores and all of them being obsessed with not displaying the wrong price tickets. Also I know of people who are aware of the law and used it to their advantage.

I think I'm somewhat talking at cross purposes with Buenchico in that he is correct in that he can charge what he likes but.... he can't advertise a price and then charge one customer less and then another more.

But with reference to Skylines point, a pub is required to display it's prices, therefore changing them half way through a service would require a new set of prices.

[Twenty20]

To be fair to Buenchico, maybe he was working in the pub before it was the law that they had to display the prices?

[WhiteBear]

yup they can, ... it could be a promotion.

[Buenchico]

To answer the questions about displaying prices in pubs:

The prices were prominently marked on the shelf edges and pumps, rather than on a price list. It was these prices which the two guys who ran the pub kept on changing during that Sunday lunchtime shift.

Anyway, they weren't exactly noted for observing the law. A large hole appeared in the (very) flimsy floorboards behind the bar. This hole was large enough to fall through, straight into the cellar. Walking behind the bar was perilous and using the till meant standing with one foot either side of the hole. The hole appeared in February. They got round to meeting the Health & Safety requirements, by fixing it, in October!

There were many other transgressions of the law, including storing (so-called) 'frozen' chicken in an unrefrigerated cellar, which regularly flooded with raw sewage. They didn't exactly bother about licensing laws either. (I was serving in there, 4 hours after the pub should have closed, when PC Plod entered at 3am on more than one occasion).

Chris

[dot.hawkes]

sorry but i am too tired to read all the carefully researched replies, just thought i;d mention what happens where i work

We do not have to sell anything to anyone at any price iof we choose not to, we invite people in to shop and if they select something and it is a different price at the till than on the ticket then we can either refuse to sell it at all, insist they pay the till price, or (and we do this one) as a gesture of goodwill sell it at the ticket price. We get price changes all the time and action them immediatly, that's how it works.

[WoWo]

"We get price changes all the time and action them immediatly, that's how it works. "

That might be how it works at your place but as mentioned above that's against the law, in terms of price reductions basically he law doesn't apply but in reverse it certainly does.

More likely to get trading standards round than the plod.