Frustrated customer calls out Home Depot after discovering hidden price tag in store: ‘Needs to be outlawed’
The “retail holiday,” traditionally known as Black Friday, kicks off a seasonal retail frenzy with so-called deep discounts on pre- and post-holiday sales.
Shoppers have long been scolded for falling victim to discount-induced overconsumption, but there’s a thread on Reddit. r/slightly infuriating Not only are retailers like Home Depot making the problem worse, they’re also deceive the consumer While they’re at it.
Photo Credit: Reddit
The post’s innocuous title was “Black Friday Deals at Home Depot,” but the attached image told a different story.
It showed a standard retail end cap Stacked with Ridgid 18V SubCompact Brushless 2-Tool Kits, it’s apparently selling for $139, which is allegedly about 30% off the original price of $199.
But the price tag affixed to the bottom of the “Black Friday” promotional sign showed the Ridgid drill kit priced at $119 before the “discount”; this was almost a 20% price increase on the “sale”. It’s unclear whether the $119 price was set before the tariffs, but the impact still troubled Reddit.
Unfortunately, misleading “sales” are not uncommon among major retailers. Amazon’s Prime Day sales are notorious for similar ups and downs, and Target was caught red-handed, too.
It’s worth noting that at least Amazon has a “price history” tool that displays up to 90 days of records just below its prices for logged-in users, and all indications are that this is accurate and shows when an item has been priced higher before. Yet, without using this information, Amazon and other retailers often pass off current sales as if they were can’t-miss prices, when they might have been happy to sell the item slightly cheaper just a day or month ago.
It makes sense for a business to test prices and never directly advertise a price worse than a recent one, but from the shopper’s perspective, unreliable sale pricing can make people feel cheated—especially when the costs of basic necessities like food and electricity are soaring—and can additionally be an insult, effectively taxing buyers for trying to maximize their dollars.
Amid price instability, it becomes more difficult for consumers to know what a product will cost. In turn, misleading sales can cause cash-strapped customers to overbuy in a futile attempt to stay ahead of rising costs. Or, at least, when the influx of advertising leads to a “fear of missing out” effect, sales of products that people don’t really need or don’t use often enough to justify buying may increase.
The end result is often more unnecessary production, more waste, and more unwanted, unused goods in our overflowing landfills. Pollution occurs at every step of the process, but landfilled waste is a major source of planet-warming gases.
In short, this destructive cycle is terrible for consumers and disastrous for the planet; It’s also generally bad for a business’s long-term reputation when it comes to customer trust, and in that sense, Reddit users were upset with this tactic.
“When will the magic spell be broken? [so] People realize that nothing is ever a good deal.” in question.
Another said: “Take a photo of the old sticker and I promise they will give you a better price.” recommended. Some retailers have policies to match competitors’ current sales prices, but The Cool Down could not confirm that Home Depot would match its own historical prices. This may be at the discretion of the store manager.
This “[predatory] the practice needs to be banned”, thirdly opposed.
As for the Ridgid drill kit, it’s currently on sale for the same low price as of the time of publication $139 at HomeDepot.com.
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