I was in a store the other day and thought the total seemed low after the cashier checked me out. I looked at my receipt and saw that she took a big coupon off twice and told her about the error. Sure, it would have been nice to get the items for five dollars less, but it probably would have come out of her change drawer. I think almost everyone would feel that this was the only ethical thing to do, right?

So, what about buying something from a store when you know the deal is set up wrong? Perhaps there is supposed to be a $3 coupon off your next purchase when you buy four items, but you know it works on two items because of the way the cash register rang the sale up. Maybe a store coupon says that it is not valid on sale products, but people use it on sale products anyway and find a young, inexperienced cashier to ring them up. I personally don’t feel that I should take advantage of this type of thing and I know another deal, like a 75% off toy sale at Target, will come along that is completely ethical. However, I also know a lot of people see nothing wrong with taking advantage of someone else’s mistake.

How do you feel? Should we consider the ethics of a deal before piling our carts full?

Photo by Gerla Brakkee

Post from: Thrifty Mommy