Assume for a moment the manager is right...

...no, wait, I can't make an argument based off that.

Yeah man, you got shafted. I'd complaint to the AG and maybe your local media outlet.

I can see it, but it's not written very clearly whether it was intentional or not.

"All garage storage on sale." Then another statement of "50% off unit pictured." I would be willing to bet the rest of the ad is the same way, you can see they say ALL and then have a unit pictured with a price. The rest aren't as misleading though.

Who's to say that Edna lied and the cabinet Nazar wanted should have been 50% off, but the manager didn't feel like honoring the correctly worded ad?

Dear lord I hate Sears. A store in Maryland once called the cops on me because I bought a television with an out-of-state license. The license was admittedly in pretty sad condition due to normal wear and tear. They took this sad condition to mean it must be a fake and I was trying to scam them. So instead of asking if I had any additional ID, they secretly called the cops while I was waiting for them to bring the paid-for TV back from storage.

The cops came, I was hassled for 30 minutes, and when everyone realized my ID was perfectly legitimate I had them refund the purchase and left without the TV. And I will never, ever shop at Sears again.

As to the case above? All means all. There are no variant definitions for it. Die Sears die, k?

Okay, I get why he thought that, but I also don't think that's what the ad says. They ad should have been more clear, certainly, but it just says that all garage storage is on sale. Indeed, they clearly use a different formulation on the grills where they are all a percentage off. They should have moved the 50% off or made the lettering smaller to distance it from the "All on sale" message, but being fair it is broken up by the "excluding close-outs" so I get why the person who designed/signed off on the design didn't see the potential confusion. Frankly they are more deceptive in their use of the word "ALL". Every time they use "all" on the flier, there is an exception. On the grills, they are pretty significant exceptions. "All" has a pretty clear meaning and I might excuse them on the close-outs, but the grills exclude Weber grills. That noticeably limits the definition of all.

"It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is." - Bill Clinton

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'all' is." - Sears

Call your Attorney General, pronto.

"...but refused to honor the it."

I hate when places refuse to honor the it.

Anyway. The add is not built very well, clearly, however I can see what the intention of the advertisement was. Back in my retail management days I would likely have given the guy the 50% off, assuming that he would be in the minority of people to view the flier that way.

@kidjesus: As to the case above? All means all. There are no variant definitions for it. Die Sears die, k?

Would it be appropriate to say that you want Sears to DieHard?

I've been an advertising copywriter for more than 25 years, and when you say, "ALL GARAGE STORAGE ON SALE 50% OFF (excluding closeouts)" -- yes, the shopper was right and should have gotten the 50% discount. Shame on Sears and the block-headed store manager who "explained" the ad.

They could have fixed it by just saying "All Garage Storage On Sale UP TO 50% Off" As it is, it reads all garage storage is half-price, only exception being closeouts, and this pictured cabinet is an example of one of the many half-price items.

I looked at the ad before reading the article and it clearly appeared to say that all garage storage was 50% off. Now that I've read the comments, I can understand how the "50% off" was probably intended to refer only to the item shown, but the ad doesn't really SAY that. It says "50% off" and then it says "Shown: Ultimate blahblahblah." The other ads also say "Shown: Suchandsuch" without large proclamations about the discounts on those specific items. It would have been a slight improvement to put the "50% off" after the description of the item shown; as it is, the ad is very, very vague in indicating whether the "50% off" is referring to the "All Garage Storage" above or the "Shown: Ultimate blahblahblah" below. The biggest clue is that tiny little speck of a period after "closeouts."

@jpdanzig: Thats not what it says though. it says "All Storage On Sale. Excluding Closeouts. 50% Off Shown Ultimode..."

The font sizes are poorly chosen and a store manager SHOULD have helped out the customer in this case, however the advertisement WAS misread.

The add has two (poorly written) sentences:
Sentence 1: ALL Garage Storage on sale Excludes Closeouts.
Sentence 2: 50% Off

One could argue that Sentence 1 was referring to all being on sale, and some apparently for 20% off.
It's bad writing. They should have just written it like the grills to the left "ALL Grills 20% off regular prices". That statement is clear. The other is not.

Isn't this a text book example of "Bait and Switch"?

A Dodge dealership did this to my father. He took the paper with him when he purchased his truck, and he had to fight with them just so they would honor the advertised APR.

To anyone defending this ad: Sears is probably hiring, and you're just their type.

People still shop at Sears?

That ad isn't just poorly worded, I'd say it's intentionally worded in such a way as to mislead people. Upon careful analysis of how the ad is constructed and worded I can see what they were getting at, but I don't think most people out there could honestly say that they would look at the ad and automatically come up with the "correct" interpretation if they weren't looking for it.

Given that it's for items that you are likely to buy as a group, it seems clear that Sears is hoping that you walk into the store, spend an hour or two figuring out your garage storage situation, pick out several cabinets and then either you don't notice that the discount was only 20% or that, if you do, you won't walk away from the purchase given the time you've already spent figuring out what you're going to buy.

I seriously doubt this was a "mistake" and as such I think they should be called on it.

Oh come on! Whine much? CLEARLY this ad is telling you that ALL Garage Storage is ON SALE with the exception of the 50% of it which is OFF sale!

Couldn't be any clearer to me.

@ilikemoney: No. Because technically, the ad doesn't actually say all garage storage units are 50% off. The "excludes closeout items" separates the "all garage units on sale" phrase with the "50% off" phrase. It would be bait and switch if it said "All garage units on sale 50% off (excludes closeout items)". That separation of the phrases changes the meaning of things.

It's poorly worded, and a good manager probably should have just given the discount, but I don't think it falls under bait and switch. The ad is probably poorly designed both on purpose and by accident. There's no question ad designers set things up to make you think sales apply more liberally than they actually do if you look at an ad at an glance.

Where are the moles????? Where are the OP blamers???

@Propaniac: I can see your point, and I think it has merit.

Especially when you compare and contrast where the "50% off" segment is with the "20% off" from the grills, I can see how it makes sense to apply the 50% off only to the shown item.

Sooo... If only the pictured model is actually 50% off, then why does the description start with "Shown:..."? I decipher ads for customers almost every day, and every time I've seen language like "Shown:" it means "All widgets in said category are on sale for the price/deal, here is a description of the particular widget in the picture."

Further, if the pictured item is the only particular item that is 50% off, then why the need to note exclusions? In that case everything that's not that item would be excluded, so it would be moot to list closeouts.

It seems the manager felt some need to defeat the customer, and was thinking the customer would figure 20% off was good enough and take it for that. Bad manager!

It is poorly designed, but clearly there is a period after "excludes closeouts". Add a space between that and the 50% and it's obvious that the unit shown is just an example of the savings which, for this item, is 50%.

Because of the period, the 50% reflects savings of the shown item.

@PinUp:

Further, if the pictured item is the only particular item that is 50% off, then why the need to note exclusions? In that case everything that's not that item would be excluded, so it would be moot to list closeouts.

It's saying all garage units are on sale, except the closeouts, and the one pictured is 50% off. According to the story, all the garage storage units ARE on sale at 20% off.

It's a horribly written Ad, but the manager is right.

All garage storage units were on sale. 20% off, from the sound of it.

The unit pictured, is 50% off. (I' guessing it's a "clearance" deal) Those 2 things are seperated by the "excludes closeouts" line. 2 seperate things going on there.

The grill ad to the left of that is setup the same way, I'm suprised noone's noticed it. It says that all grills are 20% off, but clearly shows a unit that's originally 279.99, but it's on sale for 199.99. NOT 20% off. At least by my math.

Is it a shady ad? Yup...I'm not loving that it's kind of ambiguous. But, is it illegal, or false advertising, no.

I think it is an accidental spacing issue. Why would Sears want to purposely confuse and irritate their customers? Who do they think they are? BOA?

F*ck Sears.

deceptive, and very clever, but not false advertising. i'm no shill for any company that does this, because it borders on bait-and-switch, but it would stand up in court.

Wow, I actually read it as "All Garage Storage On Sale" and figured they were charging full price. I didn't realize there could be a mistake about the 50% until Jay's misquote of "ALL Garage storage on sale, 50% off - excludes closeouts." Jay, that's not what it says.

Though, it is still ambiguous, and that deserves a complaint.

It is somewhat misleading.
Hey, look at the model number with half off price. I have to say that the manager is smarter than Nazar.

"It says 50% off everything but closeouts.

This is the one that's pictured."

@ElijahDProphet:

"Ad," not "add."

Anyway, I would have told the manager I'd take four of them, had them hauled to the checkout stand, and then I would have walked out.

I think the store manager should be made to write the definition of the word "all" from a dictionary a few times as punishment for this.

@dwneylonsr: No it doesn't.

It says "All garage units on sale except closeouts. 50% off the thing to the left. The thing to the left is a UltiMate Wall cabinet"

@dasunst3r: But like it or not the manager is correct. However misleading it may be, the ad does not say that all garage storage units are 50% off. It says that all garage storage units are on SALE (which they are).

@dragonvpm: Having seen plenty of business documents that haven't been reviewed by competent proofreaders (and judging from the moderately clumsy layout of the flyer), I have to say that my money's squarely on "careless poor job" rather than a misleading ad. Still, though, I think the manager could have at least offered an additional 10-15% off.

(Technology consultant who writes good reports because my high-school English teachers chained me to my desk and beat me until it was perfect. Or close enough.)

I think the manager should probably honored it... based on poor design of the ad. But I don't think they have a case to complain to authorities, since I think it's pretty clear what it means, it's just misleading if you don't actually read the whole thing.

i read it as all the garage units were on sale and that they were showing that the one picuted was 50% off no where on the ad does it state that all garage units were 50% off.

can we please, please for the love of the USA learn to READ...

Not sure it'll do you much good but....

I've been keeping my eye on sale prices for the gladiator garage works line of storage products which sears happens to carry. I saw the same advertisement for "50% off" garage storage products for their 3 day sale and decided to check out the prices on the items I wanted.

All the products I looked at were on sale, but they weren't exactly 50% off. One product I recall the exact price of normally retails for $24.99 and was on sale for $19.99. Now my math skills aren't terribly great but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that 50% of $24.99 is roughly $12.50.

While there were deals to be had, it wasn't 50% off as promised in the sales flyer.

All the prices I viewed were the prices available online and did not include shipping costs. I'd imagine if I went to the store I would've run into the same issues as the origional poster.

It's a poor advertisement, but I don't really see how it's deceptive. It's saying that all garage storage is on sale, not that all garage storage is 50% off.

Oh, you want this grill for 20% off? Sorry, but that deal only applies to the pictured grill, and only if you have a pot of baked beans on the side burner. See, it's right here in the ad, sir.

to all of you that are saying "well, it was confusing, the manager should have honored it, or given an extra discount"...

Maybe the manager should have instead walked the customer over to the section that carries the hooked on phonics software, and offered to comp him a set.

Why is it no one can accept that they've read something wrong, and accept that they, and not the written word, are the problem?

Personal responsability? naaah...we don't know what that means here in the USA...gimme something free cuz it was confoozing.

@captadam:

actually, the grill pictured is marked down 80 dollars, not 20%. All the other grills are 20% off, as the ad specifically states.

Why is this so hard?

The only thing Sears can be accused of here is taking advantage of people who won't spend 10 seconds to read the ad. :/

"...accused Sears of deliberately making the ad ambiguous..."

The ad isn't ambiguous at all. It clearly says All and 50%. Any reasonable person would see it that way.

If Sears were on a mission to piss people off and run the company into the ground they couldn't do better than this.

Here's what I see: ALL GARAGE STORAGE ON SALE (tiny disclaimer) 50% OFF.

The tiny disclaimer does NOT act as a separation. Visually, it's there to modify the word sale, but it does not separate the first line from the second line. The phrase 50% OFF, the way it is positioned in the ad, modifies the word SALE.

The interpretation preferred by the manager, and by many commentators here, would group the very LARGE CAPITAL LETTER TYPE with the small type below to make the sentence "50% OFF Shown: UltiMate Wall Cabinet." That obviously makes no sense. To read it that way would be to disregard the pattern set up elsewhere in the ad. That pattern is LARGE CAPITAL LETTER HEADLINE > Small type name of pictured sample > Product number > Stated discount applied to price of shown sample.

@graymulligan:

Why is it no one can accept that they've read something wrong, and accept that they, and not the written word, are the problem?

Uhh...because the "written word" in this case is poorly written/laid out and easily misunderstood, maybe?

I can think of a lot of ways to make the ad umabiguous. They weren't done. The ad is ambiguous. You can't fault the reader if the writer wasn't careful enough!

It's pretty much a textbook example of the reason why pandas are opening fire in restaurants and not paying their bills.