Cam needed a wet-dry vac and decided to shop Sears, as he’s had agreeable shopping experiences with them in the past. He went online and found they had a 9 gallon vacuum on sale for $49.99, which was $10 down from the regular price. Blithe confidence in the retailer’s ability to honor the same price, he waltzed on over (if you’ve never seen 6 cylinders doing 3/4 time, it’s truly a sight to behold) to his local Sear’s store. He writes:

“I was greeted by a friendly, but less-than-helpful employee, to which I explained that I would like this particular vacuum if he could honor the Sears.com price.

“Naw, sorry man.”
“Why not? It’s on your website for $49.99. Just pull up the site and correct the price for me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“You know, it’s like, I can get a DVD for cheaper online too, right?”
“No, you don’t understand. This is Sears’ website. Sears.com. I could have ordered it before I left and picked it up for $10 less.”
“Yeah, I know man.”
“Ok, so I’m going to go home, buy this vacuum for $10 less, and I’ll be back here in half an hour to pick it up since you can’t discount it for me.”
“Alright.”

So I did. I drove home, paid for it online, selected “Pick up in store,” printed my receipt, drove back, and within half an hour of when I was originally in the store, I had my vacuum for $49.99 + gas money. I guess the moral of the story is never to assume that employees will be logical. From now on I’ll just expect that nobody that works at Sears knows that there even is a Sears.com.”

Naw man, sorry, we don’t have that… try Roebuck. Or Co, even.

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