Don’t Love...

Don’t Love To Shop Here

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t cease to amaze me how companies bank on the stupidity of the public at large to sell products and convince the large majority that they are doing the right thing. Case in point: the grocery company Publix which is probably the largest grocery chain in Florida; they have come up as of late with a new slogan: “Love to shop here, Love to save here” when nothing can be further from the truth. I live in Miami Beach and about the only supermarket available near me is Publix, and I have been told, that they have a deal with the city of Miami Beach that asserts them as the only supermarket chain allowed to operate in Miami Beach; I wonder which “honest” politician was the one that consented to that deal and how much money must have gone into his/her pocket. Well, that is an assumption, I don’t know for sure if that’s the case, but it is very peculiar that on a stretch of land ten miles long by less than half a mile wide there is at least six stores and all belonging to the same company. Strange indeed!

Anyway, back to the argument, every time I get their flyer (Publix), I see offers they have for the week and invariably I find that their prices on the things they claim to have on sale are in the vicinity of twice as high as the exact same product at Wal-Mart. Now, I know that Wal-Mart makes a good profit on their merchandise; so my question to Publix is: Why are you overcharging so much for your goods?

But if you think that is my beef, you are mistaken; it goes deeper than that for you see, in several occasions I have gone to Publix and I have been overcharged for clearly marked items and it seems to me that if it were a mistake, then on average on the same amount of occasions I would be undercharged, but not once has that been the case. Another thing is that either their assistant managers are lazy and don’t do their jobs efficiently or they don’t do their jobs correctly on purpose; this is what I mean: Say this week they have a buy one get one free deal (which like I said it’s twice as much as Wal-Mart’s regular price) and they stick these stickers on the items like for example, the bread. The sale ends and the bread packages left unsold, not only the sale stickers are not removed, but now you are buying old bread, and when you get to the register, they want to charge you regular price for old bread that is marked “buy one get one free” and when you bring it to their attention, the first words out of their mouths is: “someone must have put that sticker on” implying the shopper did it, like if we went shopping with their stickers in our pockets, then they insist that the register has the right price, as if I were stupid, I can see what the register is showing, and finally after you show your exasperation, then they call their manager over to discuss the matter and the managers here on the beach Publixs are all the same, nasty, uneducated individuals that are only looking out for their weekly bonuses and reluctant to give you the price that is legally right for it is what is advertised in the store. It is not my fault, nor any of the other shoppers in the store that someone didn’t do their job and remove the expired sale stickers from the items. This scenario has occurred seven times to me in the Publix stores in Miami Beach.

But this is not what this is about, it is about their jingle: “Love to shop here, Love to save here”. Most people actually believe this is true because it is what they see and hear on television and radio. How stupid can consumers be? Even when you point it out in item after item, people insist that they are getting a good deal from Publix. Myself, if I need something in an emergency type of a situation, then I go to Publix, otherwise I wait until I have to do my weekly shopping and go to Wal-Mart and even now that gas is so expensive, after adding the price of gas, I still save money traveling fifteen miles each way to do my grocery shopping.

I do not love to shop at Publix because I am not treated with respect, and if I am not vigilant, I am overcharged almost every single time I shop there. If more people paid attention to what they are being charged every time they do their shopping, they would realize how they are systematically being robbed. Publix banks in my opinion, on the absolute fact that consumers trust the institutions with which they are doing business and don’t check their receipt nor pay attention as items are being charged. It’s the “let me rob you in front of your face so you can’t/won’t notice it” type of system.

Now, if you think I am accusing Publix of dishonest dealings, I am not. I cannot prove in any way, shape or form that they intentionally do this illegal undertakings, I am just pointing out what experiences I have had when shopping at the Publix supermarkets here in Miami Beach and I am stating my personal points of view regarding the matters at hand.

Jorge