I feel like there is hardly a week in my life that I do not encounter some sort of nickeling and diming situation while attempting to purchase something.
There always seems to be some sort of hidden fee, fine print, intentional shortchanging or even flat out deception in an attempt to cash grab from shoppers.
For as long as humans have been selling goods and services to other humans, I’m sure there have always been those who will do anything to make a buck. But it feels like recently a remarkable amount of businesses seem to intentionally be getting in on some sort of grift.
For example, this past fall, I was at a store that had a large display of sandals with a sign advertising “All summer shoes 50 percent off.”
I was grabbing several pairs for my toddler to wear next summer when something about the sign caught my eye. At the bottom of the sign in about size two font was a disclaimer that the clearance price “Does not apply to sandals.”
I started fuming. What shoes are even “summer shoes” besides sandals? And why put the ad on a display of sandals unless you were hoping to trick customers into thinking they were getting a good deal when they weren’t? I grumpily put the shoes back and continued shopping.
On the next aisle over, I saw an endcap of boxes of cereal with a sign advertising four boxes of cereal for $8, which was a pretty good deal. Still feeling wary, I checked the advertisement top to bottom and front to back. No asterisks, no fine print. Great. I put four boxes in my cart. When I got up to the front, my total rang up much higher than I expected. I asked the cashier to verify the sale on cereal had been applied.
“That deal only counts on Kellogg’s cereal. Two of these are General Mills brand,” the cashier said.
I objected that those details were not on the posted advertisement and that I had gotten every box from the endcap where the sale sign was. In an irritated tone, she informed me that I needed to download the store’s app to see the restrictions on the sale.
It seemed like the store was just hoping shoppers wouldn’t notice that they weren’t getting the sale until it was too late. I asked the cashier to remove the cereal from my purchase and have not returned to the store.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
The nickeling and diming is not limited to retail purchases.
Recently, I found out a play I’m interested in seeing was coming to a theater in St. Louis. I looked at ticket prices on the theater’s website and could hardly believe my eyes. The cheapest ticket was $59 and had a $12 “convenience fee” added on top of each ticket at purchase. It was more than 20 percent of the ticket price! Oh, yes, how convenient for me for this theater to allow me to purchase the tickets they have for sale.
Out of curiosity, I looked to see what my in-person purchase options were so I could avoid the fee. Of course, their box office is open for about 11 minutes at midnight on the sixth Thursday of each month. So good luck purchasing the tickets in person.
If you’re wondering, the convenience fee is not a flat fee for all tickets. If you are in the market for nicer tickets, apparently you will receive even more “convenience” while making your purchase. A ticket front and center will cost you $229 with an added $46 convenience fee per ticket.
Paying a convenience fee while making an online purchase which requires no human customer service feels like I might as well just be throwing money straight into the void. I did end up purchasing the tickets, but I can’t imagine making a habit of going back for other shows.
Even mom and pop shops aren’t immune to getting in on nickeling and diming. A few months ago, I stopped by a local drink shop and decided to get myself a small treat without breaking the bank. I saw lemonade priced on their menu for $3 but saw I could add a flavor for 50 cents more. I asked for lavender lemonade, and the barista informed me that my total was over five and a half bucks.
I asked her why the total was so high when it should have been less than $4 with tax. She told me the flavoring is 50 cents per pump and my drink required four pumps of flavor, so it was an extra $2 for lavender flavoring.
I shut my mouth and paid for what I ordered, but that was the last straw for me with that drink shop. The business lost hundreds of dollars in future sales from me to get $1.50 one time. It doesn’t seem like a smart business move to me.
Heck, it feels like I can’t even stay home and read a book without somebody trying to nickel and dime me.
I recently purchased a new lamp for my reading space. I was excited to plug it in and use it right away. I got it out of the box, only to find that there was no way to plug my new lamp into the wall. It came with a USB cord and nothing else. I had to go online to make a secondary purchase of a USB power plug adapter simply to turn on the product that I had already purchased.
Call me old fashioned, but I think if you buy a product, it should come with everything needed to turn on the dang product.
Here’s my two cents on the subject of nickeling and diming: I shouldn’t have to feel like I’m guarding my pocketbook from cash grabs at every turn while making normal everyday purchases. Is that really too much to ask?