Supermarket and Liquor Scanning Practice - Possibility for freebies/discounts

As a former Liquorland and Coles employee I thought I'd shed to light some information that is seemingly not well known from what I've seen reading other threads.

Firstly, Coles and Woolworths are signatories of a little thing called the scanning code of practice. Whilst this code is voluntary, the supermarkets DO follow it (see: http://www.anra.com.au/Scanning%20Code%20of%20Practice%20for…).

Essentially what this means, is that if your item scans at a higher price than the ticket price, you get it for free (it only applies to the first item that scans wrong in each transaction though). So, if you're looking for free food or any other supermarket good, make sure you note the price before heading to the checkout. The easiest way to get free food is benefiting from lazy staff who haven't taken the previous weeks 'specials' tickets down. Wednesdays are best for this, as it is the first day of new specials. I've gotten countless free products from doing this and you are quite within your rights to ask for it too, even if the staff seem begrudging they should be well aware of this or will find someone that does know about it. There is even a button on their screen for free items due to scanning errors.

As a previous Liquorland employee this code is NOT applicable to liquor or tobacco purchases as some customers have told me, BUT Liquorland does have its own scanning practice. If your item scans at a higher price than the ticket price, you are entitled to that item at the ticket press LESS a 10% discount. Staff will usually try and give it to you at the ticket price and you may feel satisfied with this but also note that you should push for them to give you the discount as well. In my time there only one person was ever aware that this was the practice. Obviously this is dependant on staff missing specials tickets, or prices being incorrectly set so it involves an element of luck and dependence on lazy staff. In my experience, the smaller stores that get less traffic are more likely to be slow changing tickets.

Hope this has helped some people and provided a bit of clarification :)

Comments

  • Thanks for this mate.

  • No worries :)

  • Does the scanning code also apply to online orders? If Woolworths have an item on sale in the catalogue then should it also be the sale price online or do you get it free?

    • I doubt it. Like most online stores, it's seperate to instore prices and offers most of the time.

    • Does the scanning code also apply to online orders?

      no

      If Woolworths have an item on sale in the catalogue then should it also be the sale price online

      yes

      or do you get it free?

      no

  • -1

    Hasn't this been covered before? https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/134413

  • That will never work in Dan Murphy's. They'd go broke in a day lol.

    (former employee of Dan's here).

  • What about items that had a discount? I bought a bag of chocolate eggs they had a sign up saying 25% off but when I got home and checked the receipt, it didn't have the discount applied. I rang Woolies and the customer service assistant said they had forgotten to take down the signs , as the deal had ended the day before, they honoured the 25% discount but I didn't get the item for free. Was that the correct procedure?

    • You should have gotten the item for free. They don't like doing it and will often just override the price as usually this will satisfy people that aren't aware of the scanning practice.

      • +1

        Thanks! Will utilize this new intel for future purchases, no more nice guy (lady)! bring on the freebies!!!

  • Liquorland does have its own scanning practice. If your item scans at a higher price than the ticket price, you are entitled to that item at the ticket press LESS a 10% discount.

    thanks - where is this official policy?

    • +1

      I don't think it's published anywhere but I can confirm as a former worker we have a button similar to the one that appears on the Coles POS screens when you price override, it asks for a reason. One of the options is 'wrong ticket price' if you click that it deducts 10% further off the overridden price. When I was trained we were told that while it was company policy, we should just select another option so the customer didn't get any further reduction in price. Cheeky bastards!

  • -2

    If you're a real Ozb, head along when there is a sale on, hide a sale tag and head back when the sale is over and replace it. Free!

    • +2

      To be a real ozbargainer you have to commit fraud?

      • Yes

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