Double-Check Those Manager Special Price Tags!

Make sure you double-check your price tag on your meat purchases before you take them to the register!

On a recent trip to Food Lion, I saw that whole, cut-up chickens (whole fryers that had been split in half) were marked down to $0.58/lb, a fairly good deal in my book. I usually prefer to buy fryers when they are under $0.50/lb; however, I liked that they were split in half, which meant that they'd fit into my freezer better.

I did my usual hunting & pecking around to find the "perfect" package, and noticed that one packaged seemed to be priced a little lower than the majority. It was $2.65 for 4.91lbs, whereas most other packages were in the $3 range. I pulled out my calculator, plugged in the price, and saw that the price per pound was actually $0.54!


I thought to myself, "Wonder what else is priced for less?"

After some more hunting around, I found yet a 2nd price tag that was definitely, undeniably, lower than the rest. It read:

2.56lb for $1.48 total

Come again? $1.48 for this thing? The weight of this chicken didn't feel any less than the others. I just knew that the weight was incorrect. So I took it to the produce section and weighed it in a scale. The actual weight was about 4.75lb.

I weighed the other package of chicken, and it was right under 5 lbs. I knew then, for sure, that the package marked at 2.56lbs was incorrect. For an approximate weight of 4.75lb, and a price of $1.48, it was actually just $0.31/lb!!

And, would you believe, that I saw even mroe tags that were mismarked? I don't mean in favor of the customer--some prices were actually charging the customer more, up to $0.65/lb!! I did not elect to purchase any of those!

However, I did take my two packages to Customer Service, and informed the associate about the discrepancy on the price tags, the two that I had with me, which were actually cheaper than the sale of $0.58/lb, as well as the packages that I left in the meat department, that were marked higher than the sale.

The associate thanked me for bringing this to her attention. She agreed to honor the prices that were on my two packages that I chose to keep and indicated that she would have the manager correct the packages that were marked up too high.

It just goes to show that it PAYS to do the math, and double-check those prices tags! Whether on sale, manager's special, marked down, blue light special, or just plain ol' regular price, get out that calculator and verify price accuracy. You never know when you might get a better deal (or worse, when you might inadvertently get ripped off!).