Getting over charged at the grocery store
Now that I am not working a “normal” job I like to do my grocery shopping early in the morning during the week. Typically there are only a couple of other cars in the parking lot when I pull up which is just awesome. I hate going to the grocery store in the evenings or on weekends as it seems that it is more of an obstacle course when there are more people there.
The bad thing about doing my shopping at this time is that I have to do it by myself. (That also means that I have to carry everything inside!) So, I do not get the chance to be as diligent as I like as the register. Specifically, I am not able to catch them when something rings up wrong. Bummer.
Today I got home and checked my receipt against the prices I had written down in the store. Yes, I am the anal person you see with the calculator at the store. Anyways, I got three different kinds of bread and all three of them rang up incorrectly. The total amount I was over charged was $1.30. Now the question becomes it is worthwhile to drive back to the store?
That is when a little simple math comes in handy.
The store is 5.1 miles away, making the round trip 10.2 miles. My car gets 34 miles to a gallon. So, it would take 0.3 of a gallon to get there and back. The cost of gas here is presently $3.89 a gallon. That means it would cost me $1.18 in gas to get there and back. However- it is super windy here today so I suspect with the whole wind resistance thing that it would cost slightly more. Regardless, it would cost me at least $1.18 to get back $1.30 leaving a net profit of only $0.12. If I add in the fact that the little coupon thingie at the register spit out a “save $5 on your next shopping trip” then it makes it slightly better.
But still, I am not happy about the fact that I was over charged because one of those packs of bread I would not have bought if the tag had said $2.99 as opposed to $2.29. Of course, what I should have done was checked the receipt in the parking lot.
Since it would not be all that cost effective for me to drive back there, I think I will shoot them off an email. Maybe something will come of that.
How do you decide when to go back to the grocery store when you get overcharged? Or do you always remember to check your receipts before leaving the lot?
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