I do grocery shopping online. I ordered the usual four rolls of toilet roll. The pack that came had “50% extra free”. Now I have a mountain of toilet roll in the bathroom. More is not always better.
The offer fails on two levels: I didn’t know I was getting 50% extra free and bought it anyway. That means they gave me more than they needed to to secure the sale. If I had seen the 50% extra free, I would have bought something else.
Similar strangeness often happens when buying clothes and shoes. I choose a shirt I like for what seems to me a reasonable price and decide to purchase. I get to the counter, declare my willingness to pay the marked price, and the assistant scans the barcode, only to announce a 20% discount that I hadn’t expected. Maybe they do it for the goodwill.
What, so you get to the counter and say “I want to buy this for the price on the rack over there. It may be the wrong price as I realise HQ may have reduced it but your staff here haven’t got round to changing the price label, but regardless I want to pay as much for this as I can and not make my money stretch any further by getting the benefit of any savings currently applying to this product”?
My advice? Take the fact that it costs less than you thought it was going to as a pleasant surprise like the rest of the population and go spend your saving on something else.
I think you missed my point: I was amused that the shops effectively do what you suggest I do (refuse money).