Have you ever seen something on sale, picked it up and bought it along with your other purchases without double checking the price at the register? Then once you get home, you check your bill, and you notice it wasn’t rung through at the sale price. Grrr!
There is some protection for you as a consumer that you may not know about. The Scanner Price Accuracy Voluntary Code is a code of practice that evolved from the collaborative efforts of the Retail Council of Canada and a number of Canadian associations and distributor groups to maintain accurate scanner pricing.
More commonly known as the Scanning Code of Practice, or SCOP, knowing about this code can save you money and in some instances, can get you free product. You can get the full details of this code by clicking HERE. For the Coles Notes version, I will explain.
If you purchase an item in one of the participating stores and it rings through as higher than the price on the shelf, then you get it at a discount. If the item is over $10, then you get $10 off the ‘corrected’ price. If the item is under $10, you get that item for FREE. If you are buying more than one of the item, then the discount applies to the first item, and all items after that will be scanned in at the correct price. The product must match the product description on the corresponding shelf tag for the discount to apply.
Most major retailers participate in SCOP, but not all do. Check the list of participating retailers by clicking HERE.
Warning: not all cashiers know about SCOP and you may get some that refuse to give you an item for free. Be polite as possible and either ask for confirmation from a manager, or take the item to Customer Service and get it applied there (then kindly ask them to train their staff on SCOP so that it doesn’t happen again).
I didn't know about this! It's really helpful too. I've had the sad experience of paying for something full price when the item was on sale. It can be frustrating! Thanks for posting this very useful information, if only I had known about SCOP beforehand :)