are they allowed to do this?

tattycath

I went into WHSmiths today and bought a scrap book-there were blank labels over one corner of the book. I did try to peel one off unsuccessfully. I bought the book for £3.49. On arriving home i used the hairdryer to assist in peeling off the label-underneath the price said £2.99.
Are they allowed to cover a lower price and charge a higher one please?

bcl999

There used to be something about not being allowed to do it. They had to remove the previous price sticker if they increased the price. No idea about nowadays, I'm afraid.

pulliptears

Yes, of course they are allowed to do it! Prices increase, they are well within their rights to re-price both up and down.

Bongedone

They where not allowed to leave the lower price label on when I worked in retail but when the VAT went up from 15% to 17.5% ages ago they allowed it then. Maybe they let that rule stick

mo786uk

Yes they can increase the price - as long as they dont have 2 labels visibile which could confuse customers.

The VAT thing is slightly different in that businesses were given some time before they had to change all their labels after a VAT change.

geordieracer

They can also reduced the price by putting a sticker over the old price to you know - do you moan then?

DCFC79

A price increase has happened and to save time a new price was put over the top,

marleyboy

geordieracer wrote: »

They can also reduced the price by putting a sticker over the old price to you know - do you moan then?

Asking a relatively simple question of can they or cant they, is hardly what I would call a moan, Moaning about the OP's question on the other hand..............Definitely.

tattycath

Thank you-I used to work in retail and seem to remember there being a rule not allowing a more expensive label to be put over a cheaper price. i wondered if the same applied to blank labels and higher price charges. The original price was on the actual book -it wasn't a label.
Thank you for your replies x

flashg67

Apparently, the £2.99 price is already pre-printed onto the book, so short of ripping the corner off, there's not much alternative but to cover it up? WH Smith tell the assistants to cover the old price and are given blank labels to do this. The 'new' price is only shown on the shelf-edge strip.

hcb42

I would imagine that any "rules" in retail about not putting higher priced stickers on lower ones, is for the simple reason they could fall off!

Prices can rise at any time, there was no attempt to confuse