Retailer refused to sell goods because they wanted them for other customers

vyle

It's become quite a common practice now for smaller businesses (Even pound shops) to clear out stock of a particular item from their nearest competitor and to then re-sell it at a higher price. Perhaps the retailer thought you were doing that, so refused the sale on those grounds.

OlliesDad

It seems illogical that he would allow you to buy all the promotional stock. Promotional items are often heavily reduced (some even loss leaders) in order to get people in the shop to buy more normal priced items. If they sold all the reduced stock to a single person then they have just given away profit for no reason.

Alias_Omega

Was it on offer as part of a combo or advertised in a local leaflet?

I would imagine that maybe 1 in 5 customers might travel to that store to pick up the promotional item, where you have to cleared them all out.

However, if you had bought 3-4 then returned to buy 3-4 again on a different till (inc self service) i doubt it would have been noticed.

We had to till-hop when Mrs AO was using Tesco £5 off clothing vouchers. We split the clothing into piles that brought the totals over the amount.

Commonsense_2

This happens all the time as some shoppers turn up early buy 150 french sticks for the village fete or something similar. If the store manager lets them then no one else can buy that product for the rest of day.
All stores hold enough stock for a usual pattern of trade. If you want more than what would be considered normal then you should speak to the store manager in advance (most are happy for the extra trade) this can then be ordered for you.
My guess is that you feel put out because in your eyes you havent done anything illegal but havent once thought about how your behaviour would effect anyone else.
Im not even going to get into the fact that this happends quite a lot so that an individual can profiter from it by selling on the goods in some form at a later stage.

artbaron

dktreesea wrote: »

I took the whole incident to be the manager's way of saying "you don't belong in this area. This is Christmas, a time for Christians, not for the likes of you. P1ss off." to the guy who was with me.

Yes, that sounds likely. But fair dos, he was probably distracted by thoughts of what hood to wear at the impending works' Festive Klan meeting and didn't intend to be so brusque.

CharlieBilly

Me too I lost count how many times shelves have been empty of promotions too.

It puts me off going back to store if it happens regularly especially on needed items. I tend not to use that store for a while if I needed that item and none in stock, I dont want to have to buy all time buts n bob at different stores.

The stores can refuse to anyone if they so wish, they dont have to give a reason

pmduk wrote: »

I've been on the other side of this, left without bread because a local restaurant cleared the shelves of bread. 3 trolleys full. OP perhaps there'd been complaints about your mass buying?

missile

Seems OP is far too eager to play the discrimination card.

My sympathies are with the other customers, be they black, white or green eyed martians who would be deprived of the discounted goods if OP and his friend were permitted to clear the shelves.

Similar thing makes my blood boil, is when I see shoppers waiting to hoover up all the discounted food stuff near sell by date will be discounted.

NeverInDebt

Say you go to supermarket and want to buy xxx only to find its out of stock. When you ask member of staff or manager you get told some one bought the whole lot 20 minutes ago so deprives you of that deal so you have to go else where

I can see many customers being annoyed and some taking business else where in future because that person has now inconvenienced them

You have not been discriminated. The shop can sell whatever they want within reason when they want to whoever they are and whatever cost provided its not any more than advertised

dktreesea wrote: »

Say you go into a supermarket and load up the trolley with 20 jars of coffee, or 100 packs of soft drinks, simply because the item is a good price. If the retailer doesn't advertise any restrictions, can they refuse to sell to you once you reach the till on the basis that they want to keep the items in question for their other customers?

Is that discrimination, or is the retailer within his or her rights to impose any restriction they choose, and maybe only targeted at you and not others, even if they haven't advertised any such restriction?

unholyangel

Call me cynical but somehow I Just knew the racial discrimination card was going to be played.

Being discriminated against and being chinese (for example) isnt necessarily illegal. Now if you're discriminated against because of the fact you're chinese, then yes it is illegal.

But the only thing thats happened here is that the shop have been trying to satisfy a larger % of their customer base by not allowing people to bulk buy and thus ensuring customers have a better chance of getting the special offers they run. There have been lots of threads on this site with people complaining about there being special offers but their supermarket sold out.

I mean given your other nearest shop that sells the item you need is 20-30 miles away, your friend has probably shopped there before right? So given the manager is quite obviously (to you anyway) a racist......he must have turned down your friend every time he's tried to shop there before right? No? Then 99.9% likely you're just overreacting and guilty of discrimination yourself.

TheSaint_2

Sounds like the op is the racist one.

Plus, if you dont mind the embarrassment caused when everyone stares at you as you fill an entire trolly from one shelf, you can stand the looks you get when the manager gets annoyed with your selfish behaviour and refuses to sell to you.

Merry Christmas