An LA Times consumers affair writer named David Lazarus has written numerous articles about one of the major drug chains, mostly not flattering.  Not sure if he used to work there, has a personal grudge or what, but he sure loves to write about them.

This article is about how they offer a discount to some customers but due to how their system classifies “Sale” items the discount often isn’t worth much.   Employees will tell you how upset customers are when they find out about it at the register.  Employees will also tell you that if you’re an employee using your  employee purchase discount, it also affects you because you won’t get any discount if the item is in the ad for “Buy 1 get 1 50% off.”   Since the ad often features a lot of those offers (especially private label items),if you don’t want or can’t afford to buy 2 you’re paying full price as well.

Back in the day at Longs we got a GREAT discount, cost+10% or sale price, whichever was less.  It cost the company some profit but it showed they cared about their employees and it was a worthwhile investment to improve morale and retention.

You can read the full article here:

Don’t make a nifty-sounding promise and then renege when the customer tries to cash in.