| > Usually the advertised price must be honored, because it may have brought the customer to your store. No. In most jurisdictions this is covered by Contract Law 101 that lawyers learn in year 1. A contract only forms when you have an offer, acceptance, consideration The price on the shelf (or shown on the website or in a catalogue) is known as an “Invitation To Treat”. “Invitation To Treat” means you are inviting the customer to come to you and make you an Offer. There is no obligation on the business to sell. In the case of a supermarket in the context of this discussion, the agent scans the barcode, and the "real" price is displayed on the screen and added to your bill. This is the "Offer", the business is saying "we are willing to sell you this Tomato at this price, take it or leave it". If you don't say anything and pay and leave, then "Acceptance" has occured and the "Consideration" is the act of payment itself. (N.B. IANAL, so my description might not be precicely textbook, but that's the broad concept). |
I don't know whether "usually" is accurate though; it may be that common law prevails as you say in most transactions despite the states with regulations.