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LCBO and their "sales"

This forum is for discussing everything beer retail: LCBO, Beer Store, Grocery Stores and Indie Stores.

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skootles
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LCBO and their "sales"

Post by skootles »

I noticed something kind of interesting this morning when I checked my twitter feed. I follow @LCBOWatch on Twitter, and they tweet whenever there are new beer/cider releases or price changes to existing LCBO products.

This morning I saw a flood of [SALE] tweets from them. Looks like the LCBO marked down a bunch of ciders and beers.

Image

I continued scrolling through the tweets, and I saw a whole bunch of [PRICE INCREASE] ones from earlier. As I read through them, I noticed that they were for the same products that were marked as on sale.

Image

So if the data is to be believed, then it looks like the LCBO marked up the prices for a whole bunch of product, then immediately lowered the price by the same amount and is calling it a sale (and sure enough if you go to the LCBO product page for those products, they show the higher price and then the new 'on sale' price). I thought that was illegal, or is that just a myth that always comes out around Boxing Day?

Now granted, I'm not the one who runs that twitter account so I'm not sure how or where exactly they're getting their data but I thought I'd share nonetheless. Thoughts?
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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

I'm guessing illegal only if it was the LCBO's intent to make it look like a discount. I bet this was the result of a mistake and a correction.
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skootles
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Post by skootles »

I think the pages for those products are making it look like it's on sale.

For example, that Somersby Citrus Cider used to be $3.00, but they raised it to $3.20 before dropping it back down to $3.00. Now the page says "Was $3.20" on it.
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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

It isn't like they're systems geniuses, maybe give them a heads up in case it's not an evil plot.
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skootles
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Post by skootles »

Heh, yeah, web presence seems to be one of their weaknesses.

It looks like it was a glitch or something else because they've all been updated with actual discounted prices now.
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dale cannon
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Post by dale cannon »

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
That's the way she goes. Sometimes she goes, sometimes it doesn't. She didn't go. That's the way she goes.
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JerCraigs
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Post by JerCraigs »

Pretty sure price changes are set by the producer/distributor. LCBO system is probably automated and updates to reflect changes accordingly.
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