Dana Bell

I came across this help wanted ad in the Tyler Paper today.

Our365 has an opening for a strong sales & customer service oriented person to take babies' first official photos at Trinity - Mother Frances Hospital...

The wording on the ad caught my attention and two questions popped into my head.
What makes these photos official?
Are parents and relatives allowed to take photos at Trinity Mother Frances?

Theatres all but prohibit customers from bringing in refreshments so they can sell their overpriced popcorn, candy and soft drinks.
Are the hospitals going to start limiting photos to those that are taken by the official hospital photographer?

Then a third question comes to mind. How much are they going to charge? In this digital photography age, photos are easy to take. Good photos require a little more expertise. Unfortunately, there are many photography chains that replace expertise with workflow in a captive market. The basic package is reasonable. Anything else is exorbitant.

In any captive market, clients are very often pressured and overcharged. I've visited a number of photographers that hold their clients hostage, playing one family member against another with low quality photos that were taken by minimum wage workers at places like Wal-mart. The customer is very often on the losing end.

The best thing is to not play the game. Just stay away.

Do you check your register receipt?

Last week I decided to use my $25 project discount card at Lowe's to get materials to install new gutters. I made my list, checked it twice, got the pricing directly from the Lowe's shelves and headed down to the store.

I loaded everything up and went through the register. The prices seemed a little high so I checked one of the higher priced items, and it was different from what I had researched. The more I checked, I found that everything on my list had higher prices.

After talking to several people in the store, they found that the prices had changed but the store wasn't notified. They decided to honor the posted prices and after an hour, I was out the door. That simple check saved me $45, more than 15% on the final bill.

I have seen price variances from other stores, but not on that many items. Some variances are due to cross-posting prices on two different items. You are more likely to buy an item that appears to be a good deal than to buy an apparently overpriced item.

With indiscriminate use of price scanners, cheap retail labor, and the tendency to trust computerized pricing, there's really no telling how much more you are paying for stuff. Add to that the trend toward "price with card" advertising, and you may be losing a lot more.

Next time you shop, spot check your register receipt. Especially if you are going to Lowe's...