‘I feel like I just committed theft’: Shopper finds item on shelf priced at $3 instead of $30. What the manager does next shocks him

TikToker Ron Andronaco (@rja_fitness) came across a retail store manager with a particular set of morals when it comes to her job. While plenty of shoppers (and employees) are quick to share their negative experiences on social media, especially during the holiday season, Andronaco's tale is one where a customer ended up racking a huge win.

The TikToker says that he was shopping for a particular item at a particular store, but presumably kept it vague so as not to get the manager in question in any sort of trouble.

He says that while he expected to pay $30 for said item, the sticker price for this product, and others like it, indicated that the store he visited was only asking $3 for it. While he received some initial pushback from an employee, it appears that because he calmly and politely tried to see if he could get the item for the sticker price without being too pushy, the manager eventually forked it over to him.

The way he tells his story can be viewed as a master class in how to get on a retail manager's good side.

He begins, "I feel like I just committed theft. I went to the store to pick up a Christmas gift and I can't say where it was or what it was but I was expecting to spend at least $30 on this item. Go in, look at the item, it has a little sticker on it that says only $3 I was like: my lucky day! So I grabbed the item and me knowing that this could be a mistake, looked at all the other items of this same thing and they're all marked with the same sticker, only three dollars I was like, OK, cool."

Andronaco wasn't in the clear yet, however, and the product immediately rang up for around $30. Instead of just cutting his losses and saying it wasn't meant to be, he simply inquired about the sticker price.

"So I bring it up to the register, the guy rings it up and he's like it comes out to like $30 something odd dollars I was like oh no, but the sticker it says only three bucks. And he goes, 'Oh, you're right!'

"'This is like a new version of this like there's no way this is $3, I don't know if I can give this to you for $3,'" The TikToker recalls the employee telling him. "And I was like, 'OK, well, like is there like a manager that maybe could check it, just so like if other people are leaving with this for $3 I would like to be one of those people.'"

@rja_fitness What a fun trip! #humor #relatable #christmas #storytime ♬ original sound - Ron Andronaco

After waiting for the manager and explaining that if other shoppers were getting it for that price he didn't want to be left out in the cold, Andronaco was able to nail down that hefty discount. He says the worker called the manager over and she did something unexpected.

"So she goes, 'Just give it to him.' So they gave me the item for $3," Adronaco says. "I was like, 'For the record, all the other ones of this are also stickered only $3, you might wanna go fix that.' So she's like, 'Yep, will do.' And she just laughed it off but I just, so I just got like a 90% discount on my item so, um, yeah, loving it."

In a follow-up video, the TikToker revealed that the item was a book titled "Medusa's Sisters," and clarified that he kept it as a secret since it was a Christmas gift.

@rja_fitness Replying to @Victoria #greenscreen but thabks for the content ✌️ #humor #relatable #christmas ♬ original sound - Ron Andronaco

Judging from some of the comments of the original video, however, the manager may not have had a choice in the price matter. One person wrote, "By law they must honor it," while someone else said that when they worked in retail and came across a similar phenomenon, they needed to honor the sticker price even if it was incorrect.

"We had to do that when we worked retail," they wrote. "Honor the stickers price and then go change it once you realize the mistake."

Another person said they were able to get away with a cheap price for an item simply because a retail worker didn't care.

"Had a pair of pajamas ring up as a penny," a user commented. "Guy was like that’s not right. But really don’t care and put it in the bag."

Someone else added, "Yep! scanning code of conduct, if I remember correctly they are supposed to discount it as well I could be wrong (Canada)."

But are the TikTokers who swear by "sticker law" onto something when it comes to printing errors?

According to several outlets, there isn't a law in the United States that a retailer must honor the price featured on a sticker they've stuck to an item in its store. Chron's small business section writes in a piece, "In general, there's no law that requires companies to honor an advertised price if that price is wrong. Typographical errors, miscommunication and other glitches can result in items being offered at what appear to be deep discounts – discounts that would be ruinous for the company if it were forced to honor them."

This was further supported by a piece penned by local news outlet WFMyNews2, along with several other users who said more or less the same in a Quora piece asking the same question. However, the local news station does state that businesses will occasionally offer the amount indicated on the sticker as a courtesy to its shoppers.

And while many of the previous instances have purportedly occurred in physical retail locations, that doesn't mean online shoppers haven't been able to capitalize on pricing errors. One Redditor ordered a 5TB portable hard drive for just $38.22 in the window that it was available at this price point before it was corrected to its standard price of $133.60.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Andronaco via Instagram direct message.

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