"up To Half Price" Offers

[angie55]

WH Smiths are currently running an offer on a whole display full of books (at least 4 shelves) with all those shelves marked as "up to half price". I took one of the books to the counter and the manager said it was full price. When I pointed out it was on a shelf with the offer, she said they were allowed to not offer any discount. Is this correct? Surely it is misleading at best. Otherwise why don't they have "up to half price" against every book in the store.

[Prudie]

It is misleading but a common sales ploy. As long as there was at least one book on the shelf at half-price they're not really breaking any trading laws.

[Jackdaw33]

'Misleading' is putting it mildly. I would take it to mean that there is some kind of discount on every item, no matter how small that discount might be.

[hc4361]

Unless somebody just dumped the book on that shelf after they'd changed their mind about buying it

[zebo]

I have taken this up a number of times but for a different reason. If a price is "up to half price", then it is from 0 to 50%, a £20 item, should be from £0 to £10, not, as it usually means, for £10 to £20.

[whiskeryron]

What a pity it is misleading advertising, I have been looking for a copy of the book '' Half a Sixpence'' & seeing the WH Smith ad I thought I might pick it up
for Threepence.

[woofgang]

zebo is right. The phrase "up to half price" includes the figure zero!

[Netty7]

Surely you mean a penny ha'penny whiskeryron!

[Prudie]

the critical missing word is 'off' ie up to 50% off - which would include zero for full price.

[johnny37]

There should be a discount even if it only 1p. The whole question of bogus sales needs to be investigated. Im sure that retailers keep within the law but you can never believe them. Just look at Smiths pricing policy for print cartridges.. Waitrose get me. Its up to you to check. Amazon probably has your book at half price or less,

[sandyRoe]

whiskeryron, I'm sure I saw copies on Amazon for 3 farthings.

[Old_Geezer]

Only if it were on the half price shelf, Netty.

Yeah I agree with Prudie, 0% is up to 50%. In common English language use the phrase merely informs there is nothing on the shelf that is priced more than 50% off the usual price, pretty meaningless to customers. I'm unsure about legally, but I'd not hold your breath. It certainly implies a discount which if not there is sharp practice at best (unless a customer had misplaced the book on the wrong shelf after looking at it).

[zebo]

Prices advertised as "up to 50%" and "up to 50% off" are two quite different things, not simply the word "off" omitted, I don't think retailers are so careless, simply devious!

[Peter Pedant]

the short answer is that you cant force them to sell at the price ( invitation to treat ) but you can complain to trading standards

[angie55]

Thanks for all your replies. I think it is a very unfair ploy that they are allowed to get away with. There were about 3 books on the shelves that had discounts out of approx. 50 books, so I suppose that meets the criteria. I think I might mention it to my local Trading Standards office. I would use Amazon as I know it would be cheaper but my son wants a pristine copy so I like to pick and choose.