I almost was.
I was at a wholesale grocery/we-sell-everything store, making notes of products and prices. Which, by the way, I've been doing for 3 days now, in bits and pieces. I made sure to stay out of the way of people who were shopping and employees who were stocking. More people than I expected asked me what I was doing these last few days, with some questions being, "Oh, doing inventory, huh?" "Do you work here?" (both customers) "Do you need any help? (No thank you, just checking prices and nutrition facts *smile*) "Oh ok, thought you were from [Other Wholesale Store Name]" "Do you need help finding something?" "Are you doing a project?" And then the one that just about got me ejected - "You are not allowed to do pricing here...you need to stop or leave."
I told this employee that I was almost done and would go when I was finished - she left me alone after that but was the one checking receipts at the door. Sigh. It makes me a little upset that they "don't allow pricing" - because I want to be a well-informed consumer. This "rule" (if it is indeed a policy) just reaffirms to me that warehouse wholesale prices may not indeed be the lowest around. When the quantities are so much larger, it's a little tougher to compare accurately. They do place the unit price on the signs, but this doesn't mean much if you don't pay attention to that in the grocery stores. (Especially when the grocery store unit price tag is printed about 2 mm high. To make sure that I purchase the best deal, I want to price foods I usually buy. Ugh. I guess it was my fault for going on a weekend when there are more employees around.
I just hope that this doesn't happen at the other two places I need to price too.
