Mobile phones (Cell phones in US speak) and the 'Why don't you use the app?'

[KitaYama]

Well, now I see where all the problems come from. Here, when there's a sale or for some reason there's a difference with prices, they put a new barcode OVER the previous barcode. It's the only way we can see the difference.
I think these images give you a better understanding.

As you see, it's how we understand there's a discount. And when we take the item to the cashier, There's no possible way the barcode is different. Because the previous barcode is under the discount barcode.

In the same shelf, there's always some items with discount, some are not. (Because of expiration date or expiry date)
So if you want a discount, you take the yellow tags.
Yellow tag means discount. Not yellow, it's normal. You don't need to check the shelf price .
AND
if the discount is because of the expiration date, you have only two days. Be quick in consuming it.

 

[KitaYama]

When I've tilled out I expect that the total is the same as I've totalled in my head as a little test.

@Cotswold You have a talent for math. Please let me give a rest to my brain's cells at least when I'm shopping. I just want to enjoy that 10 minutes and be away of my job,

As a note to all, recent DIGITAL life, has new and good benefits. Shopping cart comes with a check out system. The moment you put something in your cart, your monitor on the cart shows the price of the item you added, and the total price of items in the cart. So you know if the barcode on the item match the shelf price (which is impossible not to be, because of how the sales are controlled per my above images).

 

[KitaYama]

Two problems here - an item can more than one shelf price in UK(for instance if you are using a Loyalty Card) and in the USA, the shelf price is normally pre-tax so it's not what you pay at the till anyway (usage and tax rates vary by state).

Here, showing the pre-tax and after-tax prices on the barcode is the law.
Your shop will be closed if you don't have both prices. Anything. From 1 yen up to when you buy a house.

You can also see above images.

 

[KitaYama]

@all you are missing/underplaying the Japanese culture. Mistakes are unacceptable historically so to accept a barcode scan is normal. If it's wrong then someone notices/confesses and the customer is compensated.

Aside from your phone being snatched while unlocked (common in big cities in the UK) you really don't have much to worry about.

Scams themselves are a different matter and mostly the old adage of "if it's too good to be true" should be everyone's starting point. Unfortunately greed often overrides caution.

I think there's another side to this story. We simply are afraid to be blamed for a mistake. We have a saying here. "A customer is THE God".
So shops and manufacturers do anything to satisfy the customers. You do a mistake as a head of a shop, I will never go to that store again. End of story.
So keeping customers satisfied, is the first rule of business. It's not only shops. It goes up to huge corporations like Hitachi, Toyota , ....

And if a staff makes a mistake and a customer is not satisfied, the blames goes to the staff. So everyone is just trying not to be blamed for a mistake.
This, brings layers and layers of precautions on staff jobs.
Also, Anyone who stands as a staff of an organization, in some points becomes a customer in his/her normal life. So he, as a customer, has his own expectations. So when he stands as a staff, tries to understand, respect and response the customer's feeling. (I can't find suitable words. I hope I could write as good as some of you)

Foreigners call us robots in Instagram and X. Maybe they are correct. I'm not sure being a robot is a good habit or not.
But Personally, I, as a single part/unit of our company (can not find the suitable word for it), don't want to be blamed for a mistake. So I go over and over with different layers of tests to see if what I did today was correct.
During hundreds years of this behavior, respecting the other side has become a part of our nature. But if you dig up good, you'll see that actually we are only cowards, terrified of mistakes.

 

[KitaYama]

@all We have two types of expiration date here. I can't find the correct word. Can anyone help?

1- Shoumi Kigen : A date that the item is not as delicious as it's been advertised. It's not expired and doesn't make you sick. It MAY not be as delicious as you may think. Buy it on your own risk. (Taste is not guaranteed)
2- Shohi Kigen : A date that is past health guarantee. It MAY make you sick if you eat.

Any kind of food/drink or anything that goes into one's body has these two dates.
Google translate gives me Expiration date in both cases.

@DickyP Sorry for dragging your phone thread into another direction. Will never happen again. Promise.

 

[KitaYama]

knew a guy with a souvenir shop in a seaside town and all of the items in the window had a price ticket on them. Some would come in and ask the price and he'd add 50% and tell them that price. They'd then happily pay him and walk out with their overcharged souvenir.

From what you have said, maybe you were one of those souvenir shoppers who looked and didn't actually see?

Can I be frank with you here? To be honest, I don't care to be over-charged an item I purchase. I don't like to spend my whole life terrified if the 100 yen I just paid for a drink was really 100 or it was 90 and the shop cheated me. 10/100/1000 yen up and down has no effect in my life. I won't die because of an over-charged fee. I prefer to be in peace and believe the shop is honest rather than suspect everybody is trying cheating me.

I think "Let the shop over charge me, rather than I think he's a liar."
Yeah, I will pay the 50% up and will never say why.
I'm exactly one of those fool shoppers you asked if I am.

I respect others and try to be honest with others and expect and believe they are honest too. If they are not, they have to live with their dirty self.

I just don't want to judge and suspect everyone, for the sins of a few.
Call me stupid, but it's what I am.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

We have two types of expiration date here.

In the USA there is at least one such date, but two dates? Rare.

We have the "best if used by" date (or simply "use by" date). However, sometimes there will be a second date as a note to the seller but not shown on the product itself, an "expired by" date. I don't recall ever seeing two dates but there are several code numbers that may have a hidden meaning. I don't think anyone wants to have a "don't sell after" date on public display. We aren't quite as error-averse as your culture. In a way it is good, because people CAN make mistakes. We're only human, last time I looked at it. It is also bad because there are "bad actors" who will make excuses to avoid liability for their gross negligence. Which is why the USA has the reputation of being lawsuit-happy. We do it because we NEED to hold some folks to task for their errors and wilful disregard for safety.

 

[Cotswold]

@Cotswold You have a talent for math. Please let me give a rest to my brain's cells at least when I'm shopping. I just want to enjoy that 10 minutes and be away of my job,

Supermarket shopping is simply a necessary but time wasting part of life, following a load of fat arses around the store. Doing the maths adds a little interest to the operation. But in the end I'm not very good at inactivity. So switching off isn't something I tend to do.

 

[ColinEssex]

In the UK, we have several dates. We have 'sell by' for fresh products like meat etc. We have 'use by' and 'best before'.
The yellow sticker indicates an item is 'reduced to clear' indicating it has reached its sell by date.
Col

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I have to admit I have gotten a few of the "Grandpa, it's me" calls. However, I usually shut them up by advising them that I happen to know where all of my grandsons live, and the caller ID that says "North Carolina state prison" isn't one of those places.

Once, a long time ago, I ran into a "confidence man" who managed to get $50 out of me and who then left before I realized what was going on. I learned a lesson about "sob stories" as we call them, when someone claims to be down on his luck, I take a more careful viewpoint.

 

[DickyP]

@DickyP Sorry for dragging your phone thread into another direction. Will never happen again. Promise.

Don't apologise - I personally am delighted you did - it has been a fascinating cultural exchange lesson. Anyway the thread was under Water Cooler so it's the sort of way these discussion around the watercolour go in real life.

 

[ColinEssex]

Never a week went buy that I didn't accept old, broken stuff for return - with a smile.

I think you mean 'Never a week went by. . . '
In the UK, no returns or refund without the receipt.

 

[Isaac]

Someone mentioned Japan, two of my close family members have been to Japan in the past few months and were quite surprised at how cash-centric the society is. I was very surprised to hear that, since I have an idea in my mind of Japanese people being very high-tech just in general (a bit generalization, I know). Both visitors were surprised to find out that cash was preferred in a majority of stores and most people still paid in cash - i.e. you really need cash to go 'round.

Here almost no one pays in cash except for elderly sometimes and sometimes in very lower economic areas, but your average line at the grocery store is just card - card - tap - card - tap - tap [maybe insert one cash here]

???

 

[Isaac]

I think you mean 'Never a week went by. . . '
In the UK, no returns or refund without the receipt.

Amazon (USA) has very generous return policies, I'm impressed. I hear they are about to tighten that, though

 

[KitaYama]

Both visitors were surprised to find out that cash was preferred in a majority of stores and most people still paid in cash

@Isaac I live in Kanto, a district that contains five prefectures. Tokyo and Yokohama are in this area.
During the past 5 years, I've never seen a shop, no matter how small it is, that doesn't accept digital payments. It's mostly because counting money at check-out wastes a lot of time. In each store, on entrance you will see something like this.

This is the available digital money that the shop accepts. Of course depending on shop these are different. But at least they offer more than 10 brands. The only thing that I can think of is, as I explained we have a specific way of paying digital money. And there's a good chance your friends just wanted to insert the card and think it's finished. This doesn't work here. I think it's why the shop has asked for cash.

Can you ask them which city and possibly if they remember which shop refused their card?
Ask them haven't they seen something like this

This may help. We actually have a war here.

The State of Cashless Payment Methods in Japan | Plus Alpha Digital

Cashless payment methods are currently one of the biggest topics in Japan and new contenders into the market are appearing one after another.

plusalphadigital.com

From Above link :

The QR Code Payment Wars​

All potential questions regarding QR payments in Japan aside, as the newest entrant to the cashless payment space, there is no shortage of companies who are eager to take this opportunity to enter the market.

Unlike in China, where there are basically two players for QR code payments—WeChat Pay and Alipay—in Japan there are numerous companies in the mobile payments space, which has created an incredibly fragmented and complex market. Two of the more prominent players in the QR code payment app market in Japan are PayPay and LINE Pay. Recently both services have taken an aggressive approach to gaining new users through high-profile campaigns.

 

[KitaYama]

This used to be the rule in the US also. My first job when I was in high school was for the retail giant of the era, Sears & Roebuck. They gave me a test which years later I realized was a psychological test to see if I was inclined to fight with the customers. At Sears, the customer was ALWAYS right. On Saturday I worked the counter in the catalog department. Never a week went buy that I didn't accept old, broken stuff for return - with a smile.

Is there any reason why it changed to what you have these days?
From what I see in youtube and Instagram, I will not survive a single day there.

 

[KitaYama]

I can't see the video. It is age restricted and I'm not creating an account.

We're not as scary as you and Collin seem to think we are

No, I didn't meant you're scary. I meant I don't want to go into an argument.

 

[KitaYama]

can't see the video. It is age restricted and I'm not creating an account.

In any app you use for video (Insta, X, FB, youtube, tiktok, duckduck....) search for something like "Fast food Breakout" , or "customer and shop fights" or anything like this.
You'll find thousands and thousands of fights. Watch any of them you like.

 

[KitaYama]

When we started letting the little "crimes" go unnoticed

I'm really interested to hear your digest on why "Flash mob robbery" is allowed and why it's always basketball people. But not here. I will start a thread on this. Let's keep this thread as it is.

maybe we are as scary as Collin and you think we are.

I've never thought you are scary. I'm only a timid, chicken-hearted guy with no self confidence. So a small argument or a quarrel, frightens me. I never meant what you interpreted of my comment. I'm sorry if I gave you a wrong impression.
Sometimes it's hard to find a suitable word. "To Survive" was the only thing that came on me.

 

[Cotswold]

Amazon (USA) has very generous return policies, I'm impressed. I hear they are about to tighten that, though

Definitely not my experience in England. I received a PC card reader that was DOA and Amazon point-blank refused to do anything about it.
That was now maybe eight years ago and I haven't dealt with them since and never will. I don't care if I need to pay double buying something at another supplier, I will never deal with Amazon and advise everyone else to do the same. From my experience Amazon totally ignored Sale of Goods act and came across as a bunch of chancers and rip-off merchants. There is nothing more expensive than something that doesn't work. To reiterate, never again as far as Amazon is concerned.
(edit=card was car !)