Yesterday, on April 20, which is celebrated as a sort of marijuana day, I saw an incredible deal at one of my local marijuana stores—a gram for three dollars.
Being a reasonable person, I immediately bought 2 grams through their website. However, when I went in to pick up my weed, I learned that this was a classic bait and switch. The clerk told me that they don't have any more of that product, and as I'm about to say that I will take something else as a replacement, the clerk says something like “you want to buy something else?”
To me, this is a classic bait and switch. The intention of a bait and switch is to use ads to get customers into the store, then tell them that the product is sold out… but while you're here, why not buy something else? There is an uncomfortable pressure to purchase something, given that the customer is already in the store. But the reality is that the buyer is the victim and the store the victimizer. When I saw the deal online I thought wow, this is an incredibly good marijuana-day celebration—selling two grams for under three dollars each, plus taxes. Wow!
But no, the ad was the bait. When I got to the store I was asked, to paraphrase, “What can we get you to switch to that will, by the way, cost substantially more?”
I left without buying anything, letting them know that I was unhappy with what they had done. Today, 4/21, I again clicked on their website. They have taken down that specific ad, but there is more evidence that they are deceitful. Today there are two likely bait and switch ads, one for the ridiculous price of a penny per gram and the other for $2.71 per gram. (I made screen captures of the pertinent info.)
Bait and switch. How disappointing that I feel compelled to warn buyers about a local business, where I had made purchases three times in the past.
Oh. And as if that wasn’t enough, yesterday the clerk went on to tell me that even if they weren’t out of that specific product, I would have had to at least buy a 1/2 ounce—14 ounces—to get that price. Again, no offer was made for me to get another product at that price. The “pressure” was only that I needed to buy something else for more money.
Maybe I’m somehow wrong, but I know that I will never buy from Bacco Farms again, and I feel it’s necessary to warn the public.