But, Hey, Free Potatoes!

I stopped by the grocery store on my way home yesterday and picked up a few things: onions, scallions, peppers, tomatoes . . . and red potatoes that were on sale. When I got home I realized the cashier had charged me the full price for the potatoes.

Now, this is not a big thing. It's happened before and I just let it go because occasionally they'll make a mistake in my favor and I figure it all balances out in the end. Besides, I'd spend more in gasoline than I'd recoup by going back to the store to fix it.

Today, however, I realized I had to go right past the store on another errand anyway, so I stopped in at the service desk. The young woman behind the counter was very pleasant, checked my receipt, and proceeded to refund the full purchase price of the potatoes. At first I thought she'd misheard me and I explained again that I had indeed bought the spuds in question and was only interested in the difference between the advertised price and the actual charge. And she explained that, yes, she understood but it was company policy: if they screw up the item is free. I was not aware of this policy.

So I got triple back what I expected (or, in my opinion, deserved) plus the potatoes.

I realize someone at corporate made an explicit, hard-nosed calculation and decided the good will and loyalty generated by this policy is worth the expense (and they're right. It works!), but I still feel kind of bad about even bringing it up with them and a little guilty now about the times I never said anything when the mistakes worked to my advantage.

Nicely played, Publix.