What’s up with the one-cent Walmart price tag? The Daily Dot has reported on the phenomenon before; now, another customer has spotted the “discount” at another store.
Is the largest big box on the planet cutting prices to the bone? Has an employee gone rogue with a pricing gun? Or is there some other explanation for the unlikely discount?
TikToker Mimygotjokes (@mimygotjokes) is reporting seeing the one-cent Walmart price tag on a recent trip to the retailer. She posted her experience to her TikTok on Wednesday.
The video has over 18,400 views as of this writing.
Spotting the one-cent Walmart price tag
In her video, captioned, “I’m suing for emotional damage,” Mimy declares, “I’m about to really freak out because, promise, look at this,” she states, displaying a shelf price tag that reads “MS PERSONA BLEND DIS” that shows a one-cent Walmart price tag.
“This say one cent, right?” she says before showing another shelf tag featuring another blender that has a three-cent marking.
She then compares it to two other shelf price tags that read one dollar and then another that reads one cent.
“You see that, right?” she asks her viewers.
“So if I take this up there [presumably to the register] and then I scan it, and it’s not one cent, three cent, one dollar, can I sue Walmart?”
“Bro, this a scam,” she claims.
She then points out an out-of-box Ninja Creami on display on the shelf over a one-cent shelf sticker before comparing it to a Ninja Creami on the shelf below, listed as $149.
“This the same thing, right?” she asks.
Did she get the discount?
Mimy does not show herself taking any item to the register. She may simply have believed the price was too good to be true.
However, in February 2019, one Miami woman reported to NBC 6 South Florida that she experienced a similar situation.
Robin Puppo could not believe it when she discovered a vacuum on sale “at the Walmart near Sawgrass Mills Mall. She says the label under it read one cent.”
Puppo says the item rang up for its full price of $279. She claims that when she complained about the discrepancy, she was told, “I’m sorry, ma’am. That’s not going to happen.”
In an email statement to NBC 6, Walmart stated it was “aware of the situation and apologized for any misunderstanding the customer experience[d].”
What does the one-cent Walmart price tag mean?
There doesn’t appear to be any reason on its website for the one-cent Walmart price tag.
Others have attempted to explain the bizarre sticker in online forums.
In Reddit’s r/walmart forum, user whereisjackk posited, “The 1 cent labels are just for claims to be able to scan when the display is broken and needs to go away. It’s not a for sale price, it’s an identifier. The system won’t print out less than 1 cent, so that’s why it says 1 cent.”
User Khaose81 stated, “They are ‘Place holder’ tags and as the system is old and unable to generate a tag without a price, it defaults to 1c. The tag is for the display which is not for sale as it is a display asset.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Walmart via email for a statement.
@mimygotjokes I’m suing for emotional damage ##walmart##scam##trending##trendy ♬ original sound – Mimygotjokes
Does Walmart have to honor the price?
Viewer Ladii Nene Baebae (@ladiinenebihh0706) wrote, “They have to give it to you for that price.”
Mimy responded, “LITERALLY !” However, according to LocalSolicitors, this is not necessarily the case.
The company states, “If upon taking the product to the till the price turns out to be different to that which was advertised, the customer is not obliged to purchase the item and has no legal right to be sold the item at the lower advertised price. The shop may agree to honour the lower price, but they are not obliged to. If the mistake is noticed when you go to pay for the item, the seller has the right to refuse to take the wrongly advertised sum and withdraw the product from sale until they have remedied the error.”
Another viewer agreed that the price on the shelf wasn’t necessarily the real price. “That’s the ‘display’ price. Most people who do the resets don’t put those labels up! It is a label just to more or less tell the person resetting where the displays are to go!! Coming from a long-time reset person!”
“Lmaoooo the way you bout to get these people riled up bout display prices,” another viewer added.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Mimy via TikTok comment and direct message for further statement.
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