Pissed...At Sheng Siong

Was at Sheng Siong (at Ten-Mile Junction) just a while ago. Was trying to see the price of some items, and taking notes of their prices on a small piece of paper.

After a while, a male staff came over to tell me that I am not allowed to copy the prices. That his manager has given instructions. That I can see, compare, but not copy. If I disagree, I will have to see the manager.

WTF !

What are they afraid of ? Competitors ? I am sure their competitors would have better ways to get their prices and more discreet.

And so what if competitors copy their prices ? Ok, so you will want to make it difficult for them to get your prices. I will outline ways (below) to get prices FASTER than one person copying it down.

Are their prices not up for scrutiny ?

I have to depend on my memory ?
Well, I have short memory and cannot remember that what I want is available at Sheng Siong. So next time, I will forget to give my consumer dollar to you and buy somewhere else.

Next time I will :

(1) speak to my buddy, via a pair of 2-way radios, discreetly via earpiece.
- What ? I cannot bring these equipment in ? You will think it is a mobile phone anyway.

(2) speak into my handphone sound recorder as I browse the shelves.
- What ? I can't have my own recording device ? I am not taking photos of your shop ! I am recording my own speech! Cannot ah ? It is not illegal what?!?!

(3) call a friend, using my mobile phone, and check out the prices and read out the prices to my friend.
- What ? I am not the one taking notes. Why ? I cannot compare with my friend now is it ? I cannot ask my friends whether your price is cheaper or not ah ? You wanna ban the use of handphones in your shop ?


Other than the above methods that the competitors can check out the prices, competitors can also deploy the following methods :

(4) get receipts from customers who bought things that I am interested in.

(5) pick up discarded receipts to compile into a list. Computer with simple OCR can do a very fast job.

(6) get someone to wear audio and video bugging devices and just walk along the shelves without even doing anything except transmitting sounds and images to someone with a recording, sitting in a nearby vehicle.


Well, at least the staff was polite and half-smiling.