Madam,

I write this letter with a very heavy heart. It concerns a certain shop I will not name, with your permission please Madam Editor. It has a certain card programme that allows those who are a part of it to benefit from reduced prices.

When you get to the shelves, you see these amazing prices, reduced and just what you’re looking for.

Taking this product, you are sure that you will buy it at those prices, of course. Getting at the till, they simply ask you if you have this said card, and once you reply you don’t, they carry on with the transaction. They don’t tell you why they want the card, or even what it means to have the card. They don’t even tell you how not having the card means that you won’t be paying the discounted price, no, they don’t.

One day, I asked how one could be a part of the programme and the reply was so vague and without any intention for me to know or understand, at all. Apparently, one had to have a sophisticated phone to be able to register. Getting home, without really intending to, my eyes were shocked when they saw the till slip. The price charged was not the one I had seen, but the normal price without the discount. It then dawned on me that these prices had this card attached to them as I looked at their catalogue. In other words, only those who were part of this programme benefitted from these reduced prices.

My mind quickly went to a granny who did not understand these things. A granny who did not even have these kinds of phones they had told me about.

Never mind a granny, a lot of us today are unemployed and without these sophisticated phones. What then? Imagine buying that product with money you have to use for transport as well. You are sure that the change you will get will be enough for the bus fare you will have to pay, only to get to that moment when you have to pay and realise that your bus fare is not enough.

I admit that we should be more careful and aware, but come on. Chances are, a lot of us simply pay at the till, take the change and slips and place them in our pockets, without even counting or looking at anything.

Personally, I believe that this is unfair. It is unfair to the buyers. If prices are attached to some programme, then everyone should be able to be a part of that programme. The way the prices are advertised , it seems like a chance for everyone to benefit. What about the population that is not aware of this? Even worse, is how the tellers don’t bother to explain this to the buyer at the till. Not only just that, they themselves are not willing to help the buyer understand even when they show interest. I believe that every buyer should know and be made aware of the actual price they will pay. The registration and signing up process should be easy to know , understand and access by all; whether they have these sophisticated phones or not. Most importantly, they at least should be made aware that the price they saw only applies to a certain kind of buyers, and not everyone.

Madam, my heart was torn when I discovered this, at home, long after I had bought these products. Honestly, I decided then and there that I would no longer go to that shop because its prices were deceiving. If I had no choice but to go there, because other shops didn’t have what I was looking for, I would only buy products, which were not on special, but at regular prices.

My heart broke for the grannies who buy innocently without knowing the truth. I hope that the shop reconsiders this idea of the programme, really. It is most depressing.

When you get to the shelves, you see these amazing prices, reduced and just what you’re looking for.