I am having a bit trouble deciding how ethical an idea I have is. So I figured why not take advice from an internet forum.

 

Walmart allows you to buy an item at one of their stores and return it to another store. I can buy something in Vermont and return it to a store in Maine. Nothing unethical about doing this as it is their policy.

 

But is it ethical to buy (5) 9472 Attack on Weathertop at one Walmart for $59.99 and return them to a Walmart that is sold out because they clearance them out for $30. Buy them legitimately and keep the receipt. The lower priced Walmart will give back the $59.99 each and then turn around and sell them for $30. Essentially it would be moving the inventory around the Walmart stores so they can be purchased for the lowest clearance price.

 

I can not put my finger on why this may be unethical, but it doesn't exactly seem right.

 

To Clarify:  I am not talking about buying clearance items and returning for higher prices at the same or different stores. That is clearly unethical and most likely illegal.

How do you ensure you are the one to grab them at the clearance price once you return them?  Wouldn't they go back on the shelf at normal price for a while at normal price or do they go straight to clearance?  And won't the rest of the public be able to grab them first?

 

If they are coming up in their system as a clearance price then the item with the same barcode is also going to ring up at the price. This happened to me a few times. I bought some monster fighter sets at my local walmart at 30% off and a month later got a bunch of them at 70% off. I took the ones that I had purchased a month earlier and returned them. Interestingly enough, I was able to ****** the sets out of the carts that they line up in the front store once the returns desk closed. I took them to the scanner and only the smaller sets were ringing up the 70% off and the larger sets rung up 30% off. I realized the reason why they rung up differently for me was the ones I bought 70% off had a different barcode due to the difference between the Glow-in-the-dark stickers and the non glow-in-the-dark stickers.

 

Also one of the Walmarts in my area had 6868 for $15 but they weren't clearanced, just marked wrong in their system. I tried buying another 6868 at another store and returned it to that store just to see what happened (mostly trying to understand how their system works). Just like it did in the other example the set I bought from the other store rung up the clearance price and they had to have a manager to override to give me back the money I paid on the receipt. I've revisited the store the next day and they did not put the set back on the shelf. There is a small chance someone bought it but considering I bought 7 others of the same set for $15 at the same walmart I can't imagine someone did. I think they sent it back. For kicks I took the barcode from the shelf and have been scanning it at all the walmarts I go to. Everwhere has rung up $50 except for that walmart is still ringing up $15 in their system as of yesterday