WINNIPEG, MB –

Calls from upset shoppers clogged the CIPP-TV news tip line on Black Friday with complaints about “Buy one, get one 50% off” sales found at most major malls and retailers.

Portager, Lisa Mojelsky, uncovered the truth behind the recent retail-marketing ploy used to attract holiday bargain hunters.

“I saw the sales sign, so I went in to buy some shoes,” Lisa Mojelsky told CIPP-TV investigative reporters.  “It wasn’t until after I paid and got my receipt that I realized I had been taken.”

Mojelsky eventually noticed the items she purchased had a combined discount of only 25%.

“I knew I wouldn’t be getting 50% off my whole bill but I didn’t know it was going to be as low as 25% off,” Mojelsky said.  “25% off isn’t that great of a sale.  If people knew it was that low I bet they wouldn’t shop there.”

The practise of having sales that promise to discount prices only after another item has been purchased at regular price has been utilized by stores for a few years to lure unsuspecting shoppers.

Retailers maintain there is nothing illegal or misleading about the practice since the terms are clearly stated.  Shoppers like Mojelsky disagree and are demanding something be done about this type of sale.

“I’m not that great at math and a lot of people can’t do complicated math like that in their heads,” Mojelsky said of the calculations needed to determine the actual discount.  “I mean, they expect us to be able to do percentages and fractions in our heads.  It’s not like everyone carries a calculator with them,” Mojelsky said holding a smart phone.

“If a sign says I get 50% off that’s what I should get, I can’t be expected to do advanced math in a shopping mall.”

Representatives the mall insist they are not trying to mislead the public or take advantage of their limited math abilities and tenuous grasp of reality.  They expressed a prevailing sense of frustration over the public outcry and the general lack of intelligence among their patrons.

CIPP-TV polled fifty shoppers on Black Friday and found that only three were able to calculate the total actual discount of a “buy one, get 50% off (the second item)” sale.

“They can’t expect us to think on our own like that,” Mojelsky said.  “The government needs to help protect consumers and tax payers by doing the thinking for us and putting in regulations against “buy one get one 50% off sales.  They should be against the law.”

Neither level of government bothered to call us back on the issue as they were busy doing their Christmas shopping.

Notice to reader/disclaimer – click here to read more about the reality of this story and website being completely fictional and satire ridden.  We do not want to you to believe for a second that shoppers could be easily be taken advantage of or confused or duped by basic math.  Math is well taught in school and many Canadians are good at math.  Except accountants.  They are not good at math.  They are generally evil and not good at anything.  Except they like beans.  That is why they fart a lot.  Accountants are smelly.

Photo Credit -Zoetnet