Some states have laws [1] to this effect:

> The store must honor the price in the advertisement, even if it is wrong, until they correct the misrepresentation using the same advertising medium and/or by corrective signs in the store.

> Items sold in a grocery store must ring up at the lowest displayed price. Food stores that are in the waiver program must offer consumers one of the items free if it scans higher than the lowest advertised price.

[1] https://www.mass.gov/guides/a-massachusetts-consumer-guide-t...

Is this actually a misrepresentation?

Does anybody reading the sign not understand what it's trying to communicate?

The sign is perpetuating the idiocracy epidemic.

Which interpretation is idiotic? Being able to take in complex signals from the environment and form an instructive opinion is the foundation of human ingenuity. Given that the bananas obviously aren't on sale for $0.0019, it seems idiotic to me ignore alternative explanations for the sign.

>> Given that the bananas obviously aren't on sale for $0.0019, it seems idiotic to me ignore alternative explanations for the sign.

"It's a banana Michael. What could it cost, 10 dollars?!"

You say "obvious" but I don't think that means what you think that means. Why is it obvious? Why would it be impossible that a store sells bananas at a loss in order to pull people in (what people in sales call a "loss leader")? If you don't buy bananas regularly, why couldn't you assume this is just a great deal?

If there were a sign advertising 5 bananas for a penny (or whatever) with no asterisk, fine print, or mention that "terms may apply", I would be livid if I couldn't take advantage of that price.

I'm only speaking from my own personal experience, but I've never seen bananas priced at less than 1c each in the grocery store. I've also seen people misplace decimal points frequently. So, based on the thousands of times I've been to dozens of grocery stores, I'm using pattern matching to deduce that almost assuredly it's more likely that a banana listed as costing "0.19c" refers to $0.19 not $0.0019. If you ever encounter a true sub-cent banana in a retail supermarket, feel free to reach out to me and I'll be the first to admit I was wrong.

I've frequently (more than once a year) seen "Free pound of bananas" coupons as part of circulars/loyalty coupons at supermarkets I've been to (sometimes not even requiring further purchase). I've worked in advertising and marketing for checks watch years and am familiar with all sorts of different offer types and sales models. Free or Nearly Free bananas would seem relatively reasonable, and if I didn't frequent the store enough to know they always have a "cute" sign with nonsense prices, I would still be livid if the price wasn't honored.

If you would like links: Here's a 5 year old piece about Amazon giving away bananas: https://www.foodandwine.com/news/amazons-free-bananas-disrup...

Here's a 2 year old coupon for free bananas from some couponing blog: https://www.thecouponingcouple.com/free-bananas/

Another blog, more free banana coupons: https://spoonuniversity.com/how-to/10-food-budgeting-tips-i-...

TL;dr- Don't put up bullshit pricing signs and assume people will understand the "joke", you're coming from a place of different cultural awareness and it will burn you when people like me get involved.

Yes, I've seen free promotions before (of bananas and many other items). But I've never seen sub-cent bananas. Again, if you see those, let me know.

It’s incredibly obvious. Just ask yourself, “How would I pay for 1 banana if a banana was 0.19 cents?”

How does that work with sales tax not being included in the displayed price?

The website is an explanation of the law, not the actual law itself. I'm sure the actual law does not require sales tax to be included in the displayed price.

Since he specifically mentions grocery stores, groceries aren't taxed.

TIL that's a thing. Illinois has a lower tax rate on groceries but still taxes them.

Also, grocery stores sell a lot more than just groceries.

State sales tax laws are all over the place; in many states the general idea is "don't tax necessities" which leads to silly things like buying a sandwich is tax free (like socks in Minnesota), but if you ask them to warm up the sandwich BEFORE sale it is taxed. If you ask them to warm up YOUR sandwich after sale, it's tax-free.

Cool, TIL grocery taxes exist.

Or it could be a state like Oregon where there is no sales tax on anything.

IANAL but I did spend the past year working for a company that generated and printed strips and sale tags for several major retailers across the US. We had to be pretty careful with our security because if someone accessed our system and generated a sale tag offering high-end items for $1 our customers (stores) would be obligated to sell the item for the price displayed on the sign/tag.

It's not a mistake if they do it repeatedly and they continue to do it even after they're made aware of it.