Unrealistic scenario fabricated to promote your opinion.....modern bar codes and RFID’s etc will determine the price at the counter. Happens many times.
If a store employee miskeys the programming so that the scanner rings up the hundred dollar product for a buck, even though the sign at the product says $100, should you still take it?
Not an unrealistic senario at all. I've seen the exact thing he was talking about happen many times while working retail loss prevention.
Accidental way I've seen it is two "identicle" products that came from different factories or different distributing centers will have a slightly different UPC number. Usually just one digit difference. Both UPC have to be entered into the database seperately though. One gets keyed in at $99.99 and the other at $9.99. Now at the register level they have different prices.
Dishonest shoplifter way is that on some items, clothes and jewelry mostly, the UPC is not actually printed on the package but instead is a sticker or tag. Shoplifters will remove the UPC sticker from a cheaper product and put it on the more expensive product. Unless the register operator is paying attention or the customer goes to self checkout it gets missed.
RFID's inside the packaging might fix that problem, but currently there are no stores in my area that use RFID.
Not always. Many times sale items are not entered, and the cashier has to make an adjustment.
Never mind all the small street shops that do not have all that technology.
That isn't what I asked. I asked whether you thought it was wrong to swap price tags. It's not beyond the realm of possibility to believe that there are some places that don't use bar codes. Just this weekend, in fact, at was at such a place when I bought my Christmas tree.