"Free" Dis-Chem Benefits Magazines

I was at Dis-chem this afternoon and the cashier pulled out the Dis-chem Benefits Magazine and scanned it. I noticed that it added R0.01 to my total bill. I asked the cashier if the magazine was free and she said yes, she just needs to scan it. Even pointed out to me that it's only R0.01.

While that may appear to be a small negligible amount, think about how many people will be at Dis-chem tomorrow on Black Friday shopping for sales who won't even bother to watch the cashier scan the Health Benefits magazine which they probably won't even read.

10 million agnostic shoppers is an easy R10 000 for Dis-chem. 100 million shoppers is am easy R100 000 and so on. This can't be right in terms of the Consumer Act. It's pretty much the same thing a hacker does, take a small, negligible amount out of millions of people's bank accounts and no one notices just how much they've really made, or rather ****** which is the right word.

There's no reason to be scanning for magazines which are free. Have them in a tray at the door for customers to take. But scanning them and then telling customers that they're "free" is being highly dishonest.