Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

I often read laments about the sorry state of sales in the retail sector. But then I go shopping and realize the lengths to which some stores will go to ensure that I don't buy something.

I was at Shoppers Drug Mart, a large Canadian pharmacy chain. They are doing their best to emulate US chains like Walgreens and CVS, though with higher prices. They have recently started to build superstores that carry much more stuff.

As my wife and I wandered through one such store, we kept seeing things that we might like to buy, only to find that they had no indications of price. To find out the price I had to go to the cashier, wait in line, and ask her the price. After a couple of items I decided it wasn't worth the bother, meaning that the store lost out in about $150 in sales from us alone.

This seems to be a frequent occurrence in the stores I've shopped in lately. At least some stores, such as Wal-Mart, acknowledge that this occasionally happens and put price scanners on the aisles for me to use.

Shoppers Drug Mart seems to be able to get away with this due to the lack of competitive choice in Canada. There is only one other (smaller) pharmacy chain. They are probably seeing competition from department stores though. Generic over the counter drugs like aspirin are about half the price at Zellers (a Target-like store) as they are at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Note to retail stores: If you don't care enough about your customers to help them shop in your store, they'll shop somewhere else.