Blog - David Helkowski
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Donki Honey Jim Beam

Today I was at Don Quijote and I saw a sign on the shelf for Jim Beam Honey for 880 yen after tax. I did the loose calculation and thought to myself "$5? That's a good deal"

The only issue?

There were no bottles behind the sale sign. There was though a Tennessee Honey Jim Beam next to it. I looked at that and wondered what the difference if any was/is. I translated the sale sign to English with Google Translate.

The sign said that the "Honey" version was on sale, and it showed the barcode too. I checked the other sign. Different barcode. So only the regular Honey version was on sale, not the Tennessee Honey version.

I still now though wanted a cheap bottle of flavored Jim Beam so I idly considered purchased the Peach flavored which was only 1280 yen, which is still cheap. I considered for a minute or two standing there dumbly and decided that no, I would not give into temptation. No sale, no sale to me.

I left the Don Quijote to continue going home. I had only stopped there in the first place because it was on my way home from excursions for the day.

Once I reached my car though my mind continued plotting. It said "There are more Don Quijotes, perhaps one of them has a bottle still in stock. You have time. You should stop at one. $5!"

I caved and checked Google Maps to see where the next nearest Don Quijote was/is. I actually know where all of them are by memory, but, well, Google Maps. The next closest one? Also on the way home.

So I stopped there and found the location for Jim Beam Honey in that store. One bottle present! Score!

Well almost. Except there was no sale sign. Just the regular price. I picked it up anyway and decided to just go to the cashier and ask them what the price is. Perhaps just the sale sign was/is missing but it still was/is on sale.

I don't speak Japanese well enough myself to ask that, so while walking to the cashier I turned my phone on to translate using Google Translate to ask my question of the cashier.

When I turned my phone on the screen showed Google Translate showing my translation of the sale sign from the other store.

The gears began turning.

You see, I had a picture of the sales sign.

What would you do?

What I did was I went to the cashier, and waited for them to ring it up. The price showed the non sales price. I showed them my phone with the picture of the sale sign and pointed at it and gave my best innocent "what gives" look.

The cashier looked at my picture and was confused. He checked my picture repeatedly. He checked the barcode on the picture against the bottle. Matches.

He called over his radio to the manager to ask what to do.

I continued to stand there patiently doing my best to not appear nervous at possibly "tricking" the poor massive Don Quijote chain into giving me a sales price that already ended.

It took quite a while, during which the cashier kept looking at my picture and the bottle and looking confused.

Finally the manager responded to him and asked him to send them a picture of the sales sign. The cashier took a picture of the picture on my phone with his phone and sent it to the manager over a chat. Then the cashier overrode the price to the sales price.

I paid and exited Don Quijote with my ill gotten gains of Honey Jim Beam.

I share this story because it's an interesting ethics question. I asked ChatGPT what it thinks. ChatGPT thinks I'm in the right. I didn't lie to them. They overrode the price all on their own. My picture was legit... just not from the same store, but... so?

I'm still dubious.

The questions one must consider:

I personally don't think I did anything wrong, in that I honestly believe the sale was at all the stores, and that the sign was just left up after the sale ended. In the US they have to honor the price if the sign is still up. I'm not though in the US. I'm in Japan. The laws here may be different.

Also, if they could afford to sell it on sale shortly before, they could surely still afford to sell me one bottle at the sales price.

But there could be complications, such as it could be a promotion from Jim Beam that was only honored if they sold it within a certain date range. I don't really know.

I do think that the most strict analytical person would conclude that I am still tricking them. But I'm not that person. I saw the sign. I wanted the cheap Jim Beam. They gave it to me at the cheap price. :shrug:

I showed this post to AI. AI, being a joyless electric hall monitor when provoked, started trying to construct the strictest possible argument against me. I think AI is full of shit, and clearly needs Jim Beam more than I do.

Sure sure I knew the sign was at the different store. A store a 10 minute drive away in the same area. I have zero reason to actually believe that the same sale wouldn't apply there.

Also, pay attention to the fact that my plan was not to trick them. My plan was to just check the price.

I just happened to have the picture still up on my phone and thought to myself "It's their sale sign. Can't hurt to show it to them."

I certainly thought about all this after the fact and am making a joke here about being a shady bum getting a good deal when I shouldn't, but that isn't how it went down. That's just the funny version.

If anyone asks, this story is all made up. Didn't happen. No siree. I'm not sipping a shot of said Jim Beam this moment. Nope nope.

In order to offset your newfound image of me as a petty trickster I need to inform you that when I have accidentally not been charged for things by cashiers I go back and pay for the thing I got for free. I've done that repeatedly. Those around me and the cashier always look at me like I'm nuts when I do this, but hey. I do actually try to do the right thing.