When you're shopping, you want to know that the Y strainers you're picking up from the shelf are really the price that the store has listed on the shelf. If it's not and there's no penalty for it being wrong, there's nothing stopping the store taking advantage of customers that way. So the Scanning Code of Practice was invented. It's a voluntary guarantee that the prices are what they say they are. You can learn more about it and how it will affect your shopping here.

The Scanning Code of Practice was invented by a group of associations representing the retail, drug, and grocery stores in Canada and is supported by the Competition Bureau of Canada, which is part of the government. It basically states that if the price of an item (such as cloth diapers or a shovel) comes up higher when it goes through the scanner than is listed on the shelf, you get it for free if it's less than $10, or for $10 off if it's more than $10. That's a pretty sweet deal.

Most stores in Canada, even some small ones that sell wrought iron furniture in Toronto, subscribe to the code, so if you ever have this happen to you, make sure to ask for your discount if it's not automatically applied. In Quebec, the scanning code applies in every store, because it has been made into law there. If the cashier won't give you your discount, ask to speak to the manager or call the complaint hotline, which is 1-866-499-4599. If you've got multiple copies of the item, you get the shelf price for the others, but not if you only had one originally and you ran back to get more when you found the error.

Finding a discounted item is an unexpected windfall for you as a shopper, because there's really no way to figure out which items might qualify unless the shelf sign has an obvious expiry date (it still counts even if it's expired). Because of this deal, most auto dealer supply stores are very careful to make sure that the shelf prices that are displayed are all accurate.

Not every nursery supply store in Canada subscribes to the code, since it is voluntary, but most of the major chain stores do. These include Shopper's Drug Mart, Sobey's, Costco, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart, Future Shop, Giant Tiger, Toys R' Us, Pharmasave, Best Buy, Co-Op, and London Drugs. The most notable exceptions are Zellers and The Bay.