Enid Market Watch: Holden Art & Law and Hope Outreach--serious caveat

It was announced in the newspaper thus, and importantly, announced as an Open House event:

You have but to check page A9 next to the Word Sleuth puzzle in the Friday 13 issue of Enid News & Eagle

Some gal, who also gave some guy grief about not taking a bottle of beer off the premises, turned around and gave ME grief about the event being "a closed party by invitation only. Who invited you?"  I said, "the newspaper".  She then claimed she never saw it in the paper.

Then some guy gave the aforementioned attendee grief about a calendar he picked up, and it's to be noted that other places that have conducted open houses have furnished free calendars, and that this Holden location had a number of stacks of calendars, none of which that I looked at had prices posted.  None.  The attendee was all but accused of stealing; I chimed in that when prices aren't posted then the firm is misleading the public.  The counterclaim was made that one stack had a price posted--trouble is, if this was the case, it was a stack that wasn't obviously in evidence AND it was definitely not true of the other stacks of calendars.

If ever they give this gentleman any further grief, especially legally, I forward myself as eyewitness to the injustice that was committed at this firm.

If you are a client of this firm, either for their artwork or for their legal services, know ye that in general, there are such things as weasels.  Caveat emptor.

UPDATE: It's not just Holden that pulls the unmarked-for-sale BS; it's pretty commonplace around Enid and the most recent incidence of this occurred at Hope Outreach Thrift. On a previous occasion I was told that "everybody knows" that unmarked items are all 50¢, and on this occasion of attempting to purchase unmarked items at that price, the attempt was made to charge 75¢ per item.  I said it wasn't posted where the items were, and the gal at the register pointed at a half-hidden sign by her register that those particular unmarked items were 75¢.  It's clear to me that customers were mislead into thinking they were buying 50¢ items while being scammed out of that extra 25¢.  Sure, it ain't much to one customer, but multiply that by the number of items per each Christmas shopper that ever came through the doors and you're talking big money.

The scam at Hope Outreach was identical to what happened at Holden, right down to claiming that the prices were posted when they weren't at the location where the goods were presented to the public.

When I first moved to Enid, I was told right off to keep a close eye on my purchase receipts before leaving the store.  The thing is, if you bring that discrepancy to the attention of the manager, he'll give you the boot instead of getting honest.  When you're shopping in Enid ANYWHERE, especially if it's a small business, watch out for sticky fingers. The store's.  The more religious they claim to be, the more likely your pocket's going to get picked.

If you find an item anywhere in Enid that doesn't have a price marked on it, and in that store there are a lot of items like that, don't just refuse to buy it--run like hell.  These predators take their deceptions that seriously.  The gal at the Hope Outreach checkout told her boss that I was an emergency.  No wonder--I caught 'em at their scheme red-handed.

Similar business conduct has been noted at Jumbo's Foods and Evans Pharmacy. Seriously--caveat emptor in Enid.