one1one
Apple Valley,#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, September 16, 2010
This is not actually a bait and switch. The idea behind a bait and switch is to get you to buy something that is much more expensive. An item that is originally less expensive would not fit into your bait and switch scenario. Just because they are allowing you to substitute an item does not mean that they need to sell the substituted item at 50% off.
What you may not know Richard is that 95% of the ads at Sports Authority are the same every week. With that being said, the same canopy that you were looking for, more than likely, was on sale the week before, and the week before that. In that regard, with the same items on sale all the time, people will be purchasing these items all the time. And...as you can imagine, this leads to an "out of stock" situation.
Sports Authority has over 400 stores nationwide, and occasionally things go out of stock. Regardless of a "sale" status or not. It's a fact of retail. Rather than throw an inaccurate "bait and switch" claim around, you could probably just refer to it as simple "supply and demand."