Possible Moral Issue

I assume it was the 750ml size? Does it say where it was bottled?

I personally wouldn't worry about it... it's not like you switched price tags or anything. You ran it by management, and they gave you a price, so you are in the clear! Enjoy... with an entirely clear conscience.

You should have bought it, then informed the manager.

I think it comes down to whether you asking them for clarification satisfies your conscience.

The store manager has been delegated the power to have final say on the pricing of any single item in an instance like the one you were in. You didn't go to the cash and say "the price on the bottle says "X"; I demand you sell it to me at "X". You asked them for the price, they tried to scan it for a price (which didn't work), which means that the manager becomes the arbiter for pricing. He told you the price, and that's that. You didn't take advantage of them by buying 10 bottles. You bought what you had come for (a bottle of Black Maple 21) and that's that. If you go back tomorrow and buy a case of bottles, I would say that is far larger of a moral issue.

But I would say that you're in the gray area at worst.

Kancho!

Well, even though it's most likely an aged Heaven Hill product, you still did very well and should proudly add it to your collection with no qualms whatsoever. When you do open it, be sure to raise a toast to the manager.

Just so I know what's going on, what's the bottle really worth?

They don't even know their merchandise. Fuck them.

here's my take - if it was mislabeled, you are ok. if the cashier mis-enters the price, I always point it out. mislabeling is a corporate issue, that the people right there can't fix, and probrably can't be blamed for, and frankly, somebody else will take advantage of it. if you said "hey, the value of this is much higher" to the manager, he probrably wouldn't have known how to fix it.

I'm not sure where the moral issue is... but here's a few thoughts: 1) This doesn't sound like some kind of mom & pop grocery store, since you said it was a local chain. If they've got a few locations, they're probably a pretty large corporation. I don't know which chain this is, but you should never feel guilty taking advantage of a large corporation, unless possibly you stole from them outright. 2) That said, it's not like you stole this. Not even close. They had a price marked on it, you paid it. It's the seller's responsibility to know what they've got. The usual retail price of this bottle is irrelevant, in my opinion. To the store, it was only worth $42, and that's what you gave them. 3) Are you positive it was not a sale, considering it was the last bottle? I agree with Dentata, you should have bought it and then asked the manager why it was so cheap. Once you pay them, and have a receipt, it's yours. 4) This is not much different than buying stock in a company which is significantly undervalued by the market. Each company has an intrinsic value -- essentially the company's future earnings discounted to the present. But due to market inefficiencies and asymmetrical information, stocks don't always trade at what they're worth. If you identify an undervalued company, buy its stock for $50 a share, and over the course of a year, it rises to $100 a share, should you feel guilty for having 'known' that it was worth more than it was trading for? Most people would say no. That said, you did more than you needed to to give them a chance to correct any 'error' that they may have made. You should enjoy your whiskey guilt-free.

I think what you did is fine. It's their job to make sure they are pricing their products appropriately, not yours. That said, I'd drink a toast to my good fortune, but would not go back and buy a case of the stuff. For some reason, the former just feels better than the latter.

They offered an item for sale at a given price, you accepted. No issue.

Only issue is that you didn't buy their entire stock and resell. That's what you should have done. America was built and entrepreneurship.