Texas man buys identical pairs of under armor shorts at Academy. Then he sees their prices on his receipt—they’re different

Every trip to a store feels like there are never-ending scams occurring right under our noses. Unless we glance at our receipts, we won’t notice it. Upon reading his Academy Sports + Outdoors receipt and noticing a price discrepancy, this man issued his public service announcement.

“Y’all gotta keep an eye on Academy. Just went there and bought two identical pairs of Armor five-inch shorts,” Texas TikTok creator James (@etxoutdoorsjames) says, panning over to two $30 perforated price tags.

“The only thing that’s different is the color codes,” he says, referring to the last four numbers under the barcode that don’t match. Then, he points to the price disparity on his receipt: one reads $30 and the other $33.

“Academy changed their in-store codes, charging $3 more for this pair than this pair,” the content creator says.

Before wrapping up, James warns over 39,000 viewers: “They’ll pop out for three bucks if you’re not paying attention. So, y’all check everything at Academy. It’s the week before school starts. They’re trying to grind their way into as much money as they can. Y’all stay safe out there.”

Not All Viewers Were Convinced

The comments section had the opposite reaction, where the overwhelming majority argued he was simply misunderstanding the tags.

“The upc is different. That’s a different price,” one viewer commented.

“But they’re not the same color. You do understand popular colors cost more?? A purple shirt would go on sale before a black shirt,” a second remarked.

“Academy has always [done their] prices like that for a long time. Especially during back to school [and[ holidays,” a third stated.

Meanwhile, those empathetic shared their similar situations at Academy.

“This happened to me too. I called that [expletive] out at the register,” one commenter recalled.

“I got my son some shorts & they rang up $20. Got home, they didn’t fit, took them back exchanged for the same shorts and they ended up ringing up $14 lol,” another recounted.

How Does Academy Price Its Merchandise?

Although companies like Academy use the 12-digit UPC codes to identify and track products, these only ring up the price, not determine it. Instead, WWD reported that Academy entered a multi-year partnership with retail pricing AI firm Revionics to help with its pricing model, including discounting the right inventory and setting starting prices across its 300 stores. All of this is in an effort to preserve its profits. However, an alleged former store manager claimed what James experienced could’ve been a price hiccup in the matrix, so to speak.

“Former Academy Manager here, this most likely was a missed price increase in store. Some colors are more popular than others, that’s why some clothing items that are the same but different [colors] ring up different. It’s not the stores fault, if you call or go back in store they will take care of you. Contacting corporate though and making a HUGE problem about it MIGHT get you a free gift card,” they explained in the comments section.

Luckily, Academy price matches even after you purchase the product. Their website states that as long as it’s within 14 days on the reciept and meets certain eligibility criteria, you can take it back and have the price adjusted.

@etxoutdoorsjames @Academy Sports + Outdoors what are yall doing?!? #scam #longviewtx #retail ♬ original sound – ETX Outdoors James

The Mary Sue reached out to James via TikTok comment and direct message as well as Academy Sports + Outdoors via press email.

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