Watchdog Group Rejects Complaint About Sears

An industry watchdog group said Monday that it found no grounds for substantiating Montgomery Ward & Co.’s contention that Sears, Roebuck and Co.’s “Everyday Low Pricing” ad campaign is misleading.

Ward complained to the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division (NAD) that the campaign was misleading and deceptive to consumers. Ward challenged Sears’ statement that it had reduced prices on 50,000 items, complaining that Sears treated each size and color variation as a separate unit.

“Different colors or designs of the same product were counted as separate if consumers commonly view them as different, for example, whitewall versus blackwall tires, white shirts versus stripes,” the NAD report said. “The 50,000 count was substantiated.”

Both retail giants are based in Chicago, and their chief executives are brothers.

The Ward complaint, filed April 7, focused only on the first six weeks of the Sears ad campaign, which was launched March 1.

Ward Chairman Bernard Brennan said the company is disappointed with the findings.

“The findings speak for themselves,” a Sears spokesman said.

Price-Matching Policy

In the complaint, Ward also said Sears was actually raising prices on several items marked as “lowered in price.”

NAD disputed that contention.

Ward also said Sears’ price-matching policy on “identical” items carried in other stores, particularly appliances and electronics, was misleading.

Ward also said that, in the first weeks of the new pricing format, Sears refused to match competitors’ prices as advertised. Much of the merchandise carried Sears’ own labels and salespeople claimed that items weren’t directly comparable to those offered by competitors, the complaint said.

The NAD upheld the ads on this issue as well, but requested that Sears’ price-matching policy be examined further to clearly state which merchandise is identical to competitors’ items.