Bernie and Phil's Great American Surplus store placed an ad in the Sunday Times stating, "Next Saturday at 8:00 A.M. sharp 3 brand new mink coats worth $5,000 each will be sold for $500 each! First come, First served." Marsha LufMin was first in line when the store opened and went directly to the coat department, but the coats identified in the ad were not available for sale. She identified herself to the manager and pointed out that she was first in line in conformity with the store's advertised offer and that she was ready to pay the $500 price set forth in the store's offer. The manager responded that a newspaper ad is just an invitation to negotiate and that the store decided to withdraw "the mink coat promotion." Review the text on unilateral contracts in Section 12(b) of Chapter 12. Decide.

This technique is called "bait and switch", it is illegal and is considered false advertising. A seller cannot falsely advertise a product and then simply say that they do not have it on stock. It is a type of sales fraud and it is prohibited by the Lanham Act.

In order for this situation to be considered legal, the seller must have advertised and sold a certain amount of coats, but it didn't sell any. I.e. the seller runs out of stock because it already sold the 3 coats.