Why do stores lie to me?

Look, I don't mind paying full price for toothpaste. It's fine by me. Toothpaste is just one of those things you have to buy.

What I do mind is when it says that the toothpaste is $7.49, but that it comes with $2.00 on the store card thing, which means I'm paying $5.49.

This is not true.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of the possible rebates or whatever that come from store membership cards are never redeemed. This is, in fact, why they exist. Because you can tell people they have the opportunity to get some money back, and they tend to operate as if they already have. This is because people are idiots. Also, redeeming such things involves keeping track of paper and taking forever at the cash register, both of which are at least mildly undesirable.

$2 in store points is not even remotely like $2 off an item. Stop lying.