Question: Bob Buyer read in the Houston Chronicle supplement of the Sunday newspaper that his favorite pair of jeans was on sale for $40 at The Gap at the First Colony Mall. Bob likes a good deal so he was one of the first customers in the store on Sunday. As soon as he entered the store he saw a big sign touting the jeans sale for $40.00.
Bob found a pair in his size, picked the jeans up, and started walking toward the cash register with the jeans in one hand and cash in the other hand. . The cash register was being manned by the store manager, Luke Hernandez, who was a bright young man because he was enrolled in an online course of Legal Environment of Business at the University of Houston Victoria at the Sugar Land campus.
About this time, Susie Shopper stopped Bob before he arrived at the cash register and shouted to Bob but made sure it was loud enough that Mr. Hernandez could hear her comments: "...hey, I need those jeans for my husband's birthday and I'm willing to pay $50 for those jeans." There was a tense moment, but Mr. Hernandez had recently studied contracts and he knew all about offers, acceptance, consideration, counter-offers, and rejection. As a store manager, Mr. Hernandez was responsible for monthly store profits. Was there a valid contract between Bob and The Gap before Bob actually made the payment? If yes, how and when did the offer, acceptance, consideration, etc occur? Other observations or comments about the contractual nature of these events?