Liquidation Blues

[XCashier]

As I've posted before, our store is going into liquidation due to the store moving. It's been crazy there, like an early Black Friday. Here are some tidbits from the past week or so:

What Part Of "Liquidation" Don't You Understand?

The liquidation has been going on for a couple of weeks now. We're not getting new stock, haven't gotten new stock for over a month now, and won't have new stock until the new store opens. Naturally, the most popular stuff is gone. We're out of quilt batting, stuffing, Velcro, and the more popular colors of thread and quilting fabrics. (On the bright side, we're also out of burlap! ) We also did not get any Halloween product, apart from a few quilting fabrics which are also all gone now.

SC: Don't you have any Halloween stuff?
ME: We didn't get any this year, they've been planning the liquidation since April. Our store in Nexttown has it, though.
SC: But I don't waaaaant to drive alllll the way to Nexttowwwwnnnn!!!

Oh gosh, why didn't you just say so? I'll have them teleport it right here, just for you!

Math Is Hard

Customer is perusing our $1.00 aisle. There are signs proclaiming the liquidation price of 40% off. She comes up to me, item in hand.

SC: How much is this?
ME: (pointing to the clearly marked price on the label) $1.00, ma'am.
SC: How much is it after the discount?
ME: 60¢.
SC: So, how much is this other item?
ME: (again pointing to the clearly marked price on the label) $1.00, ma'am.
SC: And how much would that be after the discount?
ME: (Seriously?!) That would also be 60¢.
SC: So how much would these two be together?
ME: $1.20.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Several times! Finally I had customers at the register, giving me an excuse to leave her behind. Never have I been so happy to see a line at the register!

(Yes, I know some people legitimately have difficulty with math. But when I'd just told her how much an identically priced item is, that just shows she wasn't paying attention, or looking to waste time.)

Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

There is a huge sign near the front door stating, "We're moving to a new store!" with the new address and opening date. There are several similar signs scattered throughout the store. About fifty times a day, I get this question:

SC: So, when are you opening the new store?

I frequently point to the nearest sign when I answer the question. Seriously, this is getting old. RTFS!

Why Should I Stand In Line?

As we were bundling everything up, we couldn't do everything in one day, so any unbundled bolts and trim were still sold by the yard. We had a long line of people, three of us were on the cutting counter getting the line down as fast as we could. As I went to get my customer's cutting slip, I saw two teenage girls with several spools of by-the-yard ribbon standing at the back counter.

ME: Did you have any questions?
SC: Yes, we want these cut!
ME: You'll need to get in line (pointing to the line)

The girls left their ribbon there and stomped off.

How did they not notice that A. there was a long line of people on one side of the counter and B. all of the employees were facing and working with the people in line?! Did they think we'd see them with the eyes in the backs our our heads?!

Bolts And Nuts

One of the things we had to do for the liquidation is bundle up the bolts of fabric: measure the remaining fabric, reroll and tape it up and write the amount of fabric on the tape. We're now selling the fabric by the bolt, with the price determined by the marked amount of fabric x the price on the label. (I truly don't know why we're selling it by the bolt rather than by the yard, it was a corporate mandate.) There are signs on every aisle stating "Sold by the bolt, priced by the yard".

My coworker had this customer:

SC: I want two yards of this.
CW: Everything's sold by the bolt now, ma'am, due to the liquidation.
SC: Well, there should be a sign on the front door!
CW: There's a sign on every aisle.
SC stomps off, leaving her fabric there.

That's only a minor taste of what we've had to deal with. I've seen yelling, snide remarks, commands to "cut it anyway!" Folks, I don't make the rules, I just have to follow them. Don't like it, contact corporate!

[Andara Bledin]

Lather, rinse, repeat. Several times! Finally I had customers at the register, giving me an excuse to leave her behind. Never have I been so happy to see a line at the register!

(Yes, I know some people legitimately have difficulty with math. But when I'd just told her how much an identically priced item is, that just shows she wasn't paying attention, or looking to waste time.)

Not that it would make the situation any less annoying, but it's possible the woman was autistic. With Asperger's, specifically, you'd end up with that sort of situation. They can follow a thought from A to B, but even if A=C and B=D, they will still need to start at C to get to D while a neurotypical sort would understand that if D equals C and they know C, then they also know D.

Then again, some people are just too self-absorbed and/or distracted to hold more than a single thought in their head at any time.

I frequently point to the nearest sign when I answer the question. Seriously, this is getting old. RTFS!

Pshaw! SCs don't read signs.

That's what you're there for.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

SC: Well, there should be a sign on the front door!

Which she would not have read, anyway...

[XCashier]

It's getting more insane. Depending on what the item is on sale for, there's a different liquidation discount. Fabric not on sale gets 75% off, fabric on sale for 35% or less gets an additional 50% off, fabric on sale for 40% or more off gets and additional 33% off. I've had to explain hundreds of times that the red and white sign is the sale at every branch of the fabric store in the nation, and the red and yellow sign is the additional discount that we put on. No, you do not add the discounts together, you take off the regular discount and then take the liquidation discount off of that. No, it is not 83% off, you take one discount, then the other. Yes, I'm quite sure how that works, I've explained it to hundreds of people before you! (I'm sure there's a mathematical formula to it, but it's been too long since I was in school and I'm too tired to figure it out now.)

And since we're selling everything by the bolt and not by the yard anymore, we're getting complaints about that, too. It's not my rule, it's corporate's mandate! (Perhaps we should have a Cretins In Corporate section? It's not Morons In Management material, our managers are just as frustrated with it as we are.)

Naturally, someone will bring a dozen bolts up, wanting to know the prices. Since our wonderful ( ) handhelds don't show the liquidation discount, though it will come off at the register (and whichever genius programmed it that way, I want to string up by the ankles and use as a human piñata!), I have to calculate the totals by hand on a small calculator.

SC: How much is this?
ME: Okay, this is 10.375 yards normally priced at $12.99, on sale for 50% off, with an additional 33% discount, which brings it to...$45.11.
SC: And this one?
ME: This is 6.5 yards priced at $6.99, not on sale, with a 75% liquidation discount, so...$11.36.
SC: And this one?

On and on it goes, through a dozen bolts with different prices, sale percentages and liquidation percentages. Finally we're all done.

SC: So, how much is that altogether?
ME:

See, we can't really keep a running total on the calculator! And I don't want to try averaging it, because you know I'll be way off, and the customer will throw a conniption if I quote a wrong total!

And of course, no matter how low the prices get, they still aren't low enough for the customer.

For the first time in ages, I went to the liquor store and bought some hard stuff. It's been that bad. It doesn't help that I'm putting in about 65-70 hours a week between two jobs. The moving date can't come soon enough for me!

[Lore]

(On the bright side, we're also out of burlap! )

What's wrong with burlap? Is it particularly annoying?

Also, I sympathise with you over the math-impaired SCs. It's not the lack of math skills that make them SCs, of course - it's the way they treat you like their personal abacus. Don't all cell-phones come with calculators? Surely they can use that and waste less of your time when you are clearly very busy.

[XCashier]

What's wrong with burlap? Is it particularly annoying?

Yes, it is. It's rougher than sandpaper, horribly itchy, smells bad and when you measure and cut it, it leaves splinters and a rash on your skin and dust everywhere. And yet for some reason, people love to decorate with it. No accounting for taste, I suppose.

It's not the lack of math skills that make them SCs, of course - it's the way they treat you like their personal abacus.

It's mostly corporate's fault for making this far more difficult than it needed to be. You're right, though; being treated like a human computer does not help a bit.

[BroSCFischer]

Does the calculator have an "M+" button on it? If so, you can use that to try to keep a running total, using the "MR" to retrieve the said total.

It might save a small amount of your sanity.

SC

[Chromatix]

You can apply successive discounts in one step by converting them into a single discount:

First, convert each percentage discount into a multiplier. So a 35% discount becomes 0.65, and a 50% discount becomes 0.5.

Next, multiply the two multipliers by each other. For the two above, that produces 0.325. You just need to multiply the original price by this single factor to apply both discounts at once.

Finally, you can convert that multiplier back into a percentage if you're curious. That's a 67.5% total discount in this case.

[Andara Bledin]

I do have a question:

If you're selling everything by the bolt, couldn't you just slap price stickers on everything as people ask?

Put a date on the sticker in case prices drop again, but at least that way, you won't have to price a single bolt more than once, and you won't have the issue with making a tally.

As for the math, just multiply one percentage discount by the next percentage discount, then subtract one and remove the negative and turn it back into a percentage. So, 50% off plus 35% off would be .5 x .35 = .175 = 17.5% of the original price equals an 82.5% discount.

^-.-^

[Pagan]

You can apply successive discounts in one step by converting them into a single discount:

First, convert each percentage discount into a multiplier. So a 35% discount becomes 0.65, and a 50% discount becomes 0.5.

Next, multiply the two multipliers by each other. For the two above, that produces 0.325. You just need to multiply the original price by this single factor to apply both discounts at once.

Finally, you can convert that multiplier back into a percentage if you're curious. That's a 67.5% total discount in this case.

As for the math, just multiply one percentage discount by the next percentage discount, then subtract one and remove the negative and turn it back into a percentage. So, 50% off plus 35% off would be .5 x .35 = .175 = 17.5% of the original price equals an 82.5% discount.

Y'all are turning it into a quadratic equation and over-complicating it! This is why people don't like math.

$10 - 50% = $5 - 35% = $3.25

[Sparky]

Yes, it is. It's rougher than sandpaper, horribly itchy, smells bad and when you measure and cut it, it leaves splinters and a rash on your skin and dust everywhere. And yet for some reason, people love to decorate with it. No accounting for taste, I suppose.

My first home after I got married was a rented mobile home. The previous owner had removed all the cabnet doors in the bathroom and kitchen. I don't know why; probably seemed like a good idea at the time. My landlord had replaced these with little curtains. The bathroom had a small cabinet under the sink and the "door" was curtains made from a towel. People would dry their hands on the curtain instead of on the handtowel. I did not want them to. I solved the probelm by replacing them with curtains made of burlap.

Sorry for going off topic but I hoped X Cashier would get a kick out of it.

[XCashier]

...People would dry their hands on the curtain instead of on the handtowel. I did not want them to. I solved the probelm by replacing them with curtains made of burlap.

Sorry for going off topic but I hoped X Cashier would get a kick out of it.

Indeed I did! Definitely one time burlap has a good use!

They did simplify things a bit this week: all sales fabrics are an additional 50% off, so we don't have to figure out if the fabric is on sale for what percentage and how much off. Non-sales fabrics are still 75 % off. The math is much easier now.

You should see the store; it's shrinking! We're down to about four aisles of fabric and four aisles of hardlines (notions, crafts, scrapbooking, yarn, etc.) The place echoes, and we've been finding lots of lost merchandise underneath bottom row shelves.

The new store is gorgeous. It's huge, has more cash registers, a better set-up cutting counter, a marvelous break room, price check stations, and a lovely new store smell! No stock yet, but everything's coming along on schedule. I've met some of the new people and they all seem very nice. We're set to open it two weeks before Black Friday, and hopefully we can all get settled in and up to speed before then.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Shall we start a bet on how many people will come into the new store wanting the old store discounts?

[Syriilord]

Shall we start a bet on how many people will come into the new store wanting the old store discounts?

Sorry, I don't take sucker bets.

The answer is obviously ALL of them.

[wolfie]

As for the math, just multiply one percentage discount by the next percentage discount, then subtract one and remove the negative and turn it back into a percentage. So, 50% off plus 35% off would be .5 x .35 = .175 = 17.5% of the original price equals an 82.5% discount.

Actually, multiply (1-first_percentage) by (1-second_percentage). For your example, it would be (1-0.5) x (1-0.35) = 0.5 x 0.65 = 0.325 = 32.5% of the original price - a 67.5% discount.

Easy to check - regular price (0% discount) yields 100% of regular price, not free. Giveaways (100% discount) yield 0% of regular price, not full price. Of course, SCs would prefer your math when 2 small discounts apply to the same item.