My Store vs. Other Stores

[wanderingjoe72]

Sounds like RetailActress's store is an SC mill.
If her store has these policies in place, good for them. The only problem is when their customers(or in this case, employees) go to other stores and expect the same treatment.

A lot of big box stores have no flexibility when it comes to policy. I will grant that RA did ask first, but the attitude after about have flyers out too early is a bit unreasonable.

Nakajo makes a great point. I don't think I'd have much to add to that.

[smileyeagle1021]

To the OP... I feel your pain... I used to work at a Carl's Jr... all of which go a lot further than any other fast food place in this part of the country as far as customer service... this particular one though was always the highest scoring in GSAT scores for the region... and to this date I have a hard time at fast food places because I'm used to providing that high quality I'm used to expecting it too.

[PepperElf]

I dub thee SC.

Total disagreement

Asking politely does not make someone an SC. She asked and was told "no" and decided to buy it elsewhere. Asking nicely is not sucky.

In fact no where do I see her calling them rude... jsut that in her own store they would have bent over backwards with service. Only that she called them idiots here afterwards.

Now granted i see a lot of posters explaining why the sale couldn't be given out early etc... but ... Simply asking isn't rude or sucky.
Sucky would have been saying things like "I DEMAND you give me this discount NOW" or being rude and demeaning... but simply asking if she can have the discount early? Not sucky.


Off Topic: KaeZoo - .... awesome avatar. Haven't had to use the PIER chart myself for a while but... heh it made me do a double-take

[Aramika]

The point I was trying to make:

Today is 11/23/08.

Why was the stupid big-box store disseminating flyers, IN-STORE, advertising a considerable discount --- $30.00 off a digital camera --- which doesn't go into effect until FIVE DAYS LATER, on 11/28/08? Don't they want to sell stuff NOW?

I remember a few times that I went to Costco and they were actually handing out the flyers with coupons for next week (they weren't just sitting near the register or anything), and this was nowhere near Black Friday. I thought it was really odd too.

[sms001]

Look. Let's start making sense. What sort of marketing says: "This camera you want to buy is advertised to be thirty dollars cheaper next week, but, because you are here willing to buy it from us here on Sunday, 11/23/08, we're going to sock you the full shot" -- ????

The marketing of Supply and Demand. Besides the other valid points made here (vendor restrictions, loss leader, etc.) the simple fact is that there are a lot more people willing to buy the camera at the lower price point. If there were an unlimited number of cameras, no problem. But because that is not so, there is more intense competition to purchase lower priced cameras. (The store's unwillingness to bend may be an indicator that they have high confidence of moving all of them at the lower price.)

You in particular aren't being "socked", you would have been paying a premium for having the camera in-hand. When I walked into a store last week and saw that the high quality name brand kitchen appliance I'd see in an ad was gone, I realized I'd rolled the dice against stiffer competition and lost.

Fortunately we live in a time and a place where this isn't the end of the world.

[Nakajo]

I remember a few times that I went to Costco and they were actually handing out the flyers with coupons for next week (they weren't just sitting near the register or anything), and this was nowhere near Black Friday. I thought it was really odd too.

We don't do advertisements. If we don't hand them out early, how will members know about the discounts? (About 99% of members know that the coupons always arrive early, and most are very understanding about when they start. The "early" suck only happens on the Black Friday ones because they're super-high discounts.)