Craft Store Black Friday

[simplyanother]

Oh, shoot, am I supposed to keep it secret about which craft store I work for?

So, this morning, 6-9 we had a gigantic coupon for 25% of the entire order, with the regular exclusions. That wasn't too bad, except the COUPON wasn't scanning, so we had to do it by hand, and had to explain the stupid thing over and over and over and over. "Yes man, I know you want me to scan the stupid trees first, but they are excluded from the coupon, so I have do it it last, after I take the discount off of the other stuff" "WHY?! It doesn't say that!" (No, it's NOT in giant letters on the coupon)

Then there was the initialing of the stupid thing, so that customers who were in the store before 9 am could still use the thing. Which customers misunderstood it as "I can take this back, and use it over and over and over?". Then they of course got all pissy when we explained...that no, they couldn't use it over and over. It says right there on the coupon that you have to give it to us.

And good god, whoever named them TURKEY bucks, can we whip them? Please?

No, I don't have any extras. No, your friend can't use them. NO! You can't sign for them. WHY? Just to piss YOU OFF! Also? It's for the PRE TAX amount. That means...gah, you suck.

To people who presented their coupons AFTER we'd completed the transaction. Can't you just die now? Seriously? "oh, can you use this?" HELL NO, I can't use it, because you're a moron. WTF? I'm supposed to magically be able to take it off now? Now, dumbass, you get to make a trip to customer service, where you will promptly LIE and tell the manager that I just didn't take your stupid coupons. NOT that...you know, you didn't GIVE THEM TO ME BEFORE WE WERE DONE. Cause, saying "oops, I made a mistake," is too difficult for you.

Oh, and you know what? The coupon that says SATURDAY on it? It's valid SATURDAY. Not today. Yep, sucks for you, doesn't it?That's what you get for shopping at the damned craft store before dawn.

BTW, people who call the craft store. could you do me a freakin favor and...I don't know.... SPEAK UP?! Come on, how the hell am I supposed to know you want one of the sold out Cricuts if you don't talk loud enough for me to hear you?

And Dear Mr. Asshole, it was NOT my fault that your card didn't work, that's with you and the bank. So, you can go to hell. Merry freakin Christmas, y'all.

[Sonoma]

Sorry about your morning. I didn't shop at the store w/ the turkey bucks, but we did make 'another craft store' our first stop of the day. People seemed to be patient at the location we were at. The staff were having problems with sale items not ringing up, but at least as early as we were checking out, they could still laugh it off. You could see the stress showing on the clerks as 11 AM neared, when most of the big sales would be ending. I think it helped that we went to the grocery checkouts to purchase the jeans, after seeing the lines 15-people deep at 10:45 AM. Thank goodness Freddies lets you go to any checkout in the store.

I've had to work the days after Thanksgiving & Christmas before, and truly feel for you. Maybe that's why I can't bring myself to be rough on frazzled employees, and maybe that's why I wind up finding friendly, helpful employees, even when shopping on crazy days.

Thank you to all of the store employees who had to get up super early and deal with hordes of people seeking the ultimate deal.

[Imogene]

It's valid SATURDAY. Not today.

I jumped on a register that an MOD had used today, and was going through his coupons later, and found one that was for Saturday. I can just see it now, I'm going to get in trouble for it.

[bainsidhe]

When I was shopping this morning, Bon Ton had a $10.00 off coupon, which is great, but I had to consider the poor misery of the sales associates. The coupon's catch? The single item had to be over $10.00 and there was a whole huge list of exclusions including, electronics, jewelry, bonus buys, early birds, etc. I brandished the coupon like a torch before me and made my way through the maze of Black Friday Hellishness. The coupon was good for regular sale items, so I found 6pair package of socks for $14.00 that was 25% off, plus I took another 10 bucks off. I got 6 pair of socks for 52 cents. Whoo hoo. Meantime, I listed to other people as their cashier calmly explained why the super-duper-awesome coupons didn't apply to their merchanise. Man, those poor employees. What a crummy, miserable idea the coupon scheme is because people. don't. read. fine print.

I just worked evening shift, thank goodness for not working this morning! People were generally pleasant, but sad that we sold out of nearly everything.

[Listerfiend]

OHMYGOD YES.

The people at corporate at our company SUCK BALLS.

The incidents with the coupons was absolutely ludicrous!! Not only were the damn turkey buck not working (which they knew ahead of time...), but come opening time the freaking 25% off ends up not working... Which was really really helpful when dealing with a ton of n00b cashiers (hired seasonal help WAY too late this year... there are probably 5 kids that've been with us less than a month). Even though we had the memos from corporate with the discount directions sitting on EVERY register, I still had my cashiers asking me how to do them every 15 minutes.

THAT and seriously--customers need to learn how to differentiate numbers. If coupon only "works" for a $25 order, it needs to be over $25. Not $16. Not $12. Why don't people understand this?? Are SCs just illiterate?

And I had a SC today that got all huffy when she learned that we were out of all of our Cricut machines. Yeah--we sold out this morning, around, oh, 10am. She came in at about 5pm and started yammering on about how it was "false advertising" and we shouldn't advertise a product that we didn't have, etc. Excuse me? A $300 machine on sale/clearance for $130? No shit it sold out--that's an incredible deal. I told her that yes it was advertised at that price, but we were out. End of story. I had to take the as flier out of her hand and show her that it had a huge "WHILE SUPPLIES LAST" caption on it. I mean really--what am I supposed to do? Go BACK IN TIME and change every copy of the ad just so that it reads "will actually run out at store #xxxx at x o'clock??

I was fortunate that my store wasn't terribly busy today, but I am not looking forward to tomorrow... But at least the coupons won't be all screwed up.

[Listerfiend]

I jumped on a register that an MOD had used today, and was going through his coupons later, and found one that was for Saturday. I can just see it now, I'm going to get in trouble for it.

As long as none of your transactions had the coupon in them you'll be fine; the office assistant/etc. will be able to catch it. Plus, I would hope that you wouldn't get yelled at for something that trivial... Hell, one of my managers took one as well and didn't notice it was for Saturday.

[Sliceanddice]

And I had a SC today that got all huffy when she learned that we were out of all of our Cricut machines. Yeah--we sold out this morning, around, oh, 10am. She came in at about 5pm and started yammering on about how it was "false advertising" and we shouldn't advertise a product that we didn't have, etc. Excuse me? A $300 machine on sale/clearance for $130? No shit it sold out--that's an incredible deal. I told her that yes it was advertised at that price, but we were out. End of story. I had to take the as flier out of her hand and show her that it had a huge "WHILE SUPPLIES LAST" caption on it. I mean really--what am I supposed to do? Go BACK IN TIME and change every copy of the ad just so that it reads "will actually run out at store #xxxx at x o'clock??

Oh man you think the cricut sales people are bad? How about the circut i dont understand the words risk free and especially trial people!
I sale the circut to. Love it.
But i sell it at a generally better deal most of the time than you.
85 dollars more worth a free gifts which include a cartage at 50-100 dollars less than you with the opition of a payhment plan.
I hate it when people call in and im collecting there info and they say "Yeah i wanna Circut" i go great lets go over todays deal and get your order started, then piss and moan that its so much!! or in the memerable case of one woman- "Omg thats false advertising!!" Um.. NO... T-R-I-A-L! "Omg i can't believe your only selling for a 100 dollars less than the store!!!" I'm sorry dont forget the 85 dollar extra value and payment plan. "I CANT BELIEVE ITS SO MUCH!!" you pay for convience lady. "You should give me a discount cause im a teacher " nope you fail. go spend a hundard extra dollars at the store please bye bye. "YOU ONLY ADVERTISED 49.99!! IM NOT SPENDING MORE" didnt i say goodbye? oh and we say trail not only out loud but in print on the screen that stays there for like 10 minutes.
i love the circut hate the idiots.

[simplyanother]

. Which was really really helpful when dealing with a ton of n00b cashiers (hired seasonal help WAY too late this year... there are probably 5 kids that've been with us less than a month). Even though we had the memos from corporate with the discount directions sitting on EVERY register, I still had my cashiers asking me how to do them every 15 minutes.

Shoot, I'm not a newbie, and I still had to ask for clarification at first. (I know that I probably keyed in the first couple of 25% coupons incorrectly. I wonder if/when the customers will notice?). The turkey bucks were confusing at FIRST, but that cheat sheet posted at the register was awesome. (And no thinking involved, for me to help the customers who are mathematically challenged [like me]---I could look up and go..."well, your order is over... X, and according to my handy dandy chart here, you'd save more by using your...whatever"

THAT and seriously--customers need to learn how to differentiate numbers. If coupon only "works" for a $25 order, it needs to be over $25. Not $16. Not $12. Why don't people understand this?? Are SCs just illiterate?

Are they? Yes, yes they are! I would have been tempted to say..."oh, no, see you can only use those on orders that total to EXACTLY 25 dollars, pretax..." But then I would realize....that's just more work for me.

And I had a SC today that got all huffy when she learned that we were out of all of our Cricut machines. Yeah--we sold out this morning, around, oh, 10am

Yeah, we were out before 10, and we still had people bringing up the request cards after that. I answered the phone, and it was an associate from another store, at about 11 am, and she was searching for the elusive cricut.... She had to have been dealing with a sucky customer on her end, because when I told her we were out, she sounded so crestfallen "oh, they're out everywhere then?"...

I was fortunate that my store wasn't terribly busy today, but I am not looking forward to tomorrow... But at least the coupons won't be all screwed up.

My store was a mad house. It'll be a madhouse today. If the coupons don't work, I'm going to LOCK the doors... you think they'll let me? They never do.

Another thing that annoyed me, was that there were several calls about items that we do NOT carry, and the customer was not satisfied with that answer, and wanted to know where to buy them. Normally, we'll try to get someone to give them the answer, because--I don't know. But yesterday it was "Do you have any....obscure craft item that the person at home depot said was at michaels?" "no, we don't sell those" "well do you have any in back?" "no, we don't carry that item" "Do you know where I can get one?" "no, I all know is that we don't carry them, have a nice day".

Oh, my FAVORITE customer? This woman who bought, oh about 25 of something, she watches me scan THEM ALL. Then as I'm scanning the last "is there any reason why they aren't ringing up for the sale price?". WTF? She couldn't have done that when she saw the first one scan incorrectly? So, of course I got a price check (but the manager told me to just give it to her, which I did not mind, really). but that meant that I had to void out each item and rescan, and apply this imaginary discount. "oh, I didn't realize you'd have to redo each one". LIAR! How the hell do you expect to get the discount? Magic? (And this was something that was normally 79 cents. lol)

You know, normally the "it must be free" bunch, doesn't bother me. Yesterday it did. LOTS. That and the "I get to go home" bunch. Blah.

For the MOST part, my customers were okay. The few that weren't, really soured my day.

I can't wait until they come in today with the giant 25% from yesterday and the turkey bucks and expect to use them. YAY! Blah.

[Imogene]

I can't wait until they come in today with the giant 25% from yesterday and the turkey bucks and expect to use them. YAY! Blah.

Ah, but there is a coupon for today in the same ad, so, if they have the ad, just flip it over to the front and point out the 'Today only' coupon. If they don't have the ad, well, then, yeah, crap. But otherwise, you do have a safety net today.

And, Listerfiend: I won't get 'yelled' at, I might however have to sign for my time card, along with a pleasant note that: You screwed up.

[Listerfiend]

I just wanted to say that I only had two people try to use the Turkey Bucks today. I also only had one customer that came in for a price adjustment after buying stuff yesterday with the 25% coupon that wasn't done correctly. Yay for less suck than anticipated...

[simplyanother]

The best part about today, was...that it the morning was calm. For a minute. Then the suck started to trickle in.

Geez, can't people understand that sale papers are NATIONWIDE, and that this means that stuff may not be available at ALL stores?

And If I hear another person tell me that they saw something on the store website, I'll scream. You can't even order anything from it, it's useless. And shoot, if you have a question about something from the website, PRINT it out, that'll help, a little bit, maybe.

Assholes.

I'm glad this day is over.