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Dusting off my Customer Etiquette Professor cap for a bit. 
How Clearance Pricing Works
Ok. You are interested in a clearance phone set, which for whatever reason does not have the original price listed. You ask me what the original price was so you can gauge how good a deal it is. Not unreasonable, so I tell you that it was originally $99.99. The clearance price is $79.90. Not a bad deal for a 3 handset, 5.8GHz phone set with digital answering system.
However, it is wholly inappropriate for you to tell me that the clearance price is somehow wrong. It's even worse for you to try to lecture me on how clearance pricing works. I'M the Professor!! YOU are the plebe! Watch your place!
As I understand your delusional idea of clearance, you believe that "clearance" means "50% off or more" and that if it's not at least 50% off, we aren't doing it right.
Wrong. Your grade is F!!! F!!! YOU FAIL!!!!
As I told you then, "Clearance doesn't work like that at any store that I know of."
Here's the "secret" about clearance that you don't know: clearance is simply a word. It means little more than a given item is no longer being actively carried by the store, and the remaining stock has been marked down. How much it's marked down is up to us not you. We could mark it down by $0.01USD if we wanted to, and it's still be clearance. There is no requirement, standard, or law that says it MUST be 50%, especially since that would be below our cost for most items. The item in question here has been marked down 20%, which is quite a respectable markdown.
Now, if you feel that 20% isn't a sufficient markdown for this item, fine. That's your opinion and I respect that. By all means don't buy it. Someone else will. However, it's is only your opinion, not a fact, and it certainly doesn't mean that we have made a mistake on the price.
Oh, by the way, someone happily paid $79.90 for that set shortly after you left.
Selling Culture 101
Take a look around. We are inside a Big Box Retailer. This isn't an open-air bazaar, a flea market, a garage sale, OR a swap meet. Therefore, the employees can NOT haggle.
It is important to understand that when dealing with retailers, pricing is often outside the control of the employees; it's set by the home office, and the managers have little if any leeway to offer discounts. To ask that we accept something lower than the marked price for an item is not only completely futile, but it's actually considered rude, and will make both the hourly associates and the managers irritable and less willing to help you.
And you do not even have the excuse of coming from a culture where haggling is a normal and expected part of business! You're a white American woman, so I do not understand why you aren't aware of this already. The fact that you asked me if I'd accept an offer of $80 for a desk that originally retailed for $149.99, and had been marked down to $127.49 because we were selling the display model (which, by the way, is 15%, and is already more than we are usually allowed to mark down a display), was simply shocking.
Now, on to the next lesson. When you hear something you don't like, it does not mean I'm being rude, unhelpful, or otherwise not doing my job. That sort of attitude is usually reserved for toddlers going through the Terrible Twos. Most civilized cultures frown upon that sort of behavior in adults such as yourself. Moreover, you should have listened to me when I told you in no uncertain terms that having me "check with the manager" would be a waste of time because the answer would still be no. This would have saved you, me, and the MOD a lot of frustration, and you would not have had to huff angrily when - just like I said would happen - the manager rejected your offer of $80 for that desk.
Please take these lessons to heart and it will make your shopping experience better. Not only for you, but for the employees as well.
How Not to Impress Us
Contrary to your view, we are not going to start kissing yourass feet just because you have decided to bless us with your hard earned money on a clearance laptop. This is because the margins are so thin on computers that even at full price we barely make any money, and at a clearance price, we lose money. So just buying it doesn't do us any favors. Now, if you were buying a service plan, some tech services, some software, or at least SOME accessory item with it, then maybe we'd be inclined to offer you some sort of deal. But certainly not when you are making us lose money already. So we are NOT going to cave in to your ridiculous demands that we give you a free carrying case, or a free printer, or take additional money off the laptop.
Also, I do not work on commission, so taking a haughty attitude and attempting to hold the sale over my head to get a better deal or free stuff isn't going to work either, because I get paid whether you buy it or not. Again, simply buying something gives you no leverage. You need to buy something that makes us money before we bend. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
And as in you may recall from the previous lesson, asking a manager and getting huffy does nothing to help your cause. In fact, it makes your position worse.
Class dismissed.
How Clearance Pricing Works
Ok. You are interested in a clearance phone set, which for whatever reason does not have the original price listed. You ask me what the original price was so you can gauge how good a deal it is. Not unreasonable, so I tell you that it was originally $99.99. The clearance price is $79.90. Not a bad deal for a 3 handset, 5.8GHz phone set with digital answering system.
However, it is wholly inappropriate for you to tell me that the clearance price is somehow wrong. It's even worse for you to try to lecture me on how clearance pricing works. I'M the Professor!! YOU are the plebe! Watch your place!
As I understand your delusional idea of clearance, you believe that "clearance" means "50% off or more" and that if it's not at least 50% off, we aren't doing it right.
Wrong. Your grade is F!!! F!!! YOU FAIL!!!!
As I told you then, "Clearance doesn't work like that at any store that I know of."
Here's the "secret" about clearance that you don't know: clearance is simply a word. It means little more than a given item is no longer being actively carried by the store, and the remaining stock has been marked down. How much it's marked down is up to us not you. We could mark it down by $0.01USD if we wanted to, and it's still be clearance. There is no requirement, standard, or law that says it MUST be 50%, especially since that would be below our cost for most items. The item in question here has been marked down 20%, which is quite a respectable markdown.
Now, if you feel that 20% isn't a sufficient markdown for this item, fine. That's your opinion and I respect that. By all means don't buy it. Someone else will. However, it's is only your opinion, not a fact, and it certainly doesn't mean that we have made a mistake on the price.
Oh, by the way, someone happily paid $79.90 for that set shortly after you left.
Selling Culture 101
Take a look around. We are inside a Big Box Retailer. This isn't an open-air bazaar, a flea market, a garage sale, OR a swap meet. Therefore, the employees can NOT haggle.
It is important to understand that when dealing with retailers, pricing is often outside the control of the employees; it's set by the home office, and the managers have little if any leeway to offer discounts. To ask that we accept something lower than the marked price for an item is not only completely futile, but it's actually considered rude, and will make both the hourly associates and the managers irritable and less willing to help you.
And you do not even have the excuse of coming from a culture where haggling is a normal and expected part of business! You're a white American woman, so I do not understand why you aren't aware of this already. The fact that you asked me if I'd accept an offer of $80 for a desk that originally retailed for $149.99, and had been marked down to $127.49 because we were selling the display model (which, by the way, is 15%, and is already more than we are usually allowed to mark down a display), was simply shocking.
Now, on to the next lesson. When you hear something you don't like, it does not mean I'm being rude, unhelpful, or otherwise not doing my job. That sort of attitude is usually reserved for toddlers going through the Terrible Twos. Most civilized cultures frown upon that sort of behavior in adults such as yourself. Moreover, you should have listened to me when I told you in no uncertain terms that having me "check with the manager" would be a waste of time because the answer would still be no. This would have saved you, me, and the MOD a lot of frustration, and you would not have had to huff angrily when - just like I said would happen - the manager rejected your offer of $80 for that desk.
Please take these lessons to heart and it will make your shopping experience better. Not only for you, but for the employees as well.
How Not to Impress Us
Contrary to your view, we are not going to start kissing your
Also, I do not work on commission, so taking a haughty attitude and attempting to hold the sale over my head to get a better deal or free stuff isn't going to work either, because I get paid whether you buy it or not. Again, simply buying something gives you no leverage. You need to buy something that makes us money before we bend. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
And as in you may recall from the previous lesson, asking a manager and getting huffy does nothing to help your cause. In fact, it makes your position worse.
Class dismissed.
)
Why certainly.
) at the ice cream store. She got a whole bowl of free ice cream just because it was a little melted. I was so flabbergasted, I didn't say anything. There wasn't really any suck involved, she asked and the lovely girl behind the counter said okay, but still. It was weird.
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