EW cigarette suckiness

[Gibbo]

A woman came up to me today and asked for a 20 pack of cigarettes. We had ran out 20 packs of the brand she wanted so I asked her if she wanted to two 10 packs instead. She said yes and I got them from the display.

Woman "Hold on. You're not going to charge me £6.18? (the packs are £3.09 each)"
Me "Yeah I'll have to"
Woman "It's more expensive than a pack of 20!"
Me "I know but that is what I'll have to charge"
Woman "Then I don't want them"

This isn't the first time I've had trouble like this as I've had people get upset because 10 packs are more than half the price of 20 packs. I once had a middle aged woman who wanted a 100 pack of our most popular brand, but we had ran out so she decided to get five 20 packs instead. She then flipped out on me because she wanted me to charge her for the price of a 100 pack and I wouldn't. She did buy them but wasn't at all happy that they were more expensive.

[blas]

I didn't know those existed. Around here, all packs of cigarettes come in 20 packs. Although for a while, Marlboro had a 25 pack.

[Mr Hero]

Wow! I didn't think packs of 100 would exist. My throat burns just at the thought of visiting that person's home.

[ottid]

This isn't the first time I've had trouble like this as I've had people get upset because 10 packs are more than half the price of 20 packs. I once had a middle aged woman who wanted a 100 pack of our most popular brand, but we had ran out so she decided to get five 20 packs instead. She then flipped out on me because she wanted me to charge her for the price of a 100 pack and I wouldn't. She did buy them but wasn't at all happy that they were more expensive.

Gives a whole new meaning to a "Pack a day smoker"

Don't people realise that it is more expensive to pack goods into a smaller amount because it ends up with extra packaging, extra labour, extra space used in transport etc?

[edible_hat]

Wow! I didn't think packs of 100 would exist.

It would be the size of two 50 packs, or an old style cassette Walkman.

[Gibbo]

It would be the size of two 50 packs, or an old style cassette Walkman.

It's just five 20 packs bundled together.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's just five 20 packs bundled together.

This. We sell selected 100 packs at the petrol station, and we do sometimes get fuckbags who, on hearing that we either don't sell 100 packs of their prefered brand or that we've run out of the 100 packs, whine, "But it's more expensive!" Go tell someone who cares; either buy the fags or get the hell out.

[RayvenQ]

That's happened to me a few times, but it's no big deal really, if you're spending so much on cigs can't you spare just a bit more change (though it is annoying if you had to copper up for some and that happens or the prices change)

Prices of cigs have shot up, then again I'm buying tobbacco and papers and that hasn't really changed so Im not noticed (Amber Leaf 50G, lasts a week and comes with 100 papers)

[bookworm]

When my local store runs out of cartons of my smokes (carton = 10 packs of 20 cigs), if they have enough, they will sell me individual packs at the carton price.

That might also be because they don't get to choose what they order, corp just sends whatever. Normally they only get one carton of my cigs, so I'm SOL if I don't get there the day the truck arrives.

And I've never thrown a fit because they were out or didn't have enough packs to do the carton thing. Just give me a pack to get me thru today and I'll get a carton somewhere else.

[VComps]

bookworm: that's nice of them, but in a lot of places it's actually illegal to discount tobacco. Like where I live... if you have an ad in your hand advertising a 10% off sale, I'll guarantee that it says "10% off everything in the store*"

*Excluding tobacco and lottery

Another couple of fun facts about cigarettes where I am - a 25 pack will run you about $13, and things like loyalty programs aren't redeemable on tobacco (ie, points programs - you don't get points for cigs, and you can't redeem them to buy cigs.)

Fun!

[aurelemsrealm]

You learn something new everyday. I've never been anywhere that's sold anything different than 20 cigarettes per pack and 10 packs per carton. Well, except the Marlboro 25's, but those have been so rare in my experience that I easily forget about that. Usually, if I have 10 packs of the same brand of cigarette, I will sell them as a carton if that's what the customer wants. It's never been an issue with management to do that so long as it's all the same brand.

[ralerin]

As an FYI-Marlboro still do sell the 25's. We get them at my Aid of Rite but they're RARE and sell out super duper fast.

And I second that-you do learn something new every day. 100 cigarettes.

[Megg]

It must be different on the other side of the pond or something? Or are you in Canada? See, my sheltered little self has never traveled outside the continental US, so I am completely unfamiliar with other places' customs. That's part of why I this board!

Here, there are discounts on cigarettes all the time, and I have never had anyone have a problem selling me 10 packs at a carton price. If they did, I would just say okay and go somewhere else, though. No need to get all uppity at you for doing your job. I hate people like that, my lifelong dream is to get in line behind some dingwad so I can tell them all about it! Not happened yet, but I keep hoping.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

When my local store runs out of cartons of my smokes (carton = 10 packs of 20 cigs), if they have enough, they will sell me individual packs at the carton price.

Back when I used to order the cigarettes/tobacco at the WD, that's what I'd do for customers.

Grab 10 loose packs from the pack rack (this was way back when they were still out in the open and accessible to customers) and have the cashier hand key the upc code for the carton (which I could find on the shelf tag on the carton rack.)

Voila . . . the customer still got a carton of their smokes. And I could special order some brands that we didn't have in our regular set if I had an order code (we ordered what we needed at store level.)

I had one regular customer (he worked in a group home that looks after disabled adults) who always bought Players cigarettes. They weren't in our set and hard to find, but I managed to find an order code for them. And he always bought them on a regular basis for quite a while.

Then he wasn't coming back for them . . . found out why soon after from his mom. He had a sudden heart attack and died. All the employees missed him, as he was always so nice to everyone.

And I've never thrown a fit because they were out or didn't have enough packs to do the carton thing. Just give me a pack to get me thru today and I'll get a carton somewhere else.

I've had to do that too on occasion if it was just before payday or too tired/lazy to go to the tobacco store for a carton. It's not the end of the world, as a select few SC's will think.

[SpyOne]

Marlboro does offer sort of a half-carton: 5 boxes of 20 cigs each, for more than half what a carton costs.

Part of the problem is going to be places like the one I work: if we run out of cartons, a customer can still buy 10 packs at the carton price. Essentially, there is a discount on 10 packs. Similarly, we can sell individual beers out of a 6-pack or we can sell the 6-pack. It's more like we charge extra for breaking the package, I guess.

So, customers get used to hearing "we've run out of cartons, but I can give you 10 packs at the carton price." So when they hear you say, "We've run out of 10-packs, but I could give you 2 5-packs," they just naturally assume that sentence is going to end with "at the 10-pack price".