complaining about bargain price

[Rine]

We clearanced some washcloths and towels--97 cents each. The towels were nice and fluffy...but the washcloths *were* a little on the thin side, but still nice, IMO.

Even better, it was TWELVE washcloths (a set) for 97 cents. Awesome deal!

Well, not for one customer.

SC: These washcloths are cheap and kinda thin! I want something better.
Me: Well, I have some washcloths here that are very nice...on sale for 2.99 each.
SC: I want a pack of them just like this one...for 97 cents.
Me: Errr. No, I can't do that. This is a real bargain, ma'am. These were 10 dollars when they first came in the store and now they are only a dollar!
SC: No, I want better washcloths but at the same or similiar price...you can't sell me this cheap stuff. Isn't this the same brand as the others? Why aren't they at this price too?
Another customer behind her: Okay, if you don't want it, I'll take it in a heartbeat!
Other customer: Yeah, it's a good price and I could use them too!
SC: Fine, I'll take them.

I don't know really why she was complaining. It's a washcloth. You just got twelve of them for ninety seven cents.

[infinitemonkies]

Hey, I like the price on that toyota, but I want a porche for that price instead.
I mean, come on, they're both cars!

[bainsidhe]

Gotta love the bargain bullies. I remember working during the liquidation of Media Play. Every other customer pulled that crap and didn't give a damn that you were losing your job. If I ever have the "privilege" of working someplace again that goes bankrupt, I will quit toot sweet.

[Geek King]

Hey, I like the price on that toyota, but I want a porche for that price instead.
I mean, come on, they're both cars!

And heck, most Porches are smaller cars to boot. They should be cheaper than the Toyota, right?

[cinema guy]

SC: No, I want better washcloths but at the same or similiar price...you can't sell me this cheap stuff.

Cheap = not costing a lot. By definition cheap stuff is cheap.

[jackfaire]

If I ever have the "privilege" of working someplace again that goes bankrupt, I will quit toot sweet.

I picked up a nice jacket at a place like that and I felt really ghoulish even shopping there but I needed a new jacket and the deals were too good. The whole time i was in there though was kind of awkward cuz you knew they were gonna be out of work and they knew it. It wasn't too horribly bad as most were in highschool living at home but still.

[Shalom]

Shopping at a going-out-of-business sale isn't always the way to find bargains. I remember when Circuit City went under. The stores were sold to a liquidator, who was advertising 10% off on everything. Yeah right. What they'd done was crank all the prices back up to MSRP, even on stuff that had been out for years and was selling for a fraction of its original price, and then take 10% off that. Prices were actually higher during liquidation than when the store was still in business.

(I still remember Lafayette Radio, as they originally called themselves. They were the only competition for Radio Shack in the small-parts game, back then. It was a sad ending for a once-great company.)

Of course in New York there were a few stores that were perpetually "going out of business", trying to attract bargain shoppers. There was an old Yiddish joke wherein the proprietor of a store put up a sign saying "Now in our tenth year of going-out-of-business sale!"

Jokes aside, I once saw a sign that said "Going Out for Business!" Now that's imaginative.

[protege]

Cheap = not costing a lot. By definition cheap stuff is cheap.

Depends on what it is--I've had many pairs of "cheap" shoes outlast the more expensive brands. Same with batteries--those plain Evereadys will usually outlast the more expensive Energizer and Duracell

[Shalom]

those plain Evereadys will usually outlast the more expensive Energizer and Duracell

Got news for you, the Energizer is, and has always been, nothing more than relabeled Eveready Alkalines. Not sure what possessed them to bring the vintage labeling back, but it's exactly the same battery.

[blas]

Evereadys? That sounds better suited for condoms, not batteries.....

There are human versions of Mr. Krabs everywhere.....something that the normal Joe and Jane would find to be a great deal or even a steal, there's always some dingledork out there who thinks it's a ripoff and should be cheaper!

[Andara Bledin]

Of course in New York there were a few stores that were perpetually "going out of business", trying to attract bargain shoppers. There was an old Yiddish joke wherein the proprietor of a store put up a sign saying "Now in our tenth year of going-out-of-business sale!"

Crazy Gideon's in Los Angeles has sales that are done up so the ads look like "Going Out of Business" ads, but they're not. I can't remember what they do for the effect however.

^-.-^

[Anthony K. S.]

I remember when Circuit City went under.

. . .

Prices were actually higher during liquidation than when the store was still in business.

The sad thing is that there were probably a lot of customers who paid those higher prices and seriously believed that they were getting a bargain.


It reminds me of an episode of the Garfield and Friends animated TV series, in which Jon Arbuckle gets suckered into shopping at a huge supermarket run in a rather less than ethical fashion.

At one point, the owner says to one of his employees, "How much are pears? 25 cents each? Now, watch this."

He then gets on the loudspeaker and says, "Attention, customers. We are currently having a special on pears. Only 85 cents each."

The customers immediately rush off to load up on pears, as the owner laughs and cackles, "People will pay anything if you tell them it's a special."


<Sigh> Oh, well . . .


(By the way, in case anybody wants to know, that supermarket owner did get his comeuppance at the end of that cartoon.

He was talking about how his customers were stupid enough to pay the high prices he was charging in his store, and ranting about how a small local grocery store, which offered much lower prices, was making it hard for him to soak his customers . . . All the while, he was unaware that Garfield had switched on the loudspeaker, so all the customers in the store could hear what he was saying.

Didn't take long after that for his operation to fold. )

[jackfaire]

I was in a store once and noticed the price on some stuff a few days later the price was higher I didn't think anything of it until the next day they announced a sale when I looked the sale price was what it had originally been priced at.

[AccountingDrone]

I knew a small privately owned computer store that had a shrink wrapper out back and they would rewrap games/programs that had been returned or traded in and sell them as new.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

It reminds me of an episode of the Garfield and Friends animated TV series, in which Jon Arbuckle gets suckered into shopping at a huge supermarket run in a rather less than ethical fashion.

At one point, the owner says to one of his employees, "How much are pears? 25 cents each? Now, watch this."

He then gets on the loudspeaker and says, "Attention, customers. We are currently having a special on pears. Only 85 cents each."

The customers immediately rush off to load up on pears, as the owner laughs and cackles, "People will pay anything if you tell them it's a special."

And now the same point, in clever web comic form.