You lie, You lie, you lie...

[mattm04]

At my store, when possible we mark down day old products such as bread, pies, produce etc. Depending on the product it can be from 33% to 50% off. We place a label clearly indicating yesterdays reduced price <product category> on the package. Enter SC

SC: How much is this? *hold up day-old item*
Me: Looks at sticker, $1.75.
SC: But what is the reduce price. The regular price is 1.75.
Me: Sir, see it says "reduced price bread, 1.75" The regular price is 3.50.
SC: No it is not. Your lying. *Ok, starting to get annoyed*
Me: *I grab a calculator, and paper, and lead SC to self of full price items* Sir, see her is the exact same item, 3.50.
SC: Yes> I understand that!!!
Me: Ok, now it is half off. If i reduce it by half, *does math on calculator in full view of SC* it is 1.50. See.
SC: But....*thinking* why cnat you just reduce the FULL PRICE 1.50 item to half price.
Me: I can't because it is already reduced to half price.
SC: Listen young man, *oh crap, this never goes well* I am older than you. You may think you are smart, but you don't know anything. Just reduce the damn item to half price, stop trying to rip me off, and I will let you do what ever it is you worthless employees do.
Me: Sir, I will get a manager for you as you say I am trying to rip you off.
SC: You better, one that doesn't lie!

I call the MOD and explain the situation. The come over and talk to the SC. I try to listen in. The convo is basically the same as above. Back and forth the SC refusing to listen...

MOD: Sir, it is the correct price *explains*
SC: No it is not, don;t you have the authority to charge the CORRECT price.
MOD: Yes. If it was incorrect I would make sure you paid the correct price.
SC: So...
MOD: However it is the correct price. I will not reduce it any more. Take it or leave it.
SC: You liie! You liar!

The SC stomps off, and purchases the item.

A hour later, the SC calls and tells the Person who answered to get them a "non lying manger on the phone." Only Manager is MOD from above. MOD answers and SC goes on a three minute rant. Manager responds that they were the one you spoke with in the store. As I explained it is the correct price and I will not issue you a refund. You can call back the store tomorrow after <time> and ask for <store manager>, my superior.

The SC hangs up, saying we are all liars and out to rip off the customers.

I expect to see SC next week.

[Canarr]

All this over a buck fifty? Seriously...

[Argabarga]

But it's the PRINCIPLE that counts!

[mdog]

I'm not sure from your post whether this was already the case or not, but it's best to have both the ORIGINAL price and the SALE price on the product, with the original price on a white label, and the SALE price preferably on a RED colored label. This should hopefully let the "smart" customers know that the white label is the normal price, and that we are showing them what the discounted price is for them, on a red label, so that they don't have to do the math themselves. Of course, (and I've had it plently of times myself), there will still always be the SC that demands the discount taken off the RED label, even when the red label already clearly says "SALE PRICE".

Just an idea that may help (if this isn't the case already)

[TonyF]

SC: Listen young man, *oh crap, this never goes well* I am older than you. You may think you are smart, but you don't know anything. Just reduce the damn item to half price, stop trying to rip me off, and I will let you do what ever it is you worthless employees do.

Point out to him that intelligence and maturity doesn't come with age.

Back to the topic, pain felt. I have to deal with this as well at my store. What makes it even worse is that our clearance tags say:

WAS: (PRICE) NOW: (REDUCED PRICE)

People still try to get us to reduce the already reduced price. It's even more annoying right after holidays when all the holiday crap goes 50% off.

[mattm04]

I'm not sure from your post whether this was already the case or not, but it's best to have both the ORIGINAL price and the SALE price on the product, with the original price on a white label, and the SALE price preferably on a RED colored label. This should hopefully let the "smart" customers know that the white label is the normal price, and that we are showing them what the discounted price is for them, on a red label, so that they don't have to do the math themselves. Of course, (and I've had it plently of times myself), there will still always be the SC that demands the discount taken off the RED label, even when the red label already clearly says "SALE PRICE".

Just an idea that may help (if this isn't the case already)

If it as a loaf of commercial bread (ie Wonder Bread) and similar items it will show the original price and the discount but for produce or loose bakery items such as muffins or rolls it just prints a reduce price as those are not in packages w/ a UPC to begin with. For example in bakery, the put all the same price ea items tougher, such as a package of muffins a package of rolls, etc. and mark it down to X% of reg price, say 1.00 ea, 4 in a package, 2.00 total. This was over a wonder bread situation.

The labels essentially say: "Yesterdays Reduced <MUFFINS/PRODUCE/FLORAL/ROLLS, etc" $X.XX for loose items. For packaged items "Yesterdays reduce <product> Reg. 2.00/Reduced 50%/reduced Price 1.00"

[LillFilly]

Arrraaagghhhhwagaaaaaawagggaaaa....Boom!

That was the sound of my brain exploding.

I'm going to go cry for humanity now.

[bainsidhe]

clearly indicating yesterdays reduced price <product category>

And how many SCs say that was "yesterday's" reduced price, what's today's?

[EricKei]

The sad thing is, I don't think any groceries here do that...Despite the fact that french bread (large baguettes, basically) goes quite stale after being out for more than 30 hours or so...It's kinda insulting being asked to pay 2 bucks for a hunk of rock-hard stale bread >_< Especially seeing as how, when stores DID discount stale french bread, they usually dropped it to 75 cents or so (still well above cost). I guess the chains here finally figured out that stale FB does have a couple of actual, practical uses aside from making breadcrumbs -- bread pudding and Lost Bread/pain perdu (cubed baked french toast, for all intents and purposes), for instance...>_>

What scares me is when big chains like Winn Dixie DO discount their foods...almost invariably, they throw "Manager's Special" tags on meat that's no longer red, rolls/donuts/etc that have been sitting out for 4+ days, questionable produce, etc. Ick.

[mattm04]

What scares me is when big chains like Winn Dixie DO discount their foods...almost invariably, they throw "Manager's Special" tags on meat that's no longer red, rolls/donuts/etc that have been sitting out for 4+ days, questionable produce, etc. Ick.

When we do mark stuff down it only sold for 1 day after the original date and after that we toss it i the trash. So for rolls say baked Monday am, marked down tues am and tossed on wed am. Same deal wiht produce, stuff not "full price" fresh but not rotting monday am is sold at reduced price until tues am then tossed.

I have never heard of marking down old meat, that just make me .

[Andara Bledin]

I have never heard of marking down old meat, that just make me .

I've always thought it was common practice for groceries to mark down meat and baked goods that are near the end of their sellable period to encourage people to buy it for cheap and use it pretty much immediately. Or, in the case of meat, freeze it for future use.

^-.-^

[Mishi]

I've always thought it was common practice for groceries to mark down meat and baked goods that are near the end of their sellable period to encourage people to buy it for cheap and use it pretty much immediately. Or, in the case of meat, freeze it for future use.

^-.-^

Yup, we have the meat markdown here, normally it's 1-2 days before the expiry date and doesn't smell right, so no one in their right mind would buy it. For example: Chicken that distinctly smells of fish. Normally it's only marked down a few dollars anyway. Vegetables too, I've seen pre-packed, marked-down salads that the bottom quarter of the package is basically olive green sludge.

[EricKei]

Nothing against you, Matt & Mishi (if you DO work for WD) --

...But I've seen meat at WD which has been out long enough to no longer even look "red" from a distance...I've pulled back labels before to see dates which really were in the danger zone. Bakery isn't so bad, but most of the really good sales I see there are for advertised sales anyway, rather than "manager's specials"

I have fewer problems with out-of-date bread than I do with out-of-date produce or meat. Stale bread makes awesome f-toast, perdu, or bread pudding ^_^ But, I still think that they should do what was done in the old days, and have an explicitly-marked "stale bread" bin with huge discounts, 60% or better...Better a slight loss than a total loss, ne? It gets written off either way...

The thing is, as a whole, WD is *WORLDS* better than they were back in, say, the early 90's. The stores actually get *cleaned* these days. Local WD's were known -- back then -- for deli workers who made the DMV look aggressively friendly, dirt on the floors (not just dirty floors, I'm talking about commonly seeing spills from damaged product bags that were left alone for hours and hours even when they weren't busy), and a superlative meat market -- I'm talking about the best meat in town, one of the things that MADE them as a store. These days, it's all reversed: the stores are spic-and-span, the deli ladies are cool...and the meat department has deteriorated to "just average", despite the competition from smaller, more expensive local places that have restaurant-grade meats (I know of exactly one which really can get actual Prime more often than not, rather than the standard "Choice or Better")...

It's likely that I have just had the misfortune to have a store where the butchers/bakers/candlestick makers are less careful about this sort of thing than you guys are ^_^

[batmoody]

Yet another reason why many stores don't even mark stuff down anymore. Ours doesn't, we used to, but too much hassel. Into the trash it goes.

[Jester]

Me: *I grab a calculator, and paper, and lead SC to self of full price items* Sir, see her is the exact same item, 3.50.
SC: Yes> I understand that!!!
Me: Ok, now it is half off. If i reduce it by half, *does math on calculator in full view of SC* it is 1.50. See.
SC: But....*thinking* why cnat you just reduce the FULL PRICE 1.50 item to half price.

I hate to be the one to point this out, but apparently no one can do math any more.

Half of 3.50 is 1.75. Which was the original price you quoted the customer. It is not 1.50.

Just saying.

...But I've seen meat at WD which has been out long enough to no longer even look "red" from a distance...I've pulled back labels before to see dates which really were in the danger zone.

The thing is, as a whole, WD is *WORLDS* better than they were back in, say, the early 90's.

I would dare say that not all WD's are created equal. My local WD is definitely better than it used to be, but even in its former state, it was not even close to being as bad as some of the things you cited.

Remember, not all locations in a chain are identical, for good or bad. It might just have been your local WD or WDs that sucked so badly.