Penny items make two customers happy but piss off 20

[drjonah]

Ok so at the place I work at, when certain items are discontinued, they get marked for a penny and we are supposed to send them back to the distribution center to get donated.

Well, today various apparel items (with certain colored dots on the tag) went down to a penny and my manager was supposed to pull them off the shelf. Well he misinterpreted the email and thought we had until tomorrow to do it (not only that, but it's a very tedious project that would take forever).

To make matters worse with penny items, there are websites out there that tell people what is a penny so the vultures swoop.

Well today, two vultures oops I mean ladies, came in and filled up FOUR carts with all the apparel items that were a penny and a bunch of items that weren't a penny but they thought they were.

They come up to the register and my co-worker gets on the backup register to help with the regular customers so there won't be a logjam. Well, instead of that happening, the other vulture lugged her cart to the other register. So now *I* am tied up with one vulture who's arguing why certain items aren't a penny, and my co-worker is tied up with the other vulture who's also arguing that everything in their cart is supposed to be a penny.

Checking out each person took almost an HOUR, during that time, customers are getting really pissed off and just stormed out because both registers were tied up.

All in all, each vulture get close to 200 apparel items and spent a whopping $4. Lost sales during this whole ordeal was probably close to $500.

[Mike Taylor]

I despise retail vultures. Probably one of the few good things about a going out of business sale is that it's open season on these disgusting creatures during the last day of being open top the public.

[eltf177]

Checking out each person took almost an HOUR, during that time, customers are getting really pissed off and just stormed out because both registers were tied up.

There wasn't any way to open a third line? Or put both vultures in the same line? I agree, I would have dropped my items and left as well...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

There wasn't any way to open a third line? Or put both vultures in the same line? I agree, I would have dropped my items and left as well...

Sounds like there were only two registers in the store, and I'm quite certain the second vulture would've raised hell if she was asked to wait behind the first vulture.

Fail on the manager for not pulling the penny items right away. Even if it would've taken a while and he didn't get everything pulled, it would've minimized the amount of penny merchandise available for the vultures to snag.

[drjonah]

We have three registers but one is broken and unless it's truck day, there's only 2 people working in the store at all times. We generally don't do enough business to justify having a 3rd person working at the same time.

I have to laugh when they always claim they are donating these penny items to the church. Our regional loss prevention manager goes to flea markets on a regular basis and is always finding merchandise for sale with our label or tags on it.

[cindybubbles]

Why are things marked down to a penny? Why can't they just be put on clearance or final sale and not be marked down as much?

[KellyHabersham]

When I worked at Macy's, I think it was the price-changing associates (or whatever they were called) who were supposed to remove the penny items......not sure what all was done with them, just that they were NOT supposed to be sold to customers.

[drjonah]

Why are things marked down to a penny? Why can't they just be put on clearance or final sale and not be marked down as much?

They are slowly marked down over a period of about 2 months. Usually it starts with like 25% off, then 50%, then 75%, then 90%. Anything left over after that period of time gets 'pennied'. The problem is with apparel, there are SO many different colored dots/stars that it really is an all day project trying to sort through all the clothes/shoes/hats/gloves/etc to find the correct dots to pull.

And it also doesn't help that you have these websites out there telling people exactly when stuff is a penny. So as soon as we open the door vultures usually start swooping.

[Silent-Hunter]

I wouldn't have a problem going to a store that was having the penny items, but I'd only buy as many as I need. The rest should be donated.

Also I wouldn't be an ass about it.

[Snaptwitch]

We have penny items, but when they ring out at the register, it won't ring up a penny. They only show a penny on the scan guns, so we know to pull. It will ring up asking to put a price in. So if we miss penny items, and a customer brings something up, they will get it at the last known price.

[MoonCat]

Who the heck is behind these websites telling people this?

[Sliceanddice]

Who the heck is behind these websites telling people this?

all you need is one employee who likes the extra bit of cash they get from the add sells, and really doesnt care about their real job, posting when they get the word of discountinuations.

plus their are always people who just keep track of products and would know when its time for them to go the way of dinosaurs.

simple answer: people with to much dang time on their hands.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

We have penny items, but when they ring out at the register, it won't ring up a penny. They only show a penny on the scan guns, so we know to pull. It will ring up asking to put a price in. So if we miss penny items, and a customer brings something up, they will get it at the last known price.

See, this makes sense. At that point it's better and more profitable to just pull the stuff and ship it back, even if it takes a few days to find everything. At least it removes the opportunity for the vultures to swoop in.

all you need is one employee who likes the extra bit of cash they get from the add sells, and really doesnt care about their real job, posting when they get the word of discountinuations.

plus their are always people who just keep track of products and would know when its time for them to go the way of dinosaurs.

simple answer: people with to much dang time on their hands.

I don't have too much of a problem with sites that tell you good deals and ways to save money legitimately. Saving money and clipping coupons is fashionable.

What I do have an issue with are the sites that encourage illegal activity (buy a trial-size product and use a coupon for the full-size version of that product because it just so happens the barcode on the coupon will scan), suggest that store policies don't apply to you (even if they say to be polite!), or encourage senselessly wasting the store employees' time (buy a bunch of stuff with coupons and return it all so you can walk out with more money than you paid for the stuff).

[wolfie]

or encourage senselessly wasting the store employees' time (buy a bunch of stuff with coupons and return it all so you can walk out with more money than you paid for the stuff).

Why hasn't some chain figured out how to program their POS systems so that when something is purchased using a coupon, it's shown as discounted on the receipt, so that if the item is returned the customer only gets the discounted price back? After all, that's what they actually paid for the item.

Canuckistan Rubber Donut has "cash bonus coupons" (they've "nerfed" the percentage down to a level where it's no longer worthwhile) that you get when you pay for something using cash, and if you return the item and don't hand in the coupon at the same time (they'll process it while you're digging for the coupon), they take the value of the coupon off your refund.

[MelindaJoy77]

Ugggggghhhhh I hate, hate, hate super clearance items. Our store does this all the time, marking things for a dollar or 50 cents or whatever, at random, and we have to mark it down at the register. We don't always know what these items are, so if the customer doesn't mention anything then we don't always know what's marked down. To make matters worse, we got a new store manager recently and so he's been going through the back room and clearing things out, so we've had a ton of random clearance lately. I had an older couple come through my line the other day, a SPEEDY 20 items or less, but of course they had a million and a half of these clearance items and it took forever. And if something is priced really high but it's marked down to a dollar, we have to wait for a CSM to override either the individual item or the entire purchase or both.