We're not special enough

[sylvier]

Haven't posted for awhile but I had to share my experience with a really fun couple last week. They came in to order a birthday cake for their son and wanted to know what we had to offer. I gave them our info on sizes, flavours and pricing. And then the fun began.

Dad: Do you make round cakes? (Competitor bakery) makes round cakes
Me: No sir, as I told you, we only make oblong cakes

Dad: Can you make an orange-flavoured cake? (Competitor bakery) makes orange cakes
Me: No sir, we don't make an orange-flavoured cake, but I can put mandarins into the filling and on top of the cake

Dad: Do you have coconut-flavoured icing? (Competitor bakery) has coconut-flavoured icing
Me: No sir, I'm sorry but we don't have coconut-flavoured icing, but I can sprinkle some toasted coconut on the top and sides of the cake

He kept giving me the cat-butt face, and then his wife went ahead with the order. So today was the day, cake was ordered for noon. It was still in the showcase at 3:30 so I called the wife. She told me that she'd called back on the same day she placed the order, and cancelled because her sonny boy wanted a "special" cake. I don't believe that she called us back, but I haven't had a chance to ask all my co-workers yet. Clearly she went to competitor bakery and probably paid twice as much. Oh well, hope her son liked his special cake

[MoonCat]

Jeez, why didn't they just go to the other bakery in the first place?? Oh, wait, I know---they wanted a "special" cake without paying "special" prices...

[wolfie]

And this is why the bakery needs to charge a deposit (applied to the final price when the customer picks it up) for custom orders. If the customer doesn't pick it up, the store won't be able to sell it at full price (due to "Happy birthday SC's kid" markings), so they'll have to mark it down a lot. Who knows? Maybe some SCs will special order for the day before they need it, not pick it up, and have their spouse buy it when it shows up marked down. With the deposit being forfeit on "didn't pick up" orders, adding that to the marked down price means the store would still get full price.

[Evannah]

Wait... so you MADE this cake for them and then they pull this on you? WTF! Do they realise what they've done?!

[taxguykarl]

Of course they don't, Evannah, they're SC's.

[Smapti]

The grocery store I work at does custom orders and adds writing for free. Last year, when I was working the graveyard shift, one of my duties towards the end of the day was to "plunder" - basically, walk all around the perimeter and up and down the aisles of the store with an empty cart and collect any and all products that customers had picked up and then just tossed wherever when they decided they didn't want them.

The one that sticks with me is one time when I was in the produce department, near the front of the store, and I found a custom cake with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTHONY!" written on it. It really gets me because the way our store is laid out, the produce department is the very first area you're guided into, and the bakery department is the very last area you should reach just before making it to the registers - which means this shopper made a full circuit of the store, got their cake which they had placed an order for in advance, decided to go back to the produce department, and THEN decided there was something over there they needed so desperately that they had to ditch the cake.

Fortunately, in situations like that where the package hadn't been opened and the food doesn't require refrigeration, we were able to send the cake to the local food bank and at least someone was able to enjoy it. I still wonder how Anthony's birthday turned out, though.

[An Haddock]

Fortunately, in situations like that where the package hadn't been opened and the food doesn't require refrigeration, we were able to send the cake to the local food bank and at least someone was able to enjoy it. I still wonder how Anthony's birthday turned out, though.

Obviously you ruined it. Probably ruined his Christmas, too.

[dalesys]

... the produce department, ... needed so desperately that they had to ditch the cake...

Oooo! Overage discounted fruit! I can make pruno!

[earl colby pottinger]

Booze

Oooo! Overage discounted fruit! I can make pruno!

Do they pass any booze along that path?

[XCashier]

Wait... so you MADE this cake for them and then they pull this on you? WTF! Do they realise what they've done?!

Oh, they realize it. They just don't care. They're the Almighty Customer Who's Always Right, after all, and the employees are just the lowly slave peon caste bred to serve them.

[Smapti]

Do they pass any booze along that path?

Not if they take the shortest possible route, but the beer aisle's only two rows over.

[Jetfire]

Fortunately, in situations like that where the package hadn't been opened and the food doesn't require refrigeration, we were able to send the cake to the local food bank and at least someone was able to enjoy it. I still wonder how Anthony's birthday turned out, though.

I wonder if Anthony might have been a young kid who threw a tantrum in the store, so the parent left the cake behind as punishment or something. At least that's the first thing that comes to mind for leaving it behind. Still sucky of course, since they should have handed it off to a worker and/or taken it back to the bakery.