I knew this was gonna happen...

[Dreamstalker]

One of our items for Salepocalypse was an awesome kind of cracker that's normally $6/bag, they were on sale for $1. Not unsuprisingly, we ran through our initial allotment (36 cases of 12) in the first four days although the flyer and signs stated three items per customer. I fault both the POS for not being programmed to reject quantities over 3, and also the cashiers for not stopping people who were trying to buy 12 in one go--but mainly the POS, there's no reason to not program an item limit.

When those went OOS, the flyers and all signage were reprinted to omit that product, so for all intents and purposes it didn't exist.

When they came back in stock, we put them back on the shelf with no sale signage at all (we only got the deal from the distributor on the initial shipment so would lose a lot of money if we put them on sale again).

There's an SC who missed out on this item the first time around and has held on to one of the first sale flyers, so has come back in repeatedly demanding (and getting!) them for a dollar each. The first wave of flyers did not say "While supplies last" which is probably the only reason the front end has caved to her.

Grocery has lost about $40 in the past 3 days to this vulture, J has instructed all of us that he will be the only one to talk to her (he can and will give her attitude right back). I asked if this behavior couldn't get her banned (losing us money and being abusive to staff until she gets what she wants) and J said no...that doesn't sound right <_< So we take the loss and even though the front end does the overrides, J gets the heat for it.

[XCashier]

There's a big difference between enjoying a sale and taking advantage of the store. That customer is taking advantage of the store. It's a shame that too many companies have swallowed the "customer is always right" BS and don't have the spine to stand up to greedy customers like this one.

Does the sale end soon? Hopefully you'll be able to say "no" when it does.

[CyberLurch]

I agree the customer is taking advantage of the store; however, the people who devised the stipulations for this sale have to take some responsibility, too. 'While supplies last' is the key phrase here; while that's a completely normal provision of the sale, it's going to be difficult to explain to a customer that supplies have run out when the product is right there on the shelf - sale markings or no. If it's advertised, the customer has a right to demand the product for the sale price if it is available. Yes, I get that the ads were subsequently updated, but the previous ad is still valid if the purchase happens within the time frame specified.

As for limited quantities - yes, I agree that such things should be enforced. However, we all know that there is a perfectly legitimate way around that rule - one I've done myself, and I'm sure others here have, too - simply go back and make a second, third, fourth, etc. purchase. In the end, the customer gets what he/she wants - the only difference is if, and how much, it will piss the customer off. Pissed-off customers tend to make complaints to corporate, after all - and we all know that never ends well.

One factor to consider is that with some stores, they track a 'customer purchase average' - and one customer making several small purchases can really throw that off. So it might simply be management saying, "Screw it, let her have it and get her out of our hair before she borks the customer average..." And reasonably so, I would say. After all, odds are the rules of the sale weren't their idea anyway.

I can easily see this as being a case of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.'

[csquared]

You said that the flier did say "While supplies last", but did it also have date range for the sale? If he came in within the dates of the sale, then I would say that you need to honor the sale price. It also means that you should not have restocked the selves before the end of the sale.

Even with all that, the customer was being and ass.

[Dreamstalker]

A major part of our 'manifesto' is that "The customer is not always right", which makes the store's actions that much more puzzling. Why is J able to stand up to her and the front end doesn't? (they probably just want her out of the way, seeing the abuse she's heaped on cashiers and guest services) Although I would think that they'd just be able to wave Security over (which is why they're there)...but they don't.

The crackers were OOS for nearly two weeks, during which time the shelf tags were flipped and that space filled with another item...that was also $1, is still $1, and is shelved right next to those crackers which IMO was a bad idea. The current sale materials in the store do not mention the crackers at all.

The first run of fliers did not have "limit of 3" and "while supplies last", although the larger posters did and they all have the date range. The problem lies in that the sale runs for just over a full month, and during that time product goes in and out of stock; certain items only have the initial allotment authorized for the massive discount. I just pulled up the sale flyer on the website and it's the old flyer, plus Graphics made a few mistakes with incorrect product pictures (a 'sample size' jar of yummy honey is $1, but the photo is of the larger $10 bottle).

This is the very first Salepocalypse for this store, so while I do give them that there was a 'learning curve', would not the other stores have dealt with this same thing and notified Corporate what was happening? The first week when our flash sale was BOGO on a very popular brand of wafer cookie, the GM told J and I that the company had caught sidewalk vendors in NYC selling caseloads of the stuff, so I suspect that limiting items never crossed Corporate's mind until now.