New wrinkle in 'we don't even carry this'

[Dreamstalker]

Is this some new game? I've been finding products from other stores (as in different companies entirely) on the shelves. Tally so far (starting June 1st) is:

--TJ's half and half, trail mix, frozen veg, and two cold prepared (untouched/sealed) meals.
--Whole Foods olive oil, chips, frozen waffles and hot chocolate mix
--house brands of various drugstores

All the rogue items have been in the correct section I can't imagine anyone was stupid enough to accept them as returns (our system wouldn't recognize them anyway).

Last night it was a jar of CVS pasta sauce...at least it was in the pasta sauce section. J on the night crew said that he found an item from a Piggly Wiggly store a few days ago--none of those stores even near here, and IIRC it's a completely different parent company.

[Kristev]

I don't understand. Someone has to be in on a scam for this to be happening so often.

[Aragarthiel]

It might also just be a very forgetful senior citizen. I can imagine someone walking to exchange an item, forgetting they bought it at a different store. They start wandering the aisles (forgetting it's a return, not a shopping trip), find a similar item, and swap the other item for yours then go to check out.

[Dreamstalker]

To even be considered for a return, an item must scan in our system...which explains why we get returns from other stores in our umbrella (companywide inventory system, impossible to have it store-based or so they say), but not this. Unless someone buys something on sale from the other retailer and pulls a switch...but wouldn't it make sense for the other item to be cheaper? The pasta sauce is the only thing that might apply to. Or it could have just been stolen from the other store to begin with, but if that's the case why even bother swapping?

Aragarthiel, that makes sense too. A question some of us have been asking is: if we as a store have no use for the item, does someone run it back to the correct store or is it fair game? If perishable, I'd think the originating store may not want it back depending on how long it was out of the store/how hot it is outside.

[MadMike]

Maybe someone's playing a prank. Back when I was in high school, some kids were stealing small items from teachers' classrooms and leaving them in other teachers' classrooms.

[Sulhythal]

When I worked at the Bovine's Eye, very rarely we'd get delivery for items that was meant to go to a different store. Not all of them got caught before they got put on the shelf. If someone is absent mindedly stocking, you can attribute a lot to just packaging changes.

[notalwaysright]

Does anyone remember that episode of Malcolm in the Middle where he is forced to work late at night and discovers a guy living in the store? I don't know why, this reminded me of that. If you were allowed to, it would be fun to look at the CCTV footage to figure it out.

[Dreamstalker]

When I worked at the Bovine's Eye, very rarely we'd get delivery for items that was meant to go to a different store. Not all of them got caught before they got put on the shelf.

I was thinking that...a glitch of some sort at the manufacturer/packing process would explain one or two items in a case but our stock guys would catch something like that before it got on the shelf (none of the pasta sauces we stock have green labels so that stands out). This has definitely been happening during the day.

I wish we had access to the cameras; we'd probably catch a lot of the hinky stuff that's been going on.

[Dreamstalker]

The pasta sauce is BACK! The guy who stocks that aisle says that he keeps throwing it in the back room and it keeps coming back on the shelf. Not all that surprising....a year or so ago, we had some 365 Organic brand stuff that Shithead kept trying to convince me that it was a "newly launched company" and not, in fact, Whole Foods house brand. The fact that it wouldn't even scan did not deter him (we actually have sold a few of the rogue items by just keying in the price for the matching or closest size).

Mom suggested that I put a face on the jar and just keep moving it around...see how long it takes before someone gets a clue. Somewhere I have stickers (eyes, noses, mouths) that were designed for just that...

[EricKei]

If it was in the back....I'm gonna suggest that someone in stock is just grabbing any box they find (even if it's not something you carry) and just putting it out there at random even if there's no shelf tag for it. May even be pulling from a go-back cart that contains said stuff you don't carry.

Could also be that the stock had come in with 1-2 cans/case that were some other product, and the stocker just went "fuck it" and put it up anyway.

[Dreamstalker]

Yup. Anything someone can't find on the shelf goes on the damages rack (supposed to go on the receiving desk)...whoever's doing the damages sees it's not damaged and puts it back on the floor. Still, damages have to be scanned out so I'd think that they'd notice.

This by far is the longest a rogue item has hung around, and I haven't seen it turn up in returns (as it would if someone tried to buy an item that won't scan).