SC Asks: Are There Any Coupons or Deals?

[RetailActress]

OK, look, if you have a valid coupon, we'll honor it

If we have an in-store advertised promo, obviously you'll get it.

Other than that ..... what? You want insider info? Like how we sent our top 100 best customers 20% off certificates, and no way does your cheap-ass self fall into that category, so you are certainly not going to get that discount until you buy way more stuff?

A word to the wise, SC ..... you ought to beware of asking the question: "Are there any coupons?" because sooner or later the response is going to be a polite, diplomatic version of: "Yes, but not for the likes of YOU."

R.A.

[donruss]

I do not really see any suck here. Why does it bother you so much that a customer asks if there is a coupon or sale price on something? Maybe they heard about one and were not sure.

[Boozy]

Quoth donruss

Why does it bother you so much that a customer asks if there is a coupon or sale price on something?

I get the feeling that she's asked this frequently enough to find it annoying.

Not every customer we complain about here is going to be a mountain of uber-suck. Sometimes they just do things that grate on our nerves.

[bainsidhe]

I expect it'd also depend on the type of store. When I worked for a DVD retailer, we were pushed to sell Sell SELL and always had promos and discounts going on. Asking me if there were any deals wouldn've prompted me to show the flier and point out the weekly specials. Now that I work at a grocery/dept store, I'll just look at you like an idiot.

[HawaiianShirts]

I'm on the fence on this one.

I don't get a newspaper, so I generally miss out on the weekly ads or the coupon books. I might ask at a store if they have one for me to look at, just in case there's a deal I might be interested in.

However, if the OP's customers are like my customers, who ask about the coupons as they're about to be rung up for their purchases, then I can see the suckiness. Imagine going computer shopping. You find a notebook on sale for $700 that's usually $900. It's a good deal, so you decide to go for it. You also discover a promotional accessory bundle that's half price, and you happen to get your hands on the last clearance external hard drive. You're buying about $1200 worth of stuff for $900, when, if you'd come in three days later, you would only have gotten the computer for that price. After making a comment to the salesperson, excitedly summarizing your great deal and having said salesperson agree with you, you are exhibiting sucky customer behavior if you then ask, "So, can I get a discount on this stuff?"

I've had such exchanges with customers many times. And they're always the ones who get mad when I refuse to give them discounts.

Since I'm going to be getting a new job soon anyway, I think the next time someone asks me if they can have a discount, I'll ask them, "Why?" Maybe I can make their brains freeze like they've done to me so often.

[DesignFox]

I always cringe when I get asked that question. It usually means that the specials already going on aren't good enough and we need to try some haggling.

Most, but not all, of the customers who ask those questions are complete and utter cheap asses..in the really bad way.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

A lot depends on the type of store and how they advertise their sales.

We have fliers in the Sunday paper every week, and if we have a two or three-day sale on the weekend there will be a flier in Wednesday's paper.

Or, it there's a one-day sale on a Wednesday, as does happen from time to time, the ad will be in Tuesday's paper.

And if the ad is an especially big one, it will be published in book form and sent to every household in the immediate area.

If you don't get the papers, items that are on sale will have sale signs on the shelf by them or on the displays, or special sale tags will be put on the shelf for sale items on endstands. Additionally, extra fliers will be available at the registers or at the service desk. So if somebody would come into my store and ask if there are any sales going on, it would be a pretty silly question, but I'd just run up to the front to grab the customer a flier if they wanted it. Hey, it gets me out of working for a moment.

As for coupons, we don't use those often, but sometimes there will be coupons to cut out in our ad fliers, plus there are the "friends and family" coupons we will sometimes be asked to hand out to, well, friends and family. If somebody would ask for one of those, I would just get them a flier. If it's a friends and family coupon and I don't know you, then I'll tell you we have no coupons at the moment.

[blas]

When I worked at the gas station, I cringed when someone would waltz in, look at the ciggs, and bark "Ya gots any DEALZ?!"

Perhaps walking in and asking "Do you have any deals on cigarettes?" would have been the more polite thing to do.

I wanted so desperately to respond "I gots a DEAL for you, yo. You come in and try that again like a grown up who is old enough to buy cigarettes, and I may just find some for you."

[zigcat]

I remember this little gem:

SC: What's your special?
ME: It's a 16" one item pizza for $10.99 plus tax.
SC (snotty) That's not a special. What do I get free with that?
ME: How 'bout you get to keep the box it comes in?
(Or a free two liter bottle of shut the fuck up)

Hey everybody! It's make up your own outrageous coupon or offer and try to Jedi mind trick the staff into giving it to you.

SC: Yeah, saw one of your ads for two large unlimited topping pizzas for just $.99
(Not from us you didn't. But thanks for trying)

Price shoppers:

SC: What's your cheapest pizza?
ME: It's a 12" cheese for $9.79 plus tax.
SC: That's your CHEAPEST?!!!!
(Oh please, enough with the feigned indignant surprise)
ME: Yup.
SC: That's too much!
(And you can make that claim because you've compared us in quality and value to other pizzerias. Here's a little tip for you: there are pizza places out there that "specialize" in discount oriented, low quality, walk in walk out with your cardboard delight. They spend millions in marketing to cheapskates such as yourself. Call them.

[walking with scissors]

I don't think it's sucky to ask for something. Throwing a tantrum when given an answer other than what the customer wanted is what's sucky.