Power outage + extra story

[MidoriDelSol]

When I came into the toy store today I was greeted with a power outage. We were running on back up power, as was most of our strip. Back up power will give us working registers and about every other light in the store. Bathrooms are completely dark and the electronic flushing toilets DON'T FLUSH! (WTF). The electric company was up the strip from us working to get it fixed, but we had to open with the power as is.

Cut to me, maybe an hour after opening walking down the main aisle of our store.

SC: EXCUSE ME!
Stops in my tracks
Me: Yes?
SC: (In a smart tone) You guys going to be turning the rest of the lights on SOMETIME TODAY?
Me: Actually it's an outage for most of the strip and it's completely beyond our control.
SC: (looks upset that she asked a retarded question) OHHH I thought you were just trying to save money or something!


Not entirely a SC, but at least she realized her mistake.

Also I was on register today (groan) and we offer a free loyalty card. Basically you get coupons, daily deals, shopping passes, and for every 150 you spend you get 5 sent to you. I understand that some people really don't shop my store a lot and have a valid point not signing up, but if you were spending 320 dollars and you were guaranteed to get a 10 dollar certificate to spend in my store, wouldn't you take the extra 30 seconds to sign up for the FREE card? I know it's a toy store, but who alive doesn't want 10 free dollars to spend on whatever they want in a toy store? The majority of people I explain this to who have a large transaction and no card will sign up on the spot. Not SCdude!

Me: (tries looking for a card under his phone #) Didn't find your loyalty card under that number, do you have one with us?
SCdude: Nope don't think so
Me: Well (speil) and it takes just 30 seconds for me to sign you up
SCdude: Nah
Me: ಠ_ಠ You...don't want to take 30 seconds to get 10 free dollars to spend here?
SCdude: Nope
Me: REALLY?!
SCdude: Uh huh
Me: (spys next customer in line) Hey do you have the rewards card?
Lady: Yes
Me: Give it to me so I can give you this guy's points, it's too big a transaction to waste and he doesn't want them!
Lady: SURE! (Thanks SCdude profusely)
SCdude: Uhhhhh huh, yep

SO at least I could take lemons and make lemonade. I would have just given the points to myself but we can't do that. I mean come on, this guy was buying a ride on toy for a kid that was obviously young enough to still want stuff from our store. He didn't look like the type to be all "omg I don't want you to have my personal information"...you know, since he had no problem giving me his phone number and all.

[BrenDAnn]

Some people just don't do the rewards card thing, at any store, period. It's another one of those weird quirks of people in general, I guess. As for power outage lady, at least she realized her mistake and apologized!

[bainsidhe]

As long as giving his points to someone else doesn't bugger things up, then good for the 2nd customer. If the guy needs to return something, I hope it doesn't cause any problems.

And while it makes sense to sign up for the free card, I'm tired of stores telling me I just haaaave to sign up for their awesome card so I can save 10%, then get emailed coupons (spam) and annoying phone calls. It's not for everyone, so I can understand why the guy didn't want to do it.

[NCO]

Yeah they come with discounts and coupons and such, but I'm one of those who won't sign up for them. Sorry, not giving out my personal information unless it is absolutely positively necessary (or required by law) for the transaction.

However I'm very polite about declining and had I been the guy in your story, I'd probably have gotten a good laugh out of it.

[Carsomyr]

Once you've read the terms & conditions on one popular thing that gives itself the right to sell your details to third parties, you do get a bit hesitant to sign up to random things. Lucky for that other customer, though! :]

Power outages make working hard enough as it is, without customers getting smart with you. Ick! >.<

[MidoriDelSol]

I personally only do cards for store where I KNOW I'm going to get something out of it. Pet Supplies Plus has become my only pet store because for every 9 bags of dog food I get one free. ALL the other pet store cards have gotten me absolutely nothing. I never get coupons and none of the sales require it. It's one of those cards that benefits the store and not me.

That's the problem with 95% of rewards cards, most of them do nothing. So the ones that DO do something, like at my store, it makes it harder to convince people to get it. "NO really, my store card is actually worth it!" So I get where people are coming from, but still, how can you turn down 10 free dollars?

[rose_metal_nz]

Quoth MidoriDelSol

Me: (spys next customer in line) Hey do you have the rewards card?
Lady: Yes
Me: Give it to me so I can give you this guy's points, it's too big a transaction to waste and he doesn't want them!
Lady: SURE! (Thanks SCdude profusely)
SCdude: Uhhhhh huh, yep

that was cool of you

[Seshat]

Quoth BrenDAnn

Some people just don't do the rewards card thing, at any store, period. It's another one of those weird quirks of people in general, I guess. As for power outage lady, at least she realized her mistake and apologized!

I, for one, hate having six kazillion cards in my wallet. And if I don't keep them with me, I'll wind up in one of the stores whose card I don't have with me.

[PepperElf]

Quoth BrenDAnn

Some people just don't do the rewards card thing, at any store, period. It's another one of those weird quirks of people in general, I guess. As for power outage lady, at least she realized her mistake and apologized!

yeah even where i work, not everyone wants the reward card. even though it's free and they end up getting money back. although with ours since purchases can be tracked with the card (perhaps a reason some people don't want it) we can't decide to use someone else's card for it, especially a stranger's card.