Was this woman an SC or did she have a legit complaint?

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Summary:

Woman is shopping at an ULTA store (think beauty and cosmetics, etc.) and sees they have a bunch of Hair (straightening) Irons marked down to $49.99 from $169.99.

This woman also happens to be a purchaser for several salons and beauty shops.

So she tries to buy TWENTY SEVEN of them (which would leave only two on the rack) for one of her clients only to be told there is a limit of four, despite the fact no sign is posted specifying such a limit.

She buys the four, then sends her husband in to buy four more which he is able to do after more grief from the manager. The manager also tells them they won't be able to buy any more from any other stores.

The woman and her husband drive to another ULTA store where they had five Irons reserved and are told by the manager there that they are not allowed to purchase them and to please leave.

They called ULTA corporate but apparently didn't get anywhere.

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I was under the impression any store has a right to limit purchases regardless of whether a sign is posted or not.

On the one hand I understand this woman's argument, but is it fair to let one customer clean out clearance items before anyone has a chance to buy them?

[PepperElf]

I'm on the side of the store.

It sounds like they decided they'd rather piss off ONE customer vs pissing off MANY customers. Cos that one customer ... might not ever come back. But if MANY customers got pissed then the sale losses would be much bigger.


After all... this "customer" should know this.
Would SHE let a single customer come in and buy up all of her product and leave little / none for everyone else? Especially if the customer was using it to stock her own business? Or would she say "Hey you're not my only customer! I can't shaft everyone else just to make you happy!"....?

despite the fact no sign is posted specifying such a limit.

Was there no sign, or is this what the customer claimed? Just checking cos... we all know how customers like to ignore signs (or pretend "fine print" doesn't exist)

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

If the straightener was on clearance, then ULTA was mind-blowingly stupid. Isn't the point of clearance markdowns to blow the merchandise out of the store so there's room for the new stuff coming in? Who cares how much of it one person buys? Clearance is generally understood to be first-come-first-served anyway.

If it was just on sale for a limited time, I would side with ULTA a bit more, but then they need to post signs indicating purchase limits if they decide to enforce them.

ETA: I am wondering if the real reason for the purchase limit was so the store didn't lose a ton of money on one sale if the straightening irons were priced below cost. Which is still stupid because the store may have to mark the irons down further to finally get rid of them.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

If the straightener was on clearance, then ULTA was mind-blowingly stupid. Isn't the point of clearance markdowns to blow the merchandise out of the store so there's room for the new stuff coming in? Who cares how much of it one person buys? Clearance is generally understood to be first-come-first-served anyway.

If it was just on sale for a limited time, I would side with ULTA a bit more, but then they need to post signs indicating purchase limits if they decide to enforce them.

ETA: I am wondering if the real reason for the purchase limit was so the store didn't lose a ton of money on one sale if the straightening irons were priced below cost. Which is still stupid because the store may have to mark the irons down further to finally get rid of them.

That was the main argument from the woman.

[PastryGal]

At my work in every flyer at the bottom of the front page it always says under the Price Busters "We reserve the right to limit quantities" I've never really had to enforce it but I have had to question managers on it before when the occasional customer comes through with a lot of the sale item. Price Busters are while supplies last and no rain checks. Usually not an issue unless we didn't have many of item in question and run out quickly. Usually followed by "You should have ordered more" Well the flyers are done a year in advance and there's no way to guarantee quantities in the warehouse to come to our store.

[LillFilly]

The woman was probably buying them at the sale price because they were cheaper than what she could provide from her supplier, thus she'd be making more money when time to re-sell them. Being that greedy isn't fair for the stores' other customers that want a good deal.

The salons where I worked had a complaint about a couple of men coming in and buying all of their marked-down items; would clear the entire table of the paul mitchell/salon brand stuff like that. It turned-out they owned their own salon, but were not licensed to carry those products (couldn't buy them from the companies) so they'd buy them on sale at other salons and sell them at full price at theirs; which also ripped-off the customers because a lot of the products were at their sell-by date. The salons couldn't stop them from buying, but limited them to 4-items.

[HiddenMica]

A lot of places will straight out refuse to sell to resellers anyway. They feel it takes away from their actual customers because this person is doing it for a profit not for their own benefit. I know a rather prominent game store in the US that will ban people from the store if they are found to be resellers. Stores want the people to come in themselves, not for someone to make a profit off them.

[PepperElf]

A lot of places will straight out refuse to sell to resellers anyway. They feel it takes away from their actual customers because this person is doing it for a profit not for their own benefit. I know a rather prominent game store in the US that will ban people from the store if they are found to be resellers. Stores want the people to come in themselves, not for someone to make a profit off them.

I was wondering about that. Was she reselling them or was she running a salon where she was going to use these?

[scruff]

I was taught (I had to take 'Building Law' at college, which was darn useful*) that in England items on display for possible sale are classed as an 'offer to treat', and that the 'offer' can legally change when the wannabe buyer makes an offer (kinda like haggling in reverse). And some shops offer items as a loss, on the belief that shoppers will come in for that item, and while they are there, pick up a bunch of other items too. So yes, they can legally change the terms of the deal before the sale, and for good reason, if they are aiming to sell to end-users, not bulk-buyers.

*Very useful, as the entire class worked full-time and attended college day-release. Tutor told us students to bring in our employment contacts to next weeks lesson on employment law, mentioningly casually that legally everyone had to have a contract. My boss frantically wrote me a contract (my first full-time job, I didn't know any better), and I took it to college next lesson. I was very confused that the tutor did not have the time to run through our contracts as promised. Took me ages to twig that he was well aware that many of us didn't have contracts nor know we should have, and was making sure, in a polite and low key way, that we suddenly had legal contracts. :-) Lovely bloke.

[fireheart]

I was wondering about that. Was she reselling them or was she running a salon where she was going to use these?

If she's trying to buy 27 of them to use, unless her hair salon is gigantic, there's no way that she would need to buy 27 of them. Most hair salons I go to only have maybe 5-6 chairs at the minimum and around 15 chairs at the max. (Some 1-2 manned salons might only have 2 or so chairs)

And all those 15 chairs may not even be using the straighteners at one time. The hair salon (s) I frequent might have say 3-4 electric clippers between their chairs and a cart full of products that might be shared between 2 stylists. (no, the stylists do not actually SHARE the products at the same time) Those clippers might be used between 8-10 chairs.

So I'd say that she's more likely trying to resell them.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That was the main argument from the woman.

And I can't say I disagree with it. It would be different if we were talking about an advertised sale item that's going to go back up to retail when the sale is over.

But once it goes clearance? I just want it gone. I don't care what the buyer does with it. Given that the straightener is marked down over 70% from regular retail, I am assuming it's clearance.

If the store wants to continue to sit on the straighteners out of some notion of fairness, then that's their call. Personally I think it's really stupid.

By any chance, is this on the web anyplace, so I can read the argument from the woman?

[wolfie]

By any chance, is this on the web anyplace, so I can read the argument from the woman?

Ask and ye shall receive. BTW, from this article, it's clear that the woman was a reseller. I can understand limits on ordinary sale items, but my understanding of "clearance" is that they're trying to get rid of them. A couple years back, I needed a feces-ton of small carabiners for a project. Flying J was getting rid of "cutesy" keychains that weren't selling well, and included a carabiner of the right size, at 25 cents each. No problem buying out their entire stock. Another time (end of season), they were clearing handwarmers at 25 cents a pair - I stocked up, again no problem.

[fireheart]

Except for the fact that there's a good chance that if there's a reseller who snatches up all of them before regular customers can get the clearance items, it's very easy to accuse someone of bait and switch.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Once again it's more of a question of:

Do you want to piss off one customer (who is trying to make a profit off you?) Or do you want to piss off many?

Obviously this store chain in question preferred to piss off this one person trying to make a profit off them rather than piss off a bunch of customers who wanted the items for personal use. It's their prerogative, and they are not stupid for it.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Except for the fact that there's a good chance that if there's a reseller who snatches up all of them before regular customers can get the clearance items, it's very easy to accuse someone of bait and switch.

Not really--clearance items are almost never advertised for obvious reasons. Shoppers don't know about them until they're in the store.

Unless, of course, some "savvy shopper" blog puts up a post saying "OMG X store has this item really cheap on clearance!!!!" But you can't make a charge of bait and switch stick off of a blog that isn't affiliated with the store.