Sales Signs, Coupons and Extreme Aliteracy

[EricKei]

Well, it's a bit of both (yes I looked it up) -- Some greens are different colors, including red, when they are at different levels of ripeness. Still the same species tho -- but you are correct about their being distinct varieties of the same basic thing.

[dalesys]

Green bell peppers are often more like .68/lb, much cheaper than red & yellows, even thought they're the exact same thing at different levels of ripeness.

Nope. Green, yellow, orange & red bell peppers are different varieties, sold at the same ripeness.

[EricKei]

Odd sale at the food mart, then Green bell peppers are often more like .68/lb, much cheaper than red & yellows, even thought they're the exact same thing at different levels of ripeness.

This makes one more thing to add to my "If I ever own a store" list -- A big sign at the cashwrap that says "We cannot be held responsible for reading errors on the part of our valued customers. If you are unsure what a coupon or sign says, ASK US and we will be glad to read it to you."

[ThanosIsKing]

Oh, nobody reads the sales signs, either. I rang up a customer with several skeins of a specific yarn. They came up at $4.99 each.

SC3: No, they're $1 each! That's what the sign says!
So I go back and look. I take the sign down and bring it up with me.
ME: This sign?
SC3: That's the one!
ME: It says $1 off.
SC: Oh, then I don't want these!

Naturally. She can't read, so it's my fault. Oh, and the "off" was written in font this large. If all fine print were that size, I wouldn't need bifocals. Just saying.

I had someone just like this last week at Grocery Store. We had a sale on red bell peppers and green bell peppers, but both were different prices. I think it was something like the greens were $0.68/ea and the reds were like 2/$1. Customer comes up with 4 green peppers. When they ring up at the $0.68/ea C stops me and goes, "WAIT! Those are supposed to be 2/$1! I want my sale price blargablarg!" I go back and the signs specifying the type of pepper had the color in font as big as your example. HUGE letters saying it was $0.68/ea for GREEN. She complained to management and she got her 4 greens for $2 and left still complaining about the placement of the signs being "misleading".

[XCashier]

So, the fabric store has sent out coupons for their big Labor Day sale: 15% off entire purchase (regular price and sale items), 50% off all regular price notions, and the usual 40% off any one regular price item. There was also a 60% off one regular price fabric that was good from August 25-29 but is no longer valid. All of which have the usual caveats (not valid on clearance, patterns, sewing machines, certain other things).

Needless to say, nobody reads the coupons!

More than once at the beginning of the week, I got someone who wanted to use the fabric coupon on things that were NOT fabric.

SC: I want to use this 60% off coupon on these scissors!
ME: Ma'am, the coupon is for fabric, see right here? (shows her where it says "fabric" on coupon)
SC: Well, that's deceiving! I thought it was for anything in the store! I'm quite sure it said anything!

Um, yeah, I just showed you where it specified fabric. How is that "deceiving"? I do not have the magical power to change printed words. If I did, I'm sure I could put it to much better use than messing up your coupons.

Of course, now that the coupon has expired, people are still trying to use it. Had a woman come up to the register with a full bolt of fabric today. It had been measured at the cutting counter and she had the cutting slip. She hands me the bolt and several sales flyers.

SC2: I want to use my 60% off coupon!
ME: I'm sorry, Ma'am, it expired two days ago. (points to the clearly marked dates on the coupon)
SC2: But I want to use it! The man at the cutting counter said I could!
ME: He's mistaken, ma'am, this coupon is expired and the register won't accept it.
SC2: Are any of these coupons any good?
I look through the flyers.
ME: This ad's expired, so has this one…you can use this 40% off coupon, it's good until next Saturday.
SC2: Well, I don't want it! (shoves fabric bolt at me) And you can throw all those in the garbage, too! (shoves flyers at me and stomps out the door)

Nice little tantrum, dear. I'm sure Verruca Salt and Dudley Dursley would be proud of you. Throwing away all of your fliers, including the ones that were still good, sure showed me. (And yes, I did bring it up to the "man at the cutting counter". He's a newbie and not the sharpest needle in the pincushion.)

Oh, nobody reads the sales signs, either. I rang up a customer with several skeins of a specific yarn. They came up at $4.99 each.

SC3: No, they're $1 each! That's what the sign says!
So I go back and look. I take the sign down and bring it up with me.
ME: This sign?
SC3: That's the one!
ME: It says $1 off.
SC: Oh, then I don't want these!

Naturally. She can't read, so it's my fault. Oh, and the "off" was written in font this large. If all fine print were that size, I wouldn't need bifocals. Just saying.

Another sign non-reader complained that her fabric was supposed to be 50% off, "it said so on the sign!" So off I go on another wild sign hunt, find the only sale sign by that fabric, bring it back with a sample of what actually was on sale.

ME: This sign?
SC4: Yes!
ME: This sign says "50% off all blanket kits" like this one here, they were on the shelf below your fabric.

At least she had the good grace to accept it and buy the fabric. But seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Why is aliteracy so popular now? Why the hell should we give in to SCs because they will not read instructions or follow the rules? Your lack of reading comprehension =/= my fault or responsibility. And do they disregard signs in other things too? "Yes, officer, I know that sign said "one way", I'm only going one way...what do you mean, I'm going the wrong way?!"