Sales Signs, Coupons and Extreme Aliteracy

[wolfie]

We have a similar deal--6 inch sub, bag of Utz chips, and a 20oz Coke drink (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite are the only ones that work) for $5.

Some people will have every possible combo BUT the one listed (footlong sub, Pepsi, Lays chips, etc) and not understand why it's not $5.

Similar thing happened to me yesterday. Local grocery store has a sale this week, pre-packaged deli meats (strip of 2 packs sold as a single unit), normally $5 per unit (sticker is right on the packaging) are "buy 2 get 1 free" for brand X. I got to the register with my purchase (3 of brand X), and the guy before me was upset because his purchase of 3 packs of deli meat rang through at $15 rather than the sale price of $10. Slight problem - he had 3 packs of brand Y. Took both the cashier and myself (showing that the label on my stuff matched the picture in the flyer, the label on his didn't) before he went back to get the right brand - and he left the wrong stuff at the cash desk even though he was going to the same cooler all the pre-packed deli meat was kept in. Great - perishable product having to wait for a "re-shop".

[Dreamstalker]

We get this problem all the time with the lunchtime deal. It's quite a good one; you get a sandwich, standard crisps and a drink for £3. The drinks that are in the deal are clearly listed on the barker.

We have a similar deal--6 inch sub, bag of Utz chips, and a 20oz Coke drink (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite are the only ones that work) for $5.

Some people will have every possible combo BUT the one listed (footlong sub, Pepsi, Lays chips, etc) and not understand why it's not $5. Some of the ones who do get it right will then complain about tax or the bottle deposit...and the ones who complain about the deposit leave the empty bottle in the parking lot for me or a cart jockey to cash in

[ThanosIsKing]

Cherries. I get this every time a fruit comes into season and we have a ton of it. But it's especially bad with those @##$%!!! cherries. I'll get 20 people come up to the cash line with a bag of cherries and when it rings up 4.98 a pound so that a 2 pound or so bag is ten bucks or so, I'll get a suddenly SC squealling " That's supposed to be 4.98!!! eleventy!!!!" I'll explain, sorry no, they are 4.98 a pound, the bags are all around 2 pounds each....they'll yell your sign is deceptive, take it off RIGHT NOW, it's all your fault.....

If it is 4.98 each, it'll bloody say so. Not that you'd know either way, because it would require actual reading comprehension.

Oh...my...god. I got that starting about a month and a half ago when we had a sale on Asian pears. For some reason the Asian pears are the only ones that are sold individually instead of by the pound. When they went on sale they were something like $0.50 ea. Cue morons who come up to my register with like 30 of the damn things and when they find out they aren't by the pound they just say, "well I don't wanna get any then". I once had something like 10 pounds of the things as go-backs because the SCs can't be arsed to read the damn sign, and it was busy so I couldn't put the pears back.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Only outdone by the ones that moan because their deal doesn't come to £3 like the sign says. That's because,for example, your sandwich is £1,your crisps are 80p and your drink 90p. So your deal is not £3.It's £2.70.That's less money-but if you really want to bitch about the sign saying £3,fine,hand over your extra money.Now everyone's happy...

[Lace Neil Singer]

We get this problem all the time with the lunchtime deal. It's quite a good one; you get a sandwich, standard crisps and a drink for £3. The drinks that are in the deal are clearly listed on the barker.

Problem is, some customers just can't read and keep on trying to get the deal with the big bags or with drinks that aren't in the deal. -.- I've had SCs bitching that the sign isn't clear. Well sorry, but we've had small children manage to read the sign perfectly, are you saying that you're stupider than a small child?

[RealUnimportant]

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.

I'mma mail you a pile of singles - you know what to do.

[Caractacus_Potts]

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.

It actually makes economic sense if you think about it. If I have a two fields of red peppers and in any given season I can either get two crops of the immature still green red peppers or one crop of the fully ripened red peppers then it wouldn't make any sense to allow any of the peppers to fully ripen if all peppers cost the same. Since red (yellow, orange) peppers do cost more it does make sense for me to allow some to fully ripen even though I won't get as many total in any given season.

And yes some varieties do remain green when they fully ripened but we are talking about the cheap green peppers you get in the market which are always the plentiful immature peppers of all other varieties.

[EricKei]

Pagan - It's worse than that -- I've seen times where a store will have, say, green peppers sold as "per each" and the others by the pound at the same time >_< I suppose it varies based on the supplier any given store/chain is getting them from. Also, if the ones they're getting vary wildly in size in a given shipment, it makes more sense to sell by the pound, otherwise all of the big ones will go first, and they will get complaints when only the little ones are left.

[XRogue]

Cherries. I get this every time a fruit comes into season and we have a ton of it. But it's especially bad with those @##$%!!! cherries. I'll get 20 people come up to the cash line with a bag of cherries and when it rings up 4.98 a pound so that a 2 pound or so bag is ten bucks or so, I'll get a suddenly SC squealling " That's supposed to be 4.98!!! eleventy!!!!" I'll explain, sorry no, they are 4.98 a pound, the bags are all around 2 pounds each....they'll yell your sign is deceptive, take it off RIGHT NOW, it's all your fault.....

If it is 4.98 each, it'll bloody say so. Not that you'd know either way, because it would require actual reading comprehension.

[bubblelittlepally]

We deal with this too at the career center. We are closed on the weekends but a city with the exact same name 490 miles away also has a career center and they're open on the weekends. Because someone googled the wrong location we have people who actually thing we'll just open up for them because they didn't even bother to realize that the number they called isn't even the same area code or even the right state. They even call corporate to complain. It's very funny sometimes.

[Ceir]

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?!"

Seconded, thirded, and so on and further. As tech support, I've always made the 'RTFM' jokes, but it's getting to the point of a miracle for some people to RTFAnything.

[Pagan]

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.

Hmm....I've never seen bell peppers, regardless of the color, sold by the pound. It's always been a per piece price.

Fun fact - While bell peppers are capsicum annuums, they have no capsaicin (the stuff that makes chile hot) in them. Unless, we found out one year, you happen to plant them near other chiles, then you can wind up with bell peppers with a bite to them.

[greensinestro]

Must be a scam being some managers will give in for someone's "stupidity", or being illiterate. I had posted one about the lady at Publix who bitched that her cheese was charged at $5.99 per pound, and not at $4.99 "as the sign says". She completely ignored the orange starburst sticker with large black lettering that said "pre-sliced from the cooler case only" and "not eligible at the deli counter" written right next to the $4.99 price.

And, I'm sure many do this all the time, and pull tantrums like this when someone doesn't give in. They're used to getting their way.

[Catwoman2965]

Please don't get me started. I will admit, our signs are not marked as well as they could be. that being said, right now we have UP TO x % of clearance items, and in small letters it actually gives teh % off the markdowns. So for example, if clearance is an ADDITIONAL 50% off the markdowns, it might say UP TO 75% off ORIGINAL PRICES. our sales run like this all the time. You'd think customers, esp the regulars, would know this but they continue to argue "the sign says 75% off, blargablarg"

At the same time, we have a separate promo; spend x dollars, get x dollars off, depending on how much you spend. but...and this is a big but, its off the FINAL total, which means we take any and all OThEr discounts off first.

oh no, how come we can't take the dollar amount off first, then the extra %? sorry, doesn't work that way.

and finally we have certain cleaerance items that have been marked down to nothing, say 9.99. which are not part of the % off clearance. but oh no, they must be! yeah, so its 9.99, and 70% off? i think no. go away please.

[Dreamstalker]

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.

I get things like this all the time at my store. Depending on which manager is in that day they not only get the stuff for the price they made up, but thanks to our state's 'price accuracy' law (which only applies if there is a mistake by the store and they can prove it) sometimes they get it for free to boot.

Because the customer is always right