Post-Christmas/Boxing Day Sales

[matty]

Well, tonight (27 December) on my way home I went to the supermarket in the mall to buy a few things. When I went into the mall, I noticed that the doors of the major department store were open - they had extended hours until midnight, because it was the first day of the post-Christmas sales.

This was at about 11pm, so I went in just to have a quick look around. There were only a handful of customers left by then, but it must have been packed earlier. How could I tell?

Stationery department: Diaries and organizers in a huge mess - I now know what a "pile of 2008s" looks like!

Manchester department: Every. Single. Towel. had been ripped off the shelf and twisted into new and interesting shapes.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

So:

a) Why exactly, in order to decide what to buy, do customers need to make a complete mess of products that are clearly labelled, with huge, clear signs stating the prices and discounts?

b) I am now no longer a retail worker (see this post:
http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...422#post244422),
but what experiences have other members had on working these Boxing Day/Post-Christmas/Clearance sales?

[marty]

Yesterday (day after Christmas), my store started a buy two get one free on everything use (which is most of the store). In addition to all of the returns, everyone and their mother with a freakin' giftcard came to shop. So, by the time I left at 630, the store was unrecognizable as a retail store. Completely destroyed. Signs knocked off of racks, almost nothing in the right section anymore. I wonder the same thing you do: why do people feel the need to throw things around wherever they please? It's not that hard to put things back where you found it.

[smileyeagle1021]

Yesterday (day after Christmas), my store started a buy two get one free on everything use (which is most of the store). In addition to all of the returns, everyone and their mother with a freakin' giftcard came to shop. So, by the time I left at 630, the store was unrecognizable as a retail store. Completely destroyed. Signs knocked off of racks, almost nothing in the right section anymore. I wonder the same thing you do: why do people feel the need to throw things around wherever they please? It's not that hard to put things back where you found it.

oh, I loved that sale, thank you.. oh and yes, I did leave the store clean... unlike some of the other customers..

[Lace Neil Singer]

In the supermarket, all the Christmas food like mince pies, party food and fresh stuff is knocked down to half price; same goes for the Christmas stockings and little toys; and people literally go mad pushing and shoving just to get some half price mince pies or chocolate. We even get people ripping the stuff apart, ie boxes containing Christmas cards and decorations, cuz apparently just taking the one at the front is too hard for some people. -.-

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

So:

a) Why exactly, in order to decide what to buy, do customers need to make a complete mess of products that are clearly labelled, with huge, clear signs stating the prices and discounts?

b) I am now no longer a retail worker (see this post:
http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...422#post244422),
but what experiences have other members had on working these Boxing Day/Post-Christmas/Clearance sales?

1. Would your job be any fun if they didn't? They have people to clean up, don'tcha know.

2. Yesterday it was nucking futs. We were forecast to do about $63,000 in sales and beat that by about $15,000. The lines at the checkouts were backed up into softlines and all the registers were open and staffed.

I stopped in at about 11 in the morning to pick up some soda on the doorbuster sale and it was all out.

Then about 6 or 7 years ago, we had to chase all the customers out of the store at about 8 in the morning because one of the stores in the strip mall had a gas leak.

[HawaiianShirts]

We're not having any special day-after-Christmas sales. I don't think we ever have. Of course, there's the weekly sale, and it had bigger discounts than usual simply because of the holiday in the middle of the week, but nothing on specific days.

We opened at 8AM, which is earlier than usual. There was a small group waiting to get in, maybe ten people. One guy ran (literally--he almost slipped on the tile floor because of the snow stuck to his shoes) into the store the moment we unlocked and opened the door. He sped straight to the camera department and panted, "Whew! I made it! I can't believe there wasn't any line outside! Where are your day-after-Christmas blowouts?" I told him there were no special sales that day and pointed out the cameras and digital picture frames that were on sale (because that's what he was looking for), but he was not satisfied. "That's nice, but, why aren't you having any big sales? ... It's stupid! It's bad business! How do you people expect to make money on a day like this without a big, doorbuster sale? I waited in the cold for three hours to beat the lines for nothing?! Screw you." And he huffed his way outside.

Half an hour later, once people realized we were open, the store was packed with returns, exchanges, and gift card customers, and it stayed packed until about an hour before closing, fourteen hours later. We surpassed budget by about 15%.

[rerant]

I stupidly worked open to close (9:45-6:45 for the Boxing Day Hours, but I actually left at 7:30) and was yelled at for:
-lineups
-explaining to a coworker the process of our holiday pay and overtime for the day all while still working
-not having enough items on sale
-not having specific items on sale
-not having any sale items left
-the fact that there was no room for same-day delivery, since everything was backed up from Christmas day

Then I also had to re-do a woman's order at 6:45 FOUR times because she was one of those people who show up with $50 and want to buy the whole store, only to realise she can't afford it when the time comes to pay.
People were complaining that the restaurant closed "early" (closed at 5pm and the store closed at 6pm, but the restaurant always closes and hour before the store) and that we weren't open long enough.
Some chick pitched a fit when she walked in the store at 7:00 and was told to leave because we were closed (doors were still unlocked to let people out).

Ugh. I can't recall all of the hell, because despite the fact that it was only yesterday I've since blocked it all out of my mind, but it was disgusting.

[AirHostess]

My boyfriend is Xmas temping at Next (the clothes store) and apparently it is hell on earth...

He is on constant recovery, working in Children's and he says how he walks up the clothes rail once and goes back again and finds the other end a mess, tidies up and then repeats. That woud drive me mad.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

I worked in retail enough, that I half-automatically straighten displays, etc as I shop. It's really bad in fabric stores where I find myself taking the bolt down, re-doing the drape & putting it back.

[LadyAndreca]

I worked in retail enough, that I half-automatically straighten displays, etc as I shop. It's really bad in fabric stores where I find myself taking the bolt down, re-doing the drape & putting it back.

I do that too. It drives my fiance mad that I can't walk through most of my store without wanting to put things away.

The day after Christmas...I opened, and I was sick, so I've forgotten most of it. It was stressful, and heavy but at least quick moving because we had everyone trained in guest services working. Most of the stress came from the fact that returns were piling up faster than we could get them out on the sales floor, so everything was a disaster. And because I was sick, I was shaking from exhaustion most of the day.

Yesterday was worse, I think. Early into my shift, I had an impossibly complex online return. It's easily the most difficult return I've done in the entire time I've worked for the bullseye. She didn't have a receipt, but she had the packing slip--with the order number, she could print a gift receipt. It took three tries, not sure why, but I printed it out myself so I knew darn well it had been done right. But the computer wouldn't take it. And online refund authorization sucks, the phone option to do an online return redirects you to the general online 1-800 number.

Well, THEY were worse than useless and eventually transferred me to regular refun authorization. Normally they're impossible unless you know exactly what you want, too, but I got a good one who researched my problem, didn't mind staying on the line with me even though it was a long call, and tried everything he could think of to help me. Eventually we had to return her items under a recall SKU to get her her money. She was irritated it took so long (I was on the phone for HALF AN HOUR ), but happy for her refund so she didn't turn into an SC at least.

After that I begged my manager for a break (I was about due for one anyway)...she started to tell me to wait for the other girl on break to come back, then stopped and told me to just go. After I got back, she made sure I was okay and told me "you sounded like you weren't going to make it".

[Brentos]

It's been a tough week for me too. Our store does price guarantees, so that means pretty much everything that's on sale today has to be adjusted for the customers who visited us before Christmas. On Boxing Day itself we put up signs that said we couldn't do adjustments, returns or exchanges on that day, because boxing day is just a crazy place, but for some reason people ignore that and yell at us that we promised this and that, blah blah. Not a big deal, if they get upset enough my manager just gave them their way.
the BIG problem is that people are trying to get us to price match the door-crasher sales from other stores, we gladly match other store prices, but the door-crashers are priced at below cost. They're door crashers, there's a reason why it sales "limit 5 per store" on it. It's to draw your stupid ass in and as soon as you realize that they sold out of it, the store expects you to buy other things.
Most people are nice about it and understand, but I did get a couple people that when I explained to them that they would have had to buy it as soon as the store opened on Boxing Day, they say "well I would have if you didn't tell me you price match these stores!"

[Retail Associate]

My boyfriend . . . is on constant recovery, working in Children's and he says how he walks up the clothes rail once and goes back again and finds the other end a mess, tidies up and then repeats. That woud drive me mad.

That's basically what I do every night. Our clothing depts are so jammed full that you can barely get a shopping cart between the racks but that doesn't stop people from trying. In the process they catch tags in the sides of their carts pulling clothes off the racks and unto the floor or they drag the racks (which are on wheels) with them as they plow through. I have to rearrange the racks several times a night and I pick clothing up off the floor throughout my shift. I've watched women pull things off the racks then kick them under the racks rather than pick them up.

The womens dept alone has (13) 8-shelf tables, (2) 2-shelf round tables and two 16 foot gons with folded shirts/jeans. Each and every night there's barely one shirt or one pair of jeans left untouched on any of those tables. I fold them over and over and over again all night long.

Since Christmas we've been getting so many returns that there's no time to do anything else so the whole fashions area is a complete mess. And to top it all off, people have been calling in sick so two nights this past week there was only one of us there to cover all 7 depts.

Gawd, I hate my job.

.