I'm running into a brick wall...

[fireheart]

OK, not 100% sure if this is the company's fault or the customers. But here's what's been happening for the past week.

Little background: We're running a special this week with our 18-packs of Coke and Coke varieties. Buy an 18-pack of these certain types and you get a 12-pack of certain other types free. The 18-packs and 12-packs that are eligible are clearly marked ALL over the store. There are signs everywhere.

But I have had and seen a good number of customers try to get the non-eligible 12-packs for free because the "SIGN CLEARLY SAYS SO!!!11eleventy!!!!"

It says "Flavour A, Flavour B, Flavour C, Flavour B ZERO." (i.e. no sugar)

It does not mean "Flavour A, Flavour B, Flavour C, Flavour B Zero, Flavour D." (Flavour D is not eligible).

[EricKei]

Come now, you're expecting the CS's to READ, now? Don't you know it's taking both of their brain cells just remembering to breathe and walk?

[fireheart]

Bumping...

The Promo is running again....

I'll keep you informed...

[bainsidhe]

These are the same people, even though they mean well, tell you "I have two Pepsi's" when then really have 1 Pepsi and 1 Mt. Dew. Similar products do not mean the same products.

[LadyAndreca]

I managed to educate a couple people this week about bar codes/inventory. They had eighteen rolls of electrical tape in seven different colors (it comes in purple?!) and got irritated when I scanned them all one by one. So I just told them that if I didn't scan each one, the computer would order the wrong colors to replace them and maybe next time they'd be looking at a wall of black tape and no orange or blue. They accepted it immediately as making sense and calmed down, which kind of surprised me after my last job. (I swear orange apron customers have SO much more sense rattling around in their heads than bullseye customers, if you can only get it to work. Maybe it's because I'm not at the returns desk at the orange apron.)

I have to do that a lot with the plastic bins we have on special, too. They're extremely popular, but come in two colors that have different bar codes. Sometimes I just want to yell at people that I'm not trying to waste their time, I'm trying to get their receipt as accurate as possible so they don't have any problems! (And so the store inventory updates with the right orders, but honestly, the customers don't care about that.)

People have this "2" thing sitting over here...and this other "2" thing sitting over there...they just never seem to figure out how to put them together.

[mattm04]

I managed to educate a couple people this week about bar codes/inventory. They had eighteen rolls of electrical tape in seven different colors (it comes in purple?!) and got irritated when I scanned them all one by one. So I just told them that if I didn't scan each one, the computer would order the wrong colors to replace them and maybe next time they'd be looking at a wall of black tape and no orange or blue. They accepted it immediately as making sense and calmed down, which kind of surprised me after my last job. (I swear orange apron customers have SO much more sense rattling around in their heads than bullseye customers, if you can only get it to work. Maybe it's because I'm not at the returns desk at the orange apron.)

I have to do that a lot with the plastic bins we have on special, too. They're extremely popular, but come in two colors that have different bar codes. Sometimes I just want to yell at people that I'm not trying to waste their time, I'm trying to get their receipt as accurate as possible so they don't have any problems! (And so the store inventory updates with the right orders, but honestly, the customers don't care about that.)

People have this "2" thing sitting over here...and this other "2" thing sitting over there...they just never seem to figure out how to put them together.

Around Memorial day and the 4th we had alot of beverages and rolls on sale for the some prices. Such as hot dog or hamburg rolls X for $X or 12 pk Coke or Pepsi (forgot which ones) X for $X along with bottled water and other summer stuff.

Well some of our, sadly, more experienced cashiers were just scanning one box of 12 pks X times even if the flavors didn't match. By the end of the sale we ran out of numerous flavors, but had numerous pallets or regular because of this and handed out hundreds of rain checks. I heard that a few cashiers got written up for that.

[LadyAndreca]

Around Memorial day and the 4th we had alot of beverages and rolls on sale for the some prices. Such as hot dog or hamburg rolls X for $X or 12 pk Coke or Pepsi (forgot which ones) X for $X along with bottled water and other summer stuff.

Well some of our, sadly, more experienced cashiers were just scanning one box of 12 pks X times even if the flavors didn't match. By the end of the sale we ran out of numerous flavors, but had numerous pallets or regular because of this and handed out hundreds of rain checks. I heard that a few cashiers got written up for that.

I believe it and I've seen it. Still, that was one of the first things I was told at both my last cashiering jobs, and I figure if I'm going to do the job, I might as well do it right. Plus I'd rather not get written up for scanning two similar-looking items up as identical, only to find that one is somehow $20 more than the other. I like having a paycheck!

[Food Lady]

At least my bullseye customers ask, "Do you need all the sodas up here?" They have some idea different flavors may make a difference.

[mattm04]

I believe it and I've seen it. Still, that was one of the first things I was told at both my last cashiering jobs, and I figure if I'm going to do the job, I might as well do it right. Plus I'd rather not get written up for scanning two similar-looking items up as identical, only to find that one is somehow $20 more than the other. I like having a paycheck!

I almost forgot thsi one....

I was in line at a grocery store once (not the one I work for) and saw a custoemr place 6-7 packages of meat, which is sold by the pound, stacked on the belt. Visually the top one looked the smallest. The cashier just scanned the top one 6 times and bagged it.

It was near a beach and a holiday weekend and very much packed. I ended up going on the website and filling out the comment form a few days later. I just got a "thank you for telling us" form reply back.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Ugh. Sometimes I'll get this with people who buy the canned soda at the wholesale club. For the longest time, we sold the Coca-Cola brand sodas (and a few others) in 24-packs, which were stocked on the floor in open cases of 4 6-packs together.

Well, naturally, people assumed they could mix-and-match, get one 6-pack of Coke, one of Diet Coke, one of Sprite, and one of Caffeine Free Diet. And they'd get upset at the registers when we told them they couldn't mix and match like that.

Mind you, Coke and Diet Coke were the same price per 24-pack, so we'd often get the mix-and-match especially with those. "But they're the same price!" "Yes, but different SKUs. It messes up our inventory."

Now, at least, most of those PITA soda cases now come in pre-packaged cases, so mix-and-matching doesn't happen with the canned sodas as much now.

But they'll still do it for the 4-pack of 2L Coke and Diet Coke... and those are actually CLIPPED TOGETHER. *sigh*

[Chromatix]

Over here 12-packs (called "dachshunds" because they are arranged 6x2, not 3x4) are quite common. If we wanted 24-packs I think it would be a "case". Anyway, 4kg in each hand is probably easier than 8kg in one hand.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At the swamp, our sales always include all types of Pepsi or Coke product. So if the sale were, say, 4 12-packs of Pepsi products for $10, you could buy one pack of Pepsi, one of Mountain Dew, one of Sierra Mist, and one of Diet Pepsi and get the sale price.

If it were Coke, you could mix and match Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, etc and get it all for the sale price.

So with that in mind, I have to admit I was confused that Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, etc wouldn't count as the same product for the sale, even though they may be bottled by the same company.

[MsCrankypants]

I managed to educate a couple people this week about bar codes/inventory. They had eighteen rolls of electrical tape in seven different colors (it comes in purple?!) and got irritated when I scanned them all one by one. So I just told them that if I didn't scan each one, the computer would order the wrong colors to replace them and maybe next time they'd be looking at a wall of black tape and no orange or blue.

Hmm. Maybe that's why my local Safeway always seems to run out of stock - I've noticed that if I get 3 12-packs of Coke and one of Cherry Coke on one of their specials, they'll scan all 4 packs in as Coke. I don't work retail and never have, so I wasn't aware that this is not a Smart Thing to Do, although I can see the logic behind it.

I'll admit that I might be guilty of not reading or misreading sale signs on occasion. It usually tends to happen when Brand X Soda goes on sale, but the signs don't really specify which labels under Brand X are on sale and only certain ones are shelf-tagged. I tend to err on the side of the sodas that appear to be shelf-tagged, but I've occasionally taken one to the register that isn't one of the varieties on sale.

I don't kick up a fuss and demand the sale price, though. I usually just put it back and get one of the varieties that IS on sale. It's not really that hard, but this IS SCs we're talking about.

[fireheart]

Just to elaborate a little further on the whole shelf-reading/tagging thing. Whenever we have a special like this, there are three signs that go up:

1) An A2 (roughly) poster with all the information on it in big letters.
2) A smaller version of the above, which hangs off of the shelves in that particular aisle.
3) Our regular special tags.

They are all clearly labelled....yet they don't read!

[EricKei]

I think most 12-packs in the US are dachshund-style now, as well (what a wonderful term ^_^), rather than the 3x4's. The "consumer-safe" term used in advertisements is "fridge pack". Most stores do not carry cases, tho those are usually a flat containing four 6-packs.

One odd thing about bottling -- Dr Pepper is made by the Dr Pepper (/7up ?) Company, but I believe that both Coke and Pepsi *bottle* it. I can guarantee you that almost any restaurant you go to here will have Dr Pepper; it makes no difference whether they are a Pepsi-product store (like KFC) or a Coke-product store (like, well, almost everybody else...this market is HEAVILY Coke-favored). About the only times you won't see it is when they actually have Mr PiBB -- which means Subway and almost nobody else. For some inexplicable reason, you cannot GET pibb here in cans nor bottles; Coke distributes the DR cans here, too.