Absolute Greed

[fireheart]

So after coming back into work, I am subsequently informed of our new policy, which requires a little explanation...

The two major supermarket/department store companies run a deal with some (not all) of their stores in which if you spend a certain amount you can get a petrol voucher. They are the same amount each time (so it doesn't matter if you spend $20 or $150, one voucher only).

Explanation over.

So, with both supermarkets, it hasn't stopped people from splitting their purchases every $30 to get extra petrol vouchers. I hate it for the simple reasons that a) it's just plain greedy, b) it holds up my line and c) the customers are really condescending when they do it.

Our new policy from now on: We cannot split the shopping under any circumstances! (splitting for your mum or for school/work is fine, as long as you don't ask us to stop at $30) Basically, it's one voucher per customer from here on out.

When I read this, my first thought was like this

And then it became this:

But of course, I wouldn't be posting this here if I didn't have a sucky story to go with it would I?

Turns out that the reason WHY we have now instituted the new policy is due to a lovely incident which occurred last week while I was on holiday.

Basically, a customer wound up splitting her shopping a whopping ELEVEN times, just to get extra vouchers.
The whole thing took 25 minutes to do and they had to close off the lane just to stop customers from coming up and having to wait. (for the folks playing at home, that's nearly $350 worth of groceries right there)

To the customer: A big lovely FUCK YOU right there. Do you fill up your car once a day?! Because that is just plain greed right there.

Still, I'll honestly laugh if someone says that we're money grubbing again and forcing people to buy MORE groceries. Yeah, nice try, we aren't losing money from the supermarket side thank you very much. Petrol side maybe, but supermarket side...

[csquared]

Wow! I am surprised she didn't make the cashier wait for her to find another $10 to buy to get the twelfth voucher.

Now you need to start another thread so we can rant on the other half of this problem...

[fireheart]

Management had their hands tied on this one csquared, so they wouldn't have been able to say no earlier if they tried. Now we can all say no

[bainsidhe]

Does no one at corporate think these things through? When I worked at Media Play, we'd have customers pull something similar with our specials. Spend X to get $5.00 off would result in the same situation you just mentioned. I would tell customers point blank to let me ring the whole purchase up together and I'll just override the system to give them the extra discounts. It'd take too long otherwise. Annoying yes, but many customers have no problem holding up the line for a buck or two.

Really, your store should have made it clear that the maximum discount was one per customer per day. Not per shopping trip (which encourages going through another line over and over) and not per transaction. Per customer. So bring your extended family or whatever, but you're going to work for that extra discount.

[GreedySmurf]

That's just stupid.

(I think your an Aussie right?) Because those vouchers have expiry dates on them, so unless they're filling there car up every bloody day, there's no way they're going to use all the vouchers.

[TwistedAlice]

Just goes to show what people will do to save a few! Corporate really doesn't think these things through at all. I agree with bainsidhe, they should have made it one per customer per day

[fireheart]

I should probably make this clear...

There was a rule about one voucher per customer in the terms and conditions, but it was a loophole of sorts that stated that we couldn't say no. Now they're cracking down on that rule big time.

GreedySmurf, you are absolutely correct. The idea though is that people with 2 cars want to use the vouchers, so grabbing more than one-to them-shows that their partner/kids can use them. I don't mind splitting it one time, but only one time and to an amount well over $30. after that it gets way too greedy.

[csquared]

I have seen promotions like that before. They really don't work as well as management would like them to.

A promotion like this usually has two objectives: Capture new customer & Retain existing customers.

What it does not do is encourage existing customer to spend more or to buy more profitable products (for example, store brands). This is what a good promotion should do.

As we have seen, it also encourages existing customers to change their buying habits. If they can't split the order, they will bring the kids with them. Or they may just buy less, and come in more often. While that latter are certainly a lot less work than splitting $350 into orders of as close to $30 as you can, it will still increase costs.

Of course, even a good promotion gets its share of Suck, but it should not encourage them.

They say you can't make something Fool Proof as fools are so ingenious. We can say something similar about EWs.

At least you get to enjoy telling the customer "No."

By the way, how much petrol do you get for the voucher?

[fireheart]

the vouchers give you 4c off a litre. We also occasionally have other offers.

[stargirl195]

Doesn't surprise me in the least - no matter how carefully worded the terms and conditions are for promotions such as these, there will always be a horde of greedy, angry graspers seeking full entitlement.

But WTF??? $350.00 worth of groceries and ELEVEN times? Does nobody think about anyone else when they step out of their front door? It's just mindboggling! Hopefully the new policies don't give you too much grief