Would I be able to tell if they were using the check service?
It is called Bait and Switch here in the States. My company unfortunately indulges in this. They’ve altered pricing after a big trade show, forgotten to alter it online and when someone tries to buy an item for 29,000 and they're told, " Oh I know we sent you a written quote but now it costs 34,990 and fuck you if you don’t want to buy it now".
Jerks. 
Pot, kettle?
(hey, that kettle’s making a woooooshing sound!)
Thanks for recognizing that. I get so tired of the “why are you such a mean asshole” looks from the parents when I happen to object to that sort of thing. People will give their kids toys, electronics, just about any of our merchandise to play with to avoid actually being a thoughtful parent.
When I worked at Sears kids would play on the equipment in sporting goods and parents would ask, “Can my child play on your computers while I shop?”
No!
No? Really? He has a computer at home.
That’s the one he can play on.
If they have a little machine they run the check through they do. I’d assume they do. I’m not sure of the costs but for some reason at a recent meeting we were told checks are much cheaper to process than debit cards. Why that is, I couldn’t say.
I think most of the stores around here run the check thru a reader on the cash register, so they are probably using a service. But since that is the cheapest, that’s the compromise I’ll continue to use. I use my debit card only when I cannot use a check and almost never use a credit card, so at least I’m saving the merchants something! 
And that’s appreciated. A lot of customers have no idea that forms of payment cost the merchant different amounts. When I ask “debit or credit?” about 10% will respond “whatever is cheaper for you” or “Debit, isn’t that cheaper for you?”
It doesn’t make much sense to that processing a paper check is cheaper than a debit card. Maybe there’s a good reason like the Visa MC logo.
Snide remarks work better when they make sense and apply to what’s actually been said.
Ya see local merchants and indeed merchants in general have to give a crap about their their consumers disposable incomes. They’ve been doing that for generations.
Look, I don’t really care if you think business is business and it’s all about the numbers and what works for you or the business. That’s one approach and a perfectly valid one. It just so happens it’s not the one I and some others prefer and not the only formula that works. It’s also not superior in any way. IMHO the big business numbers only model has a human disconnect that harms us in the long run. No cite, just an opinion after working in the marketplace for years.
I really think it is the small merchant’s responsibility to explain/advertise why a small shop is better or at least different than a larger shop. Without an advertising budget, this is a challenge. Most people can’t see beyond their own nose. If a product is cheaper or more convenient right now, that’s what they think about. Many of our countries problems are because people have to concern themselves with the short term and let the long term order itself out later.
I’m guilty of this too. I simply don’t have the time to shop multiple stores to find the best overall deal, so I just go to the one store where I can get the best price (and know they have the product in stock) and go on with my day. Generally that is not the small shop. I feel for the struggles of the small shop, but bottom line is that usually they cannot compete with the larger shops and more importantly, don’t give the consumers what they want.
It’s tragic that many Main St stores are going away, but to succeed, you need to give the people what they want. You can’t tell people what they SHOULD want, you need to give them what they do want. If a store, any store, does not give people what they want (or at least enough to keep the business viable), that store does not have a right to exist. It has to compete with the larger stores, even if the playing field isn’t level.
Bait and Switch was a real problem here when stores would advertise an item they really had no intention of selling. It went to court and consumer protection laws were passed, but those laws do allow stores to make honest mistakes.
If a store has a wrong price up and left it up for days while telling customers “OOps it’s really a higher price” that would be intentional misleading which is the offense. We got specific instructions at one company on how to proceed to avoid that kind of perception. Lots of customers mistakenly think there’s some law that requires us to sell an item at the tagged price even if it’s a error.
Some stores advertise things they have very few of just to create traffic. We had a price matching policy at Circuit City that included “must be in stock” so we didn’t have to sell our inventory at a price that a competitor had no intention of selling at.
One competitor purposely advertised something at a low price they knew we had a lot of , when they had none and were only taking orders they couldn’t fill. I had to explain to customers over and over that we didn’t match prices on items not in stock, show them the policy in print, and advise them that our competitor wouldn’t be getting them anytime soon.
You’ve made some good points and they’re true. Our own short sightedness and addiction to convenience and rapid gratification will hurt us down the road and I struggle with those things as well.
I haven’t advocated that a small local business should be supported just because they are a small local business and that’s all they have going for them. In fact that wasn’t the thrust of my opening rant at all. I was just venting about what selfish inconsiderate asses some customers can be. I do think the large cooperate mind set has cultivated bad customer behavior over a period of generations.
I do think, if a small local business does a good job and offers items at a reasonable price it’s worth a minor inconvenience to shop there and support them. We seem to have developed this “it’s business so the human factor doesn’t count” attitude which I think is detrimental to society in the long run. If we can discipline ourselves to bring the human factor and the community factor back in maybe we’ll pass that on to our kids and their kids.
Think about it, the same folks, {sometimes it’s me} that bitch about the bank bailouts and their crappy fees and rates are the ones who whip out the plastic and help support them taking money away from the merchant in front of us. I’m not saying we should carry hundreds in cash but what about $20 to pay for small purchases.
The reality is, IMHO that a society that becomes so busy and addicted to convenience and personal gratification that we can’t give a crap about others in our daily practice is advancing it’s own demise.
But that wasn’t what this thread was about.
Says the person who has worked in retail for a very long time.
Yes, while whitewashing over what selfish and inconsiderate asses some small business merchants can be by trading on this "pity me, I’m the small businessman who can’t compete on price, but I can compete on that je-ne-sais-quoi of commerce.
Wake up. The same good is fungible. It doesn’t matter where I buy a copy of Hannah Montana Season 1 - the only thing that matters is the price. Where there is actually a value-add from the interaction between a consumer and a merchant, that’s where you find small businesses thrive. But it ain’t in retail. It is not my responsibility to care that I displace a sale from a local merchant because that merchant can’t compete on price. I bet if I search the archives, I’ll find you bemoaning the bankruptcy of Circuit City as the local consumer greedily turned away from a community-based retailer to the internet. Right?
Cities bend over backwards to give tax breaks to brick-and-mortar merchants to set up shop in downtown areas, yet you pretend that society acts as if mom-and-pop are a plague that sours the consumerist paradise of the big box.
Right back at you. Of course, you pretend to misunderstand my point regarding the approach that a merchant should have regarding his customer’s ability to pay, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from some anti big-business ideologue.
I don’t know what it is like where you live, but in my area local merchants have the most restrictive return policies, are the most expensive sellers of the same products, and really don’t offer this mythical “we know everything about every product in the store” knowledge that small business supporters trade on with absolutely no evidence of its existence. How this is evidence of anything but a “it’s business” approach to commerce is beyond me.
This makes no sense. Allow me: “Think about it, the same folks, that bitch about the government’s policy of the week are the ones who whip out the greenback and help endorse the government by using its fiat currency.” I guess you also think we should close our Bank of America checking accounts, too?
Oh, wait. No. I missed the last sentence. You’re not pissed at this invented hypocrisy, you’re pissed that they “take money away from the merchant.” What is this shit? Credit cards are a business expense (and, like most expenses, is typically only incurred if the expected return is positive [note: in aggregate, not per individual sale]) so shut the fuck up about having money stolen from the poor little business, ok? Nothing is being taken, unless you also think that the local electric utility is taking money from you because consumers like to shop in well-lit stores.
p.s. fwiw, i agree with the tenor of your op. it was where you started off on this credit card sidebar where i jumped in.
My Goole-fu is pretty weak so I couldn’t find the Wisconsin law that I’m pretty sure exists. Here is one I found for Scanner Errorsfrom Michigan. The limits seem pretty low to me, the difference in marked price from scanned price x 10. Minimum of $1 max of $5.
This always cracked me up since the ones that had it (Best Buy, Circuit City) were big enough that they would make the manufacturer set them up with their own, unique, SKU so even if the competitor had the same product it was a different PN so not valid as a “price match.”
Wow. So not only did the customer have to see the advertised price they had to go to the competitor, buy the item, bring it to you to prove the other store had it in stock to get your matched price, buy the item from you and then return the original item to the first store? Sure makes it look like you were serious about price matching.
You keep saying this. Don’t you mean “corporate”?
Our price matching policy not only included “Must Be In Stock” but also “Must be exactly the same product, even the same colour”.
Even thinking about trying to enforce that policy would result in a lot of grief from customers, so as long as they had a current catalogue or we could confirm the price with the business in question (All the people in the electronics stores in the area knew each other for the most part) we’d honour the price- even if it was a different colour or the other store was out of stock.
The problem was a store that was given to advertising a “standard” price (the same as everyone else) but actually quoting customers a lower price in store- and they had a strict “We do not give out prices over the phone” policy, which (combined with other strict price matching rules from head office that were enforced) made it very to effectively price-match that particular competitor.
Rule Number Two* : if the words “the customer is always right” ever pass a customer’s lips, for any reason whatsoever, that customer’s an utter, entitled, self-important dillweed. No exception. Save yourself the aggravation and run them out the store with pitchforks then and there. The same goes for people who pronounce the word “customer” (as in “But I’m a paying customer !”) as if it were a foreign nobility title. Just tell them to go lick a power socket, and get on with your life. Your very sanity depends on it.
Of course, that’s only a realistic option provided your manager isn’t a tool himself - but most good managers know that the prime hissy fit customers never buy things anyway and only waste everyone’s time (yours, your superior’s they will insist on seeing RIGHT NOW, and the top store manager’s) by complaining about shit even *they *know will never happen in a million years.
Yes, of course ma’am, I will be happy to refund you the powerbook your cat was sick on. Our vast clientele does indeed include a number of barfputer fans who will be positively thrilled to get their hands on a dead laptop that wasn’t just puked on by a cat, but by *your *cat no less. Thank you for your kindness and magnanimity.
On second thought, are you off your bloody meds, lady ?
And you know who I blame for this type of behavior ? Kids. I swear, the second some people get sprogs, they become Universal Parents as the entire fucking world becomes their children, who they can be obnoxious to, browbeat and yell at until they do what they’re told. Hence the crimson faced cognitive dissonance when the expected result doesn’t happen. DON’T YOU DARE TALK BACK TO MUMMY, KEV… STORE NONPERSON !
(Rule Number One was, of course, already taken : Do not act incautiously when confronting little wrinkly bald smiling men !)
I was treated to the sight and sound of one of the Entitled Ones wanting to buy ornaments off a display tree(at Target) at the discount price they would be sold at after Christmas.
Couldn’t understand why you can’t strip a display tree even after the explanation. Threw a right hissy fit, she did.
Props to the salesperson who remained professional and courteous through the whole tirade.
That’s the part that I think should be emphasized. People these days have way too much credit card debt, so if they can’t be concerned about how it is affecting them, maybe they might hesitate to use a credit card if they know that the bank is (over)charging the store every time one is used.
Not that anyone would consider that right now, as everyone goes into debt to buy Xmas presents… :rolleyes:
it so happens the CC thing is the same basic principle as the rest of my post and I can’t fathom why you don’t get that.
There ought to be a word in SD jargon for people who post ridiculous exaggerations that bear little or no resemblance to the point made by the other poster. It happens all the time and your posts are a shining example. I’m not going to waste time responding to things I never said or trying to explain the difference to you.
No doubt laws vary from state to state.
Actually we often had the exact same models as BB, or Staples, Comp USA, Office Max, although we sometimes had one model made just for us that nobody else had. Back then WalMart almost always had different skus and unique models nobody else had. If the price difference was minor and the specs were close we could still opt to take the business.
That’s not even close to how it worked.
Papers came out on the same day so we knew who was advertising what for what. The home office would often download new, price matched, tags into the computer and we would match some models right away. CC did something for years that Sears is advertising now. We would shop the competition and load prices into the computer. If customers would talk about shopping others we could take them to the computer and show them what the competition was selling those items for. Eventually they discontinued the practice because it didn’t seem cost effective and didn’t seem to catch on with the customers.
We knew which companies wee notorious for advertising items with very little inventory so a couple of days into a sale we would call a couple of local stores and ask if they had them in stock. When we heard they didn’t we could officially not price match that item. Again, if the difference was minor we often chose to take the business. If the difference was major there was no good reason to sell the 20 to 100 we had in stock for the low price they sold 5 for. No reason for there loss leader o deplete our stock.
Sorry, my time is limited so I get lazy with the proof reading.