The Stupidest Example of Retail Stupidity Ever Stupidified

The BBQ Pit
21

How the hell is someone supposed to shop online for a coat? This isn’t DVD or book we’re talking about here. Coats have to be examined up close. One has to make sure the material has a nice texture and does not make annoying sounds. And most important, you have to make sure the damn thing fits, which is especially important in my case, since I’m fat, and finding clothes that fit is difficult.

Your justification for the practice of tying down the merchandise is less than impressive. Treating all customers like hooligans because the MWLs are too pre-occupied with the latest Britney Spears video to keep an eye on things is unacceptable.

22

Tangent:

During the interview process to work at Macy’s, they ask you to count to 50. To see if you can do it. I’m not making that up.

23

Leather jackets are difficult to tag because most security garment- tagging systems rely on being able to pierce the material without causing serious damage.

24

Friedo, my fellow-NY buddy, let me give you a tip. Forget Macy*s. Stay in Queens.

There is an Averix/Cockpit factory outlet store in Long Island City that has got some incredible deals on leather coats. Some of it is homeywear, some of it is Rambowear, and some of it is plain old NYCguywear. The fleece bomber jacket I got there for a steal over a decade ago is still warm as toast, in primo shape and never fails to attract compliments.

25

Sorry, but I don’t blame them. I work with a girl that blatantly explained to me how she would steal those jackets and sell them, for half of what the stores charge, to her friends.

But you see, it is money for her baby.

That makes it ok.

26

stuyguy, you are my hero, yet again.

Doesn’t Queens kick ass?

27

:confused: You mean like “moo”?..

Oh, wait, you mean like that squeaky-crinkle sound that cheap leather makes… Nevermind.

Back in my student days, I had a crappy retail job. Leather coats were attached to special hangers that trapped the coat in the hanger at the shoulders. You had to get someone to unlock the hanger to try one on.

Someone still managed to steal one.

28

As someone who works in Loss prevention for a large Dept. Store chain, we do have our men’s coats chained.

It’s rediculous, but it’s a neccessary evil with times the way they are. You would not believe how far people will go to get leather jackets, or the stupid shit they’ll pull.

Like I said, it’s only our mens. We don’t have the women’s chained yet, and already i’ve had three arrests go out the door just from those women’s leather jackets. One had $1200 worth of jackets, and another had $800 worth. The third one only tried to get two jackets, and they were the cheaper ones.

And what scares me, is this is only the people we’ve CAUGHT this week (stealing jackets that is). Looking over the numbers this morning, I’m STILL missing 14 more coats.

It’s stupid, it’s asinine, and I wish to hell I DIDN’T have to chain these bastards down. But if I didn’t, I’d be missing a whole HELL of alot more coats.

Unfortunately, Jackets are a high target item for theives, and they’ll go through a lot of crap to get them out of the store. Just two weeks ago, a LP guy from one of the other stores in the mall was telling us how the first week they had their coats out on the floor, they nailed a pair of thieves with almost $7k worth of coats.

So don’t go blaming the store right off. They’re just trying to protect their merchandise, and keep it from walking off. If you really want someone to blame, blame the shitbums who have driven us to the point where he HAVE to lock shit up, just to keep it IN the dammed store.

It’s a lose/lose scenaireo for both the customer and store, because the customer can’t readily access the merchandise to see if they want it, and could cause us to lose a sale. And it comes down to basically a simple question, Lose a sale for $200 or have a real real REAL good possibility of a lot more than $200 worth of merchandise walk out the door.

It sucks no matter how you slice it :frowning:

29

Listen, I understand perfectly why expensive items have to be secured. But still, it would help to a) leave enough slack in the cord so a customer could try on a jacket, and b) assist the customer when they ask! It’s not the policy that’s the problem; it’s the way it’s carried out.

30

Justify it all you want, but I’m not buying a jacket I can’t try on without having to flag down some idiot three departments away. So instead of merely “protecting” your merchandise, you’ve lost a sale.

31

dantheman, they can lose your sale, or they can lose at least five or six times the amount of your sale to thieves. It’s a sad fact. Annoying as fuck, of course, but unavoidable if people are going to insist upon being assholes and thieves.

32

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhh…

Is it “unavoidable” that, when asked to unlock an item so a potential customer can try it on, the clerk will “disappear into some room and never return”? It’s not the policy that is the problem; it is the level of customer service.

33

Rilchiam, I totally understand that, and I agree with you. There was something about dantheman’s phrasing that irked me, which I don’t find now; I apologise, dan.

34

Oh cmon, racin. I’m not the only person in the world who think this is a crappy system. They’re not just losing me, they’re losing 90% of their honest customers, too.

I was in both Sears and Strawbridges today, and neither used this system - they DO have a tag on there that’s impossible to remove. Why can’t all stores simply do this?

35

As Mangetout mentioned, it depends on the type of jacket. Were they leather jackets? Or maybe Pleather jackets?
Would you buy a real leather jacket that had been pierced with one of those tags? I think not.
I agree, the problem is finding a salesperson to help you, but the root of the problem is the people who steal.
Even chained down, trust me, there’s someone who will come in with bolt cutters planning on getting all of them. I’m NOT exaggerating.

I worked in retail for many years, and you’d be amazed at the audacity of some people. They put on clothes or sweaters or jackets and try to walk out the door, insisting that they came in wearing the article of clothing, even though you know damn well they didn’t.
I was working at one store, and we had just received a shipment of new sweaters. Brand new, never had them in our store before, very specific striped sweaters.
We got them out on the sales floor by the afternoon, and later on a woman came in, tried one on, ripped the tags off (I saw her do this, BTW) and tried to walk out wearing it. When I stopped her, she insisted she had purchased it “a week ago” and that she had the receipt at home. I pointed out the tags on the floor, and the boxes that we were unpacking them from, explaining that we JUST got them. She had a fit, yanked it off and threw it at me, yelling that she’d never shop in our store again and ran out.
Good riddance, I say.

36

Just for the record, the ‘impossible to remove’ tags are not all the impossible to remove. Either with simple tools and some ingenuity, or by purchase of one of the machines, it is very possible to remove one. - [sub]Waverly, who begrudgingly admits to once working retail[/sub]

37

Still, too bad. You wanna chain them, you’re losing a sale, probably more. I’ll buy the jacket online before I screw around with a chain. In fact, I’m really kind of surprised retailers bother with them - the economy’s down and competition for the dollar is UP. If people go to store A and can’t try on a jacket because it’s been bolted to the hanger, they’re going to go to store B.

And might I suggest hiring floorwalkers? Oh, but chaining the jackets is much better, because it’s cheaper. :wink:

38

Just for that, if I ever try to get a job at Macy’s and they ask me to do that, I’ll count to 50 all right – in HEX (“8, 9, A, B…”). Then again in OCTAL (“5, 6, 7, 10, 11…”). :wink:

39

It strikes me that this would be very effective birth control.