Thursday, November 09, 2006

Can I have something for nothing?

Some people will always go into any situation with a victim mentality. Or maybe they're just freaking evil.

Anyway. Customers throw stuff all around the store. They put stuff in their carts, see a better deal somewhere else, then put the old item on the shelf where they found the new item, usually at a lower price. So now whatever cost more is in front of a price tag that says it is less than it actually is. EVERY ONE OF YOU READING THIS HAS DONE THIS AT LEAST ONCE!

Middle-age white men and women refuse to believe that "other people" would actually do such a thing. They always seem to think that Wal-Mart is such an evil, monolithic cash-gobbling corporation as to intentionally mis-mark those new Gnarls Barkley CDs and toss them in a bin marked 2 for $11 and then charge you $18.88 for them - EVEN THOUGH THE PRICE ON THE CD SAYS $18.88.

I don't know how many of you read the news, but Wal-Mart is currently in a major war with the entertainment industry over selling movies on the Internet. Wal-Mart is the single largest DVD & music retailer on the planet - and it intends to stay that way.

In addition to the Electronics section, we have HUGE bins of DVD and CDs all throughout the store with old movies and CDs marked as TWO for $11.

People are forever getting a new CD and then dumping it in the bin when the find a cheap one they like. Someone else fishes out the expensive one and claims "Well, this was in the bin for $5.50." What can we do? It was in the bin. Do we call them a liar or what?

This woman Thursday was the worst though.

She had the aforementioned new Gnarls Barkley CD, which was very clearly labeled with not one but two price stickers - one on the side and one on the front - both of which said $18.88.

I guess she fished it out of the $5.50 bin and somehow managed to miss both price stickers. I don't know what she was thinking either. Since when are new CDs ever $5.50 - even at Wal-Mart?

So when the girl at the register rings the CD up for $18.88, she pitches a royal hissy fit. She only notices this after she's paid for it and she's examining her receipt.

The supervisor goes over and shows her both price stickers and tells her what probably happened. This is a case of something that clearly has a price on it an is obviously not mispriced. Store policy here is to give the customer three dollars off the price of the item, so she would have gotten the CD for a total of $15.88 -- which was a freaking great deal for that new Gnarls Barkley. So that's what the supervisor offers the woman.

Oh hell no. This woman goes at it again. She wants the CD for $5.50. And she wants a manager because she feels the supervisor was "rude" to her and "unresponsive to her problems."

Whatever.

The woman waits for like ten minutes, which isn't actually a long time, especially if they're unloading a truck or something, then goes "I don't have to deal with this."

She grabs the CD out of her bags, slaps it on the counter and goes "You better give me my money back on this -- all it too."

I do and thank her. She scribbles something on the signature line and clomps off in her flip-flops. I hope she had a bad enough experience she never comes back.

9 comments:

Larry Kollar said...

Back when my son (aka The Boy) used to work at a chain grocery, one of his jobs was to reshelve items that people had taken out of their cart & put it wherever. One day, when he wasn't working, we went there to get groceries. He saw something that was where it didn't belong, started fuming, grabbed it and took it to its proper place.

And he was off the clock. He can be very dedicated when he feels like it.

I can guarantee you, neither I nor Mrs. Fetched has ever left anything where it doesn't belong after that.

Anonymous said...

When I worked at Walmart a lady got a $25 pair of jeans for $5 because "it was on the clearance rack" She started on her sob story (she really had crocodile tears) about her hungry baby who was crying the whole time she was in the fitting room - the baby was sleeping peacefully at the time - and she wouldn't have taken the time while her baby was crying to try them on if she would have known they were 25 and my baby was crying the whole time (I swear she said this at least three times). I told her we are not responsible for customers misplacing things. (sometimes you just know when people are trying to pull one over on you) well management had me give them to her for $5 and few people can understand the irritation I felt when another associate told me later that she had asked how much they were prior to trotting with her (sleeping) baby to the fitting room.

Anonymous said...

I hate when I am checking out at the supermarket and I see some old bag leaving a perishable item just lying on the magazine rack that is next to the register.

Anonymous said...

Um, Wal-Mart IS "such an evil, monolithic cash-gobbling corporation".

Anonymous said...

Boo hoo, anonymous. No one makes you shop there.

Anonymous said...

I saw some chick leave a block of cheese in the bedding aisle and I was just thinking WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU WHAT IF NO ONE NOTICES?!

Anonymous said...

When I'm cashiering one of my pet peeves is when people put things by the register. I have said more than once, "Please hand that to me if you do not want it. If that goes bad you and everyone behind you will be paying for it through higher prices" that usually got them a dirty look or two from other customers but since I was polite I didn't get in trouble.

Anonymous said...

I like to go to Wal-Mart and get those bags of frozen shrimp.

Then I poke little holes in the bag with an inkpen.

Then I leave the bags of frozen shrimp all over the store, hidden underneath the pillows in the pillow tower, back behind the boxes of tricycles in toys, behind the rows of Pert Plus in HBA, inside tires in Tire & Lube Express, and anyplace else I can find a good hidey-hole.

Then I leave the store without buying anything.

I hate Wal-Mart. Smell ya later!

Travis said...

Oh god I hated working retail. "This piece of shit is marked at $25. Can I have this piece of shit for only $12 because it really is a piece of shit?"

This aint a garage sale motherfucker, buy it or get the fuck out. And take your god damned kids with you.