Monday, September 29, 2003
Another one of the many, many things that really bugs me is stuff that isn't marked in a store. Actually in Michigan, except for certain things like screws and gumballs, every item in a store has to have a price tag on it. What bugs me is two things related to this. First is no price anywhere to be found. I can live without a price tag if there's a price on the shelf or box. What really bugs me is when you can't find prices anywhere. No tag, no sticker, no nothing. And when you ask a pin-headed clerk about it they usually tell to use the scanner in the aisle. Or they take the item, wander off to the bathroom and come back fifteen minutes later and tell you it's $5. One of these days, I'm going to clear off a whole shelf and kick it over to a wall scanner and check prices on everything.
The next annoying thing is mismarked prices. This weekend I bought pants, belt, candy and foot powder at Target. The pants were on sale and that price rang up OK. The belt was tagged $9.99 and rang up $11.99. I pointed that out and they changed it. The candy did OK and then the powder rang up at $4.47 or somesuch odd price. (Why on earth not $4.50 or $10.00 anyway?). I was sure the price was wrong but instead of holding the whole line behind me (which I know would piss me off to no end) I take the stuff out to my car, and bring the tag back in to check the price on the shelf. Sure enough, it was $3.99. OK, so now I gotta stand in the service line for fifteen minutes.
I'm leaning against the wall off to one side watching the "Serving Now" number. It's like 70 and I'm 75. There's this whole crowd around and the numbers click off and finally it says 73. Everyone is watching whatever and the clerk behind the counter says, "next?" Nobody else does anything so I walk up and say I've got 75 -- she says, "that's OK, we're not paying attention to the numbers anyway." -- sigh...
Now, it's not the lousy 48 cents that I had a problem with it was the principle of the thing. If I hadn't been an ornery penny-pitching tightwad, I would never had noticed the prices were wrong. This time it would have been $2.48. Multiply that by the godzillion customers who shop there monthly and the adds up to serious free profit for the stores.
Actually Target isn't too bad compared to K-Mart. Prices are unmarked regularly and nobody, from the clerks to the managers give a damn. And that stupid recorded message in K-Mart: "For your convenience customer service phones are available in each area." It's not for my convince, it for K-Mart's convenience. If it was for my convenience, they'd hire a body that would actually know what the hell was going on.
And one last comment about this. As much as I bitch and moan about the clerks in a store, most of the time it isn't their fault. They're getting paid minimum wage with probably no benefits, have lousy hours and worse training and get shifted around so much, they're lucky if they know where the check-out lanes are located this week. It's the damn management and cut pennies here and everywhere and do more with less, when everyone know you can only do less with less.
2fers: http://www.kmart.com and www.target.com
The next annoying thing is mismarked prices. This weekend I bought pants, belt, candy and foot powder at Target. The pants were on sale and that price rang up OK. The belt was tagged $9.99 and rang up $11.99. I pointed that out and they changed it. The candy did OK and then the powder rang up at $4.47 or somesuch odd price. (Why on earth not $4.50 or $10.00 anyway?). I was sure the price was wrong but instead of holding the whole line behind me (which I know would piss me off to no end) I take the stuff out to my car, and bring the tag back in to check the price on the shelf. Sure enough, it was $3.99. OK, so now I gotta stand in the service line for fifteen minutes.
I'm leaning against the wall off to one side watching the "Serving Now" number. It's like 70 and I'm 75. There's this whole crowd around and the numbers click off and finally it says 73. Everyone is watching whatever and the clerk behind the counter says, "next?" Nobody else does anything so I walk up and say I've got 75 -- she says, "that's OK, we're not paying attention to the numbers anyway." -- sigh...
Now, it's not the lousy 48 cents that I had a problem with it was the principle of the thing. If I hadn't been an ornery penny-pitching tightwad, I would never had noticed the prices were wrong. This time it would have been $2.48. Multiply that by the godzillion customers who shop there monthly and the adds up to serious free profit for the stores.
Actually Target isn't too bad compared to K-Mart. Prices are unmarked regularly and nobody, from the clerks to the managers give a damn. And that stupid recorded message in K-Mart: "For your convenience customer service phones are available in each area." It's not for my convince, it for K-Mart's convenience. If it was for my convenience, they'd hire a body that would actually know what the hell was going on.
And one last comment about this. As much as I bitch and moan about the clerks in a store, most of the time it isn't their fault. They're getting paid minimum wage with probably no benefits, have lousy hours and worse training and get shifted around so much, they're lucky if they know where the check-out lanes are located this week. It's the damn management and cut pennies here and everywhere and do more with less, when everyone know you can only do less with less.
2fers: http://www.kmart.com and www.target.com
