Aug 7, 2011


 "If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.”--Tom Peters


At the hardware store the management is constantly badgering the help to sell.   They have convinced themselves that the road to success is paved with add-on sales.  If we can just coax every customer to spend that extra buck, we will be successful beyond our wildest dreams.

They delude themselves.

And now a parable;

Joe and Fred met on the street and Joe said to Fred, "Allow me to give you $15."

Fred thought about it for a minute and replied, "No, I won't accept anything less than $22."

So, Joe and Fred went their separate ways.

Idiotic yes?  Too stupid to have happened?  Nope.

Yesterday a customer wanted to buy a garbage disposal and the only one we had was the display.  She asked if we would give her a discount because it was out of the box. 

So, I asked.

The manager said no because, and I am not making this up, we only make $22 on it at full price and a ten percent discount would lower our profit to a mere $15.

The customer left without buying anything.  When last I did the math, the profit on no sale is around zero.

These are not people who can be taken seriously. 








Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

6 comments:

Barbara said...

I experience this all the time. I often offer to buy damaged merchandise and am refused because they are required to send it back -- to where? China where it was made? I'm sure all that returned stuff ends up in a landfill. What happened to common sense on things like this?

The Bug said...

A true pointy-haired boss. Sigh.

Kurt said...

Answer: the garbage disposal costs $70.

Merle Sneed said...

Excellent work Kurt!

alphabet soup said...

Merle
I have to say one thing about The Store, the management are consistent.

Ms Soup

Steve Reed said...

I'm sure that someone high up the corporate food chain has limited the ability of store management to make these decisions, thus curtailing any possible inappropriate discounting for friends or friends of friends.

But still: Ugh!!!!