Things that frustrate us all
- Thread starter rhubarbodendron
- Start date
The odd behavior of stores and companies in regards to products.
One of my favorite products if, for an example, Reese peanut butter Whoopers. When all the grocery stores stopped carrying them, I had assuemd they had stopped making them. Then one day a few years later I walk into a WalGreen and BOOM -- they have them. Why the hell did the company stop selling them everywhere in my county except WalGreens? How on Earth do you making a profit on a product by only carrying it at one location?
Then even more baffling, even though the product sold like hotckaes, WalGreen stopped selling it. And no -- they still make them, its just I can't buy it ANYWHERE in my ENTIRE COUNTY. And I live in Bay county, Florida -- not exactly a small place.
I had a smilar experience with another company. I contacted them because I wanted to buy (not online) two products of theirs but couldn't find them anywhere and there was no product locator on their website (and I know they carry one of them here somewhere, because I saw it mashed into a parking lot one day). They reply back with one place, that we don't have here in the city and would get back to me on the other. I really appreciate them helping, but I'm baffled by how they expect to sell more product and make more profit if they don't sell the items anywhere a normal shopper such as myself has been to.
Even more frustrating are companies that tell me to request the product from local stores. Why? How about you guys just make your product available; not everybody orders certain products, and food, online. Do I honestly have to tell a company to stock a product that sold like hotcakes, for example?
And even more frustrating is my experience actually asking employees to special order or carry an item. they ask you to repeat it like they couldn't hear you the first time, even though you are face-to-face with them, act confused, and it goes nowhere. It's like they forget what you were talking to them about mid conversation. I'd litterally have better luck talking to a wall; at least I have no expectations from the wall, that way when it does nothing after I ask it something, I cannot be let down. And the wall is never confused.
One of my favorite products if, for an example, Reese peanut butter Whoopers. When all the grocery stores stopped carrying them, I had assuemd they had stopped making them. Then one day a few years later I walk into a WalGreen and BOOM -- they have them. Why the hell did the company stop selling them everywhere in my county except WalGreens? How on Earth do you making a profit on a product by only carrying it at one location?
Then even more baffling, even though the product sold like hotckaes, WalGreen stopped selling it. And no -- they still make them, its just I can't buy it ANYWHERE in my ENTIRE COUNTY. And I live in Bay county, Florida -- not exactly a small place.
I had a smilar experience with another company. I contacted them because I wanted to buy (not online) two products of theirs but couldn't find them anywhere and there was no product locator on their website (and I know they carry one of them here somewhere, because I saw it mashed into a parking lot one day). They reply back with one place, that we don't have here in the city and would get back to me on the other. I really appreciate them helping, but I'm baffled by how they expect to sell more product and make more profit if they don't sell the items anywhere a normal shopper such as myself has been to.
Even more frustrating are companies that tell me to request the product from local stores. Why? How about you guys just make your product available; not everybody orders certain products, and food, online. Do I honestly have to tell a company to stock a product that sold like hotcakes, for example?
And even more frustrating is my experience actually asking employees to special order or carry an item. they ask you to repeat it like they couldn't hear you the first time, even though you are face-to-face with them, act confused, and it goes nowhere. It's like they forget what you were talking to them about mid conversation. I'd litterally have better luck talking to a wall; at least I have no expectations from the wall, that way when it does nothing after I ask it something, I cannot be let down. And the wall is never confused.
The things is new products are launched all the time fighting for limited space on the shelves. You might think it sells like hot cakes in your location but from a national or regional point of view it be a poor seller so it's space is given over to another product which might sell better.
Also it's not unheard of companies to pay for space on supermarket shelves, certain products will sell no matter where they are but eye level is where many will want their product to be. As for store employees asking you to repeat the item or repeating it back perhaps they want to make sure they heard you correctly or it's a product they have never heard off. And remember some stores stock thousands or tens of thousands of product you can't expect someone to remember every single product.
Also it's not unheard of companies to pay for space on supermarket shelves, certain products will sell no matter where they are but eye level is where many will want their product to be. As for store employees asking you to repeat the item or repeating it back perhaps they want to make sure they heard you correctly or it's a product they have never heard off. And remember some stores stock thousands or tens of thousands of product you can't expect someone to remember every single product.
In this particualr case though, that's not what happened; they switched out flavors for the same brand name. The flavor switched out to, isn't selling like the other.
That doesn't, however, account for why every store but one chain would drop a product, for example, then no place in an entrie county carry it.
Plus, I'll add that this store doesn't have space limited to a shelf. they had a big display where they toss in various brands of boxes of candy into it. There was plenty of space.
Not when you see the look on their face. It's like their eye glaze over and what I said goes in one ear and out the other. Even if it was a case he or she didn't hear me and wanted to double check, it doesn't address my question -- they never answer me. I never get the answer or wheter they can look into stocking an item or special ordering (which some stores still do). And in the majority of cases I am talking to an employee who either is stalkign that isle that has been seen doing that one isle mutiple times or is the head of the department. I can't even get an answer from the head of a department. I've worked on grocery stores in costumer service. If I didn't know, I told them I didn't know and suggested who they speak to to get an answer. I didn't ignore the costumer like I forgot what they aksed mere seconds earlier.
Well that's different, but it can be the case that the store has little control of what it carries and even if they do pass it up the chain it could be ignored. If enough customers called into customer carelines requesting a product they might look into stocking/re-stocking it.
People who constantly complain about pretty much everything...
Tharpdevenport, ask to speak with the manager about stocking that product.
Honestly, I don't know what it is about some people and shopping carts when they are exiting a fucking store. I have another to tell.
So, this lady is ahead of me, she's already at the exit, which is a series of initial doors out, an area with a bending machine and some stuff and on the other side shopping carts, and then the actual doors out the building.
She picks her bags up -- not much to carry. So, what do you think she did with the shopping cart?
She took the bags out, and pushed the cart at the vending machine so it lightly bounced off it and blocked 3/4ths or more of the way, so you ahve to walk around it. Apparently that was too much for her, too, as she was already starting to turn around and take off when she did it. Mere steps to the other side are the rows of carts pushed in from the outside.
But in a nice bit of news, that stupid fucking thing was offset today when I got to talk to a sweet somewhat elderly black lady. Nice lady. Almost makes me forget about the dumbass who shoved the cart in the way and into a vending machine.
Almost.
So, this lady is ahead of me, she's already at the exit, which is a series of initial doors out, an area with a bending machine and some stuff and on the other side shopping carts, and then the actual doors out the building.
She picks her bags up -- not much to carry. So, what do you think she did with the shopping cart?
A: She took a few steps and put it with the other carts.
B: She put it out of the way in the middle of the area so it didn't block the entrances and exits.
C: She just fucking pushed it off aimlessly like a rowboat from a ship, blocking every single other person leaving the store.
If you chose C, you chose well. Here is an image to illustrate what this intentional bonehead did:B: She put it out of the way in the middle of the area so it didn't block the entrances and exits.
C: She just fucking pushed it off aimlessly like a rowboat from a ship, blocking every single other person leaving the store.
She took the bags out, and pushed the cart at the vending machine so it lightly bounced off it and blocked 3/4ths or more of the way, so you ahve to walk around it. Apparently that was too much for her, too, as she was already starting to turn around and take off when she did it. Mere steps to the other side are the rows of carts pushed in from the outside.
But in a nice bit of news, that stupid fucking thing was offset today when I got to talk to a sweet somewhat elderly black lady. Nice lady. Almost makes me forget about the dumbass who shoved the cart in the way and into a vending machine.
Almost.
Let me take care of your next seven posts for you, because I'm a generous guy like that.
Stay strong.
Stay strong.
Tharp there's a lot of things that go on "behind the scenes" at stores that customers are not aware of.
On not carrying a product anymore:
There's a number of reasons for this:
Culling inventory: We're encouraged to keep inventory moving. Fairly regularly I go through movement to see what items are slow movers. It does no good to have inventory sitting on-hand that doesn't move. It takes up space. And if it is perishable and I cannot sell an entire case of it before it expires then it does me no good to carry it, does it? Why not remove that item and fill it with something that moves better?
Manufacturer Oddities: On top of things like the maker of a product discontinuing it, some times they may just have deals where they'll only sell it to certain locations and we are not one of them.
Warehouse Oddities: Like stores culling inventory, warehouses do the same thing. If the warehouse services 100 stores and 99 of them rarely buy this produce but 1 of them orders one once a week it becomes a cost/benefit thing. Especially if it is perishable. A warehouse cannot just order enough to service this one store's needs they have to buy these things by the truckload. Again, it becomes a case of it not being worth carrying so one store out of 100 can have the product. I've had this numerous times where the manufacturer still makes a product but my warehouse doesn't carry it due to lack of movement out of the warehouse. It's theoretically still possible for me to get that one case in but it's likely to give me a higher cost and it'll take longer to get it compared to the usual order/receipt turn-around time.
It's not as simple as "order it, get it in" there's a lot that goes into it in all levels of the process that goes into whether or not to carry a product. Stores with modern systems can track movement. It may *seem* like a product is "always out" or "sells pretty well" but the store knows the truth. And the truth may reveal it takes a month to sell a single case of a product. And if that product's shelf-life is only a month or two it's not worth carrying. If you have one case of a product yeah, sure, it may seem like it sells-out quickly! But the truth is, no it doesn't, which is why we carry one case.
Believe me, if a product moves quickly and well we're going to carry it.
I've taken numerous orders for people and there's been plenty of times where a person tells me something, I get it, and it's the wrong thing. Why?
Because a lot of the time people cannot be entirely clear on what it is that they want. With many products there are a lot of varieties and there can be some lines that can blurred in the differences. So, whenever I take an order I repeat all aspects of the order of what they want to ensure both parties agree on what is wanted. This is no different than repeating contact information. It's to make sure it is correct.
I cannot speak for facial expressions, they can be hard to interpret and someone's "confused face" may be their "concentrating face."
Again, repeating information is all about make sure the correct thing is ordered. And, hell, there's been plenty of times where I have placed an order that both parties agreed on getting and then when they see it, it's not right. I've even had this happen with a product when someone brought in the old container. Very useful because now I have the UPC. I can just look-up that UPC to find the ordering information! The thing I got in had the exact-same UPC. The company just changed the design of the package and some of the naming details on the product. It was the exact same thing, just called something a little different.
The customer insisted that this wasn't the right thing even though I ensured her it was, even contacted my supplier right in front of her and confirmed. The company simply changed the naming/packaging. She still didn't believe it.
Customers are idiots sometimes.
On not carrying a product anymore:
There's a number of reasons for this:
Culling inventory: We're encouraged to keep inventory moving. Fairly regularly I go through movement to see what items are slow movers. It does no good to have inventory sitting on-hand that doesn't move. It takes up space. And if it is perishable and I cannot sell an entire case of it before it expires then it does me no good to carry it, does it? Why not remove that item and fill it with something that moves better?
Manufacturer Oddities: On top of things like the maker of a product discontinuing it, some times they may just have deals where they'll only sell it to certain locations and we are not one of them.
Warehouse Oddities: Like stores culling inventory, warehouses do the same thing. If the warehouse services 100 stores and 99 of them rarely buy this produce but 1 of them orders one once a week it becomes a cost/benefit thing. Especially if it is perishable. A warehouse cannot just order enough to service this one store's needs they have to buy these things by the truckload. Again, it becomes a case of it not being worth carrying so one store out of 100 can have the product. I've had this numerous times where the manufacturer still makes a product but my warehouse doesn't carry it due to lack of movement out of the warehouse. It's theoretically still possible for me to get that one case in but it's likely to give me a higher cost and it'll take longer to get it compared to the usual order/receipt turn-around time.
It's not as simple as "order it, get it in" there's a lot that goes into it in all levels of the process that goes into whether or not to carry a product. Stores with modern systems can track movement. It may *seem* like a product is "always out" or "sells pretty well" but the store knows the truth. And the truth may reveal it takes a month to sell a single case of a product. And if that product's shelf-life is only a month or two it's not worth carrying. If you have one case of a product yeah, sure, it may seem like it sells-out quickly! But the truth is, no it doesn't, which is why we carry one case.
Believe me, if a product moves quickly and well we're going to carry it.
I've taken numerous orders for people and there's been plenty of times where a person tells me something, I get it, and it's the wrong thing. Why?
Because a lot of the time people cannot be entirely clear on what it is that they want. With many products there are a lot of varieties and there can be some lines that can blurred in the differences. So, whenever I take an order I repeat all aspects of the order of what they want to ensure both parties agree on what is wanted. This is no different than repeating contact information. It's to make sure it is correct.
I cannot speak for facial expressions, they can be hard to interpret and someone's "confused face" may be their "concentrating face."
Again, repeating information is all about make sure the correct thing is ordered. And, hell, there's been plenty of times where I have placed an order that both parties agreed on getting and then when they see it, it's not right. I've even had this happen with a product when someone brought in the old container. Very useful because now I have the UPC. I can just look-up that UPC to find the ordering information! The thing I got in had the exact-same UPC. The company just changed the design of the package and some of the naming details on the product. It was the exact same thing, just called something a little different.
The customer insisted that this wasn't the right thing even though I ensured her it was, even contacted my supplier right in front of her and confirmed. The company simply changed the naming/packaging. She still didn't believe it.
Customers are idiots sometimes.
Yeah, people who go out of their way to be "outraged" and "offended" are long past tedious aren't they?
Just to add to that stores might have locked down ordering systems, where they can only order products they are ranged for, and have very limited control over ammending what they are ranged for. So the more customers that call a companies customer careline requesting a particular product the more the company will look into stocking it in their stores/ a greater number of their stores as range can be tied to store size, so a larger store might carry it but a smaller one doesn't.
And I wouldn't go so far as to say customers are idiots but they are not always right.
http://notalwaysright.com/
Being worthless to the people you see everyday. 
The schools are closed, the roads are shut down, and even Redstone Arsenal is closed due to ice making conditions dangerous if not impossible to go out. Despite all that, my company still expects people to come in to work. I've had to waste about 3 days vacation over the last two weeks because of the weather.
I am still voiceless, in part due to... muscle tension.
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Big trucks that park in front of our mailboxes, and then stay there for hours. There are places on the other side of the street for parking, but no, they have to park right there in front of the mailboxes, so we don't get any mail.