Being retired I stopped at my local Food Lion this morning where I used to work part time. I stick my head in the meat room and say hey to the guys and gals. Then I cruise the meat case looking for a pricing mistakes on mark-downs which I end up buying but before I do I tease the heck out of the "small" crew. These people are really busting their butts with no extra hours in sight. They beg me to come back but after 2 carpal tunnel operations, both knees operated on, a bad lower back and rotator cuff surgery I just smile and keep shopping.
I went up to the check out and I heard a lady complaining bitterly about the high price of red-potatoes. I couldn't help listening as she was really mouthing-off. I proceeded through the check out and left the store. I like to stop at the Mickey D's across the highway to get a "senior" coffee and sometimes a I bump into one of the cutter from the F.L. None there this morning so I got my coffee and my paper and sat in a corner booth.
About 20 minutes later who comes in with a girl friend is the "red-potato lady", and they say right across from me. I paid no attention until she started again about the red potatoes. "Can you believe the nerve of that manager"- I ought to report him to the bosses" because he told me to try another store for a cheaper price on potatoes etc. Both women were having burgers and large fries. I just couldn't help myself but I had to say something. I told them I heard the conversation she had at the store, she said yea, how about that. They are nothing but highwaymen. I said I see your having large fries, yea so what about it? I continued, well mam, those fries cost $1.84 cents plus tax and they weigh about 6 ounces. That equates to almost $5 per pound. She looked at me kind of dopey eyed and I just walked out of the restaurant.
This is just one small example as there are hundreds of other examples comparing restaurant prices against Supermarket prices.
Being retired I stopped at my local Food Lion this morning where I used to work part time. I stick my head in the meat room and say hey to the guys and gals. Then I cruise the meat case looking for a pricing mistakes on mark-downs which I end up buying but before I do I tease the heck out of the "small" crew. These people are really busting their butts with no extra hours in sight. They beg me to come back but after 2 carpal tunnel operations, both knees operated on, a bad lower back and rotator cuff surgery I just smile and keep shopping.
I went up to the check out and I heard a lady complaining bitterly about the high price of red-potatoes. I couldn't help listening as she was really mouthing-off. I proceeded through the check out and left the store. I like to stop at the Mickey D's across the highway to get a "senior" coffee and sometimes a I bump into one of the cutter from the F.L. None there this morning so I got my coffee and my paper and sat in a corner booth.
About 20 minutes later who comes in with a girl friend is the "red-potato lady", and they say right across from me. I paid no attention until she started again about the red potatoes. "Can you believe the nerve of that manager"- I ought to report him to the bosses" because he told me to try another store for a cheaper price on potatoes etc. Both women were having burgers and large fries. I just couldn't help myself but I had to say something. I told them I heard the conversation she had at the store, she said yea, how about that. They are nothing but highwaymen. I said I see your having large fries, yea so what about it? I continued, well mam, those fries cost $1.84 cents plus tax and they weigh about 6 ounces. That equates to almost $5 per pound. She looked at me kind of dopey eyed and I just walked out of the restaurant.
This is just one small example as there are hundreds of other examples comparing restaurant prices against Supermarket prices.
I like how the manager told her to try another store for a cheaper price. She's a real b*thc for thinking about reporting him for such a tiny thing.
btw, someday when a customer says they're going to go to a place where the item is cheaper and not come back, I'd like to offer to drive them there.
Coalcracker, you wrote that you were looking for pricing mistakes on markdowns. Does this meat dept make a lot of mistakes? in favor of the customer? What sort of mistakes do you find? Do you buy them? Do you bring them to an employee and have them fix it?
I my area, there are usually no mistakes on markdowns. They put 30% or 50% off stickers on packages. No chance for a mistake on that. It's a policy on some things and a judgement call on other things.
Hi Burgermeister, this company marks down daily and it's generally in the morning. They mark down prices using a 3 day old code but on some items the code could be shorter or longer but they do it every day. Other customers that are savvy, and don't mind a little age show up as well as I do. But for me its different because they all know me and they will challenge me to find mistakes. Most mistakes that I find I will show one of the guys or gals and they will fix it (little red-face). But hey Buergermeister now that I'm retired me and the wife are on fixed incomes so if I see a mistake in my favor, boom! its in the cart and I laugh all the way to the check out. Here is a great example. Its called "forced distribution". They receive trimmed fresh beef brisket retail price around $6 bucks a pound or so from the warehouse, they can't give it away in that store. So because they can't open a package and converted to possibly (beef for stew) or something else it has to be marked down. I think the mark down % was dropped from 30% down to 20%. Well me and the wife love fresh beef brisket when we find whole briskets on sale we buy it take it home and process it to pot roast, beef for stew and ground beef. Well whole fresh brisket sells for about $2.85 per pound in this area so they made a mistake and marked down the beautiful trimmed flat-cuts down to whole brisket price. I bought every one they had (12) pieces about $65 worth and stopped in front of the service counter and said: "hey boys check this out", I'm going home to fill my freezer. LOL>LOL>They all look at one another and wondered who screwed up. I get the biggest kick out of it.
Another time back in May of this year the wife hands me a list and I go shopping not at the brisket store another National chain store in my area. I see organic (huge joke) boneless chicken breast on sale for $1.39 per pound. I call the wife ( she's a little bit of a tree hugger) if you know what I mean and tell her about the organic poultry. She got so happy, hey what the heck I was thinking about getting lucky too, that's why I called her about it. LOL> She said at that price buy 10 lbs. Sounds like a lot for 2 people right. Wrong. My daughter lives next door (and she can't cook). So I buy the poultry and when I got up to the check out the assistant store manager was up there and I said to him, I going to come buy regularly. He said how so, I said you never see "organic boneless chicken breast on sale for $1.39 anywhere in town. He got this look on his face (you know the look, like when a customer tells you she got sick on something you sold her. LOL> He went flying back to the meat dept. I can go on and on but its late and I need my beauty rest. Talk to you soon.
