"Don't leave the coupon in the front of the store..." Topic

… if you're not gonna honor it.

So I walk into the local Walgreen's for some candy. Just inside the door they have a wire rack in which they keep the sales flyers for the week. I pick up a flyer, flip it open and see a coupon, "Buy One Nestle's Candy Bar, Get One Free." Sweet! I tear it out, go to the candy aisle and grab the limit of 6 (stated on the coupon) and go to checkout. The cashier rings up my candy, then scans the coupon. She looks at me and says, "Where did you get this?" like I'd mocked the thing up in Photoshop.
"From this flyer from the front of the store," I say back, very politely. And I showed her the flyer (which I still had) and the space where I had torn the coupon out. (Yes, she actually matched it up to see if it fit.)
She frowns even further, and pulls another flyer out from under the counter— a different flyer. She flips through it, doesn't see the coupon, and says, "It's not in here."
I say, a little more assertive, but still politely. "This flyer was in the front of the store when I walked in."
She then turns the register LED display around to show me that it says "Coupon Not Valid," like that's my fault.
Realizing that I was getting nowhere with this lady, I told her just to void the sale. I looked down at her flyer and see a coupon for Mars candy, which happens to picture a Snickers bar and a yellow bag of M&Ms (but doesn't specify either one). On the counter there happens to be a bag of new coconut M&Ms (which, by the way, she proudly pointed to when I arrived at her counter and said, "These are good. You would like these.") So I grab a bag and say, "I'll take these instead, and use this coupon."
She looks down at the M&Ms, puts the bag back and says, "No. Only good on yellow M&Ms." She taps the picture twice. "Yellow."

I refrained from screaming. I'm not certain how. Must be all my Southern upbringing. "That's fine," I did say, keeping it as polite as I could, and not wanting to argue with her, especially as a line of customers had of course formed. But as I left I told her, "You need to clear out the flyer rack in the front of your store, if you're not going to honor the coupons in it."

I've since called the manager and expressed my displeasure with the service. Thankfully, he was polite and respectful, apologized to me and assured me "that is not how we're supposed to do business in this store." He also told me the next time I came in, he would cover my purchase. So that softens my experience, though it certainly doesn't excuse it.

Grrrr. And all over six pieces of 49¢ candy. Grrrr.

That's an incredible story … they couldn't have dreamt that up for SNL or Madd TV if they wanted.

I'd have asked to see the manager at once. I go through this with coupons at least once a month in the course of shopping for the family. Unfortunately, for minimum wage you don't often get the brightest clerks. There have been some where I have had to read the coupon for them and point to the words that say I have the right item.

I love that she taps the picture twice… "Yellow"

LOL

Yellow!? Only the Yellow ones?! What about the brown ones? That's discrimination!!!
What about the green ones? the red ones?

Computer sez "No"……

"I'd have asked to see the manager at once."

Yep. Best to have all the parties in the same conversation. I seem to get about the same frequency of this sort of thing as Jana does.

Allen

Sounds like bait & switch advertising to me.

Of the three Walgreens in town, two honor pretty much any coupon with no/minimal hassle. The third, in the center of town, is much the same as Parzival's experience, all the time. Special sales IN THE FLYER are not believed and internet printed coupons or coupons FROM THE FLYER are viewed with suspicion and often denied until you get a manager involved. Even their Register Rewards that print out after a sale – at this third location they try to deny use of them as well!

I would have let the manager know he had just lost a customer and not just one.

I never shop there Our only Walgreen's is always more exspensive.

Sounds like bait & switch advertising to me.

No, sounds more like incompetence – someone should have removed those flyers from the display at the door, but couldn't be arsed. Happened a lot when I worked in retail – nobody bothered keeping on top of all the leaflets.

Bingo, Andrew. My guess is that it indeed was the previous week's flyer (I left it in the store, so I don't know). I naturally didn't look for a date because the new flyers come out on Sunday and today is, wait, let me think for a minute, oh gosh, it's Thursday! Can't imagine why I'd have thought they had valid flyers out front for the customers. Incompetence in extremis. (Eyes roll.)

Thanks to all for letting me blow off the steam here! Very cathartic.

I'm getting ready to log off to go to Walgreens. Scary I just read this.

"Computer sez No!" That's pretty funny on Little Britain.

:-D

Thanks,

John

When I worked in retail we had a saying – "retail is detail".

My staff probably got well ed-off with me for being picky, but I think this story demonstrates the importance of said saying!

Companies spend tens of millions a year on advertising and then for 49 cents they lose a customer and generate all this ill will. Foolish way to do business.

Mike "Bunkermeister" Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com