If you're a store owner, I'm genuinely trying to understand

watergirl

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 10:38 am

amother [ Anemone ] wrote:

my mom has a shop...and ill give an explanation.... how many times can a store work for your money?! scenario below....

someone came into the store for a gift, she got serviced for half hour suppose... you received it and came back with the gift and asked for a credit.... now if you forward that credit to a new gift....and if your friend doesn't like that gift....she will come back for a credit again.... this can go in circles for who knows how long.....
how many hours do you expect a store to service you for the same $100.

polices were put in place because obviously the stores were abused

Store service is now a thing? When I go into stores, the employees are standing around chatting, maybe hanging up clothes, and ringing up customers. They are there to work, and they are not being paid more for "servicing" customers than they are for anything else. What difference does it make what they are doing for the $12/hour they are earning while they are there? Are these workers personal shoppers who get paid in 15 minute increments to "service" one customer at a time? Are you only open for one customer at a time or something, and that employee comes in just for appointments, and therefor those 30 minutes matter?

amother

Heather

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 10:41 am

amother [ Anemone ] wrote:

If a shop is open with employees in it isn’t the point to service ppl
And a happy customer with most likely be a repeat customer.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 10:52 am

ra_mom wrote:

They say that the sale price is a liquidation sale where they don't make money off the purchases, just turn their leftover inventory into cash. And you using the credit doesn't give them the cash that they need in their pocket for the next inventory order.

Liquidation sale doesn't mean that the store makes a loss, right? Or am I wrong?

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 10:59 am

amother [ Anemone ] wrote:

I agree there must be policies. However IMHO (and I apologize in advance) if that is the scenario that you describe, I can only come to the conclusion that there might be a problem with the merchandise since customers keep exchanging it on and on.

singleagain

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:09 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Liquidation sale doesn't mean that the store makes a loss, right? Or am I wrong?

Sometimes it is. I work in a grocery store. And I after pesach when we want to get rid of pesach stuff. We sell it for less than we bought it.. so yes it's a loss.

Reality

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:14 am

singleagain wrote:

Sometimes it is. I work in a grocery store. And I after pesach when we want to get rid of pesach stuff. We sell it for less than we bought it.. so yes it's a loss.

I don't think you can compare food and clothing. Everyone knows the markup on many food items is pennys. Groceries make their money in volume not per item sold.

amother

Poinsettia

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:15 am

singleagain wrote:

Sometimes it is. I work in a grocery store. And I after pesach when we want to get rid of pesach stuff. We sell it for less than we bought it.. so yes it's a loss.

Not a major loss in the long run, as it is covered by the markups sold on all the items before pesach. Same with clothing...big markups to cover for putting the items on sale later on.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:17 am

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

Store owners- another question- is it ok to switch your sale mid week that was advertised the week before?
I went to a store in lakewood for salmon especially because it was advertised on sale.
Once there, it rang up at regular price. They called the manager/owner who said yeah the price of salmon went up mid week so sale is no longer valid.
Huh???! I left my entire shopping cart full of items right there LOL

In israel there is a standard: sale between date x till y , while stock lasts. This is standard formulation and used in any type of store.

Chayalle

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:20 am

amother [ Heather ] wrote:

If a shop is open with employees in it isn’t the point to service ppl
And a happy customer with most likely be a repeat customer.

Exactly.

When a store does not service customers...or gives them a song and dance about exchanges....that customer is not likely to shop there again. As one poster on this site once said really well - I vote with my feet.

amother

Hyacinth

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:21 am

watergirl wrote:

A few days ago I was in a store and the lady working there was texting nonstop, I kept trying to ask her questions and she would finish her text then glance up 🤣 you’d think it was a 20 year old but she was in her 60s. It’s a high end store and I found there was no customer service. I won’t be returning

Chayalle

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:24 am

I have a few local shops that I shop in. Taste, Junee, Runway....to name a few. I've been serviced well by all of them. Sometimes I come in before Y"T, and I'm paying full price. And sometimes I come at sale time and hit the jackpot. When a store's customer service and attitude is equal to the customer both when they are paying top dollar, and when they are shopping sales....they got me coming back.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:33 am

SuperWify wrote:

You are 100% right. Unfortunately, most businesses need the money and therefore don’t put it aside.

I start to get the impression that business owners are destitute. IMHO they should discuss their problems with their bank and take a course in business management.

SixOfWands

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:35 am

amother [ Lightcyan ] wrote:

If they have a return window, they have the window. And I can use it. That means they think they can resell it. Especially if it was returned the same day or within a few days. Not saying 6 months later- no frum store has that great customer service. Many are 1 day or 7 day windows.

Plus, Not every item is seasonal. And if it is still in new condition with tags they can easily resell it.

Sorry, but they are trying to get double the money for the same item. First by reselling it and second by not letting me use my credit. It is theft.

^^^

Stores generally set return policies to allow them to resell. If the item is not returned in resalable condition, or outside the return window, its not accepted.

I can understand policies that preclude customers from playing games. Malky knows that there's going to be a sale next month. She goes in, buys everything at full price, then returns it and rebuys.

But that's not what happened here.

singleagain

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:40 am

Reality wrote:

I don't think you can compare food and clothing. Everyone knows the markup on many food items is pennys. Groceries make their money in volume not per item sold.

You're right it's not the same. And I don't know anything about the profit on clothing. But... I was just pointing out that sometimes it might be worth it to sell at a loss. We don't only do that at pesach. There are other times when we sell items at a loss.

amother

Firebrick

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:42 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

I start to get the impression that business owners are destitute. IMHO they should discuss their problems with their bank and take a course in business management.

This is the impression I get too. I don't work in the jewish clothing or grocery world but my husband and I have a small business that involves customers buying things, paying with credit cards, customer service for issues that come up, refunds, etc and I get the feeling that people don't know how to run businesses very well. We aren't raking it in but we also are not stupidly (imo) pushing away customers by not working with them when they have an issue with our products/ service.

My husband and I joke that people seem to think their stores and businesses are an extension of their house and personal finances. They take every penny that comes in for their own needs and then get mad when they have to give a refund to someone. It's called a "business expense" for a reason.

watergirl

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:45 am

amother [ Hyacinth ] wrote:

It's quite sad when the sales person is just an employee because you know they are doing the job they get paid to do - usually those who are paid better do a better job and the ones who just don't care are the ones who get paid very little... or they are the owner.

When the owner is the one manning the store and they are rude to me, that is a store I will not go back to.

Reality

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:47 am

singleagain wrote:

I don't know much about clothing either except that boutiques mark up their items more than a regular clothing store. Many jewish stores are boutiques. My husband once wanted to sell a non clothing item in a clothing boutique that we know the owner. When they were discussing pricing she said point blank they mark up clothes 3-4× cost price. So they still make a profit on a 50% off sale. That store happens to be known for having great customer service but they are very expensive.

singleagain

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:48 am

Reality wrote:

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 Wow... Sticker shock.

amother

Daylily

Thu, Jan 20 2022, 4:57 pm

sky wrote:

If you buy something and return the next day that money was not spent. They just refused to return it.
They are holding your money captive without giving you anything in return.
If they got the item back in resellable condition quickly the money should go into escrow.
It’s not theirs to just spend. It was never a loss from them. Only profit for nothing

A store in Boro park did this to me. I bought 5 items (not cheap!) When I was desperate for a few tops. One wasn't fitting how I thought it fit in store so I returned with tag next day. Soon after I was expecting and after I gave birth was COVID. So a year passed and my $ as store credit is dust