In a Coles supermarket last at first I wondered if they were promoting Cosmopolitan with Pearl Barley. I soon realised they were a victim of a customer dumping a product far away from where it should be.
This poor behaviour by customers costs all retailers and probably some sales. But there is no stopping it. In fact, it probably helps in that we get on the shop floor putting things back where they should be and soon realise other opportunities.
Occasionally, where a customer dumps something they don’t want shows a placement opportunity previously overlooked. It’s very cool when this happens.
Let us know what you think about customers dumping products out of place like this.
The one that annoys me most is the newspaper customer who picks up say a daily telegraph and then puts it back on top of another title like the courier mail. Next customer walks in complaint that we have no courier mails. This happens at least once a day and more on Saturdays for some reason. This behavior just frustrates everybody.
Allan I hear you . Also those that never want the top paper I like to amuse myself and tell them I just swapped them over from top to second then they look all confused
Dumping is annoying but so is reading at the newspaper stand. Please feel free to skim the articles but while you do that please move out of the way so that others can get to the papers!
I do the same thing Shaun….lmao
I seem to get a lot of wrapped soft porn titles torn open and left in the stationery or gift wrap section. Opened sticky tape sometimes with just a bit used to wrap a present is another.
Or when they take the inserts or catalog’s out of the inside of the paper and leave them on top of the pile.
I asked one customer this morning “would you like me to throw that out for you?”
And they responded “I thought somebody else might like it”
Our paper don’t arrive until about 12 noon and we have signs up advising this. Customers stand and read the sign and then say, are the papers in yet? One day I said yes it is right under that sign. I really confused them. I too think I could get a Phd on the study why people take the second paper in the pile. I geuss they also roll off the fist layer off Loo paper.
Shauns – we have a very early regular customer who for years has always taken the second paper in the stack and it has become a bit of a joke. Every now and then if I see him coming I will slip yesterdays paper in at number two which he grabs, folds under his arm, leaves his money on the counter and heads to work whilst we keep wrapping. Then the countdown starts until the phone rings and a torrent of (friendly) abuse flows with him vowing that we won’t catch him again – until the next time. It’s even better when yesterday’s papers have been topped!
Watch out on Sunday for those who only want the TV Guide out of the Sunday papers or those who throw back all the unwanted inserts/ sections of any of the weekend papers.
There must be something about our townsfolk… we have quite a number of the “take the 2nd” from the paper stack group but we also have approx. a dozen of the “COUNTERS” these are the ones that each and every time take the same numbered paper that is 4th, 7th, 8th 9th etc… Can’t help messing with them on weekends by rotating a small stack of each title 180 degrees just under the top few in the stacks the reaction is PRICELESS (every time) 🙂