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Retailers Deploy Databases Against Customers
A couple of people submitted this piece about retailers using databases to crack down on sub-optimal customers, such as those who return too many purchases to the store. Also has a few tidbits about other database blacklists that are available to companies. Customers avoid intrusive practices; although this story was written by the Washington Post and I have the URL to the original story available, I declined to link to washingtonpost.com because of their intrusive registration.
Pay with cash.
Best Buy has been accused of doing this.
Any such database, whether internal or not, is a de facto consumer reporting system and should be subject to the same requirements of disclosure, the same rebuttal process, and the same government oversight as credit bureau reports.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
Cashier: I'm sorry, Mr. Constanza, you can't return this book.
George: Why not?
Cashier: It's been flagged. It's been in the bathroom.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
I think a lot of retail sales workers will cheer for this. I used to work in retail (admittedly a long time ago) at Radio Shack, and I can't count the number of times people borrowed TVs and speakers. Superbowl time was the worst, people would buy a TV to watch the game and then return it a couple of days later. They didn't even have the decency to lie about it, either, they admitted that they only wanted it long enough to watch the game, but Radio Shack policy was to take it back, no questions asked.
Alright, here goes my karma...
All I can say is "it's about time". Having worked in retail a goodly portion of my life (thankfully not any more) all I can say on reading this is that a system like this is really overdue.
It's a small percentage of customers (my best guess, based on my experience, is about 2-3%) that abuse return privileges and monopolize the time of salespeople, but the percentage that does costs so much money and time that it's unbelievable...far more than the store would ever make in profit from these folks over a lifetime of shopping. To look at it another way, these groups of problem customers drive up costs just as much as shoplifters do (and in fact any retail business loses far more money to customers like the one cited in the article than they ever would from shoplifting).
Customers have available to them, and rightfully use, systems to find the best deals for themselves. It doesn't strike me as being a problem that retailers finally have some of the same tools available to them. And they should use them as well.
Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
Thankfully the UK's "Data Protection Act" will prevent this coming here :-)
info on data protection act: http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
They're not making $1500. Now, in the clothing, margins are quite high, I agree, but let's say they're making $1200 gross. If the merchandise is returned, they restock and sell. After their overhead kicks in (returning stock is VERY expensive, except in some circumstances, as in same-day returns) they're lucky to hit $600-$700 IF they sell all the merchanise. It also messes up the numbers for the day, week, month, quarter, etc... And it's usually the local store that gets the blame for this, not head office checking in. After running a PC parts store for a few years, I got totally fed up with people thinking I was making a killing off stock. I buy an HD for $80, sell it for $105-$110. Some guy returns the thing a week later. By the time the week rolls by, it has depreciated by $10.00. Also, the next customer coming in to buy the think complains it's used. Out the door for $75.00. If it breaks within the warranty period, I've just lost about $50.00 or more, because the customer with the dead HD gets a replacement on the spot or next day. Even though the HD has depreciated in a year to costing $60, I've got to come up with the funds out of cash flow. Part of this problem is the internet and eBay deluding people into thinking that they can buy equipment and supplies at prices lower then we can buy them at wholesale. I had one guy tell another customer that the copy of MS Office 200 Pro I was selling for $325 was a rip-off, that I was making $250 on it, becuase he can get it online for $50.00. I was making $30.00 on the software, and that was because it was already in stock and I was paying no shipping to get it here. The end result is that we have to pick and choose our customers carefully. There were some customers who got blacklisted locally: I would call 2-3 other stores around and tell them the latest story about him before he got to them after trying to wrangle a deal out of me, and they would do the same for me. He caught on and got very angry. One time this particular guy swore he was going to get the police involved. I dialed the number for him and handed him the phone.
Depends on your definition of a "modal customer".
A modal customer would be one who, when faced with a need to buy a particular item, pauses everything else until he buys it. By way of comparison, a non-modal customer is capable of multi tasking - background tasks aren't put on hold while he's shopping.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!