I lament what seems to be the impending demise of brick and mortar stores. I can’t believe that I’m even using the term “brick and mortar”. Not so long ago, it was just “stores”. So, when I stumble into an online shopping experience, I feel trapped and guilty. Trapped because if I’m ordering online, it generally means that I can’t find what I’m looking for in a store. And guilty because I’m worried that I’m contributing to the death of retail. When I recently received a Gap email with a 40 % discount promotion, and then an extra 10%, still feeling guilty, I had to take a look. I found two dresses, neither available in my local store. I got busy with other things, but made a mental note to order later. Though “later” turned into falling asleep before I had a chance to place the order. The promotion expired that day.
The next day, I received another email, again, 40 percent off, but without the extra 10 percent. Annoyed that I missed that bonus, I called Gap anyway—and asked for the extra 10 percent. I told the rep that I had fallen asleep before ordering the day before. My bad. But, I also told her that the items weren’t available in my local Gap, where they offer 10 percent off to Gap cardholders. She immediately agreed to give me the extra discount. No quibbling, no “I can’t put it through the system”. She had access to customer service coupons, located one, and added the discount to the order. No pain; my gain. And Gap’s gain—I was a satisfied customer.
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Today, on a trip to Whole Foods, I found that they did, as promised, change their rewards program. When I checked out, I saw that I had received a 10 percent discount on my order. Nice! As I was leaving, I noticed a sign saying that for the next four days, they were discounting beauty items by 25%. I’d been considering trying some of their beauty products. The 25% inspired me to take a closer look. I took my beauty items to the cashier and told her that I had just checked out on my other purchases with the 10 percent discount; could she add the discount to these additional items? Almost as a reflex, she said that the 10 percent was for a one time purchase. I pointed out that the time differential between purchases was 10 minutes, and if I had seen the sign earlier, there would have been only one purchase. And, they would have taken 10 percent off of whatever I was buying, regardless of the number of items. So the nit-picking now was annoying. I had other things to do and almost caved on the 10 percent. But, remember, it’s me. I couldn’t cave. I said the magic words: “Can you please get a manager?” She rolled her eyes—not acceptable—and took off 10 percent—which was acceptable.
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One more 10 percent resolution—Howard’s consumerism. Last week, we found that we needed to go out of town for a night, and Howard made a hotel reservation. Yesterday, playing on the computer, an advertisement popped up, showing a travel site that had the same hotel listed at about 10 percent less than our booking price. (On the one hand, it’s a little creepy that your activity becomes a playground for Internet gremlins. On the other hand, sometimes, there are associated perks.) Howard called the hotel and asked if they would match the price. He told them that he didn’t want to re-book and have them pay the travel site fee, so he decided to go right to the hotel first. The associate at the hotel immediately said “No problem; we always honor website rates”. Howard had forgotten to get her name to document the interaction in case the rate change fell through. But within a few minutes, we had an email with a confirmation of the new price. Howard grinned and said, “I did a Mauree”. I’m so proud.
IF YOU HAVE A LEGITIMATE AND LOGICAL REASON, ALWAYS ASK FOR A PRICE ADJUSTMENT OR DISCOUNT. MOST BUSINESSES ARE GENERALLY WILLING TO WORK WITH YOU. AND IF THEY’RE NOT REASONABLE, YOU CAN USUALLY FIND WAYS TO MAKE IT HAPPEN ANYWAY.
