It has been a bit since I posted a rant. Here is a sports mom rant. Maybe you can relate?
My oldest son is quite the athlete. I use to laugh that I ignored his dreams of hockey to save my mornings and save money. But honestly, it may have been cheaper than all the spots he does take part in. He is a runner and a ball player, soccer nut and basketball star. He is always on the go and filling up my schedule and his. Since we live in the country I need to drive him to all games and practices. Our biggest expense is shoes. Shoes for specific sports are not cheap.
He just made the junior basketball team at his high school and wanted basketball shoes. He needs the ankle support for his games. Being the savvy saver I am, I have been holding off and watching the sales. A big chain sporting store (I will keep the name out) had Basketball shoes (Nike) on sale for $59.99 regular $99.99.
Only in black.
The white shoes were not on sale.
So we went to the store (40 minutes away) and found the shoes. After finally finding someone to help us with the shoes, we requested his size(size men’s 11). The young girl scanned the shoes and said they only had them in 8. I asked if the white were on sale?
She said
“No!”
I asked if there were any other locations that had them in his size? Her response was two stores, both had 1 pair. But both stores were three hours away.
Now really, you have these sales on but only 1 pair and limited sizes??? Not cool. We looked around and the next cheapest was $99. When we buy shoes every month for his sports this adds up. He is not the only child in my home. I refused to spend more as quite frankly I can not afford it. I asked the young girl who worked there “is there anywhere else in town to get shoes?” Her response “Try the states!” Way to encourage shopping local. *sarcasm*
So I was not happy.
I was not happy with the time I spent to find out the sale stock was so low. I was not happy that the young girl working at the Canadian retailer recommended I go to the USA for shoes. And I am not happy I now have to go elsewhere to find shoes for my sons game tomorrow.
We will still shop at this store. After all they do have good quality and usually have prices for all budgets. I am just wishing they had more of their sale items in stock. It was really disappointing. especially after driving so far. Plus with my SPC I can save when they have items I want.
Why do stores do this? Offer a great sale and have limited sizes? Why not have other colours of the same shoe (item) on sale as well? So frustrating! Don’t you worry, I may not be posting this stores name, but I am sending them this link.
Have you experienced this before? Go into a store to get a sale and they have limited stock if any at all?
grrrr that is always so annoying, living in a small town too I totally understand the frustration of driving into the city only to come home empty handed.
It is a huge inconvenience and very frustrating.
I do understand the store usually has no control over these things and staff take the brunt of upset customers, and head office staff sit pretty and not have to deal with the fall out of their decisions. However! The girl you dealt with had no interest in serving you, or probably even working there. It is time that retailers take note and start providing something which has become extinct – customer service, and actually caring about what they are doing. Maybe a little training of their employees would be a good idea too.
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"Try the States" errr…..nice customer service.
I've been through similar circumstances when only a certain colour is on sale and it's ridiculous from a consumers point of view.
Wow, that is frustrating! Very poor customer service! And I can understand driving a ways just to go shopping too, as I grew up in a small town outside a city .
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Oh that's so frustrating! I've had that happen before and some sales are so limited to the merchandise they even have, and although I know a lot of times it's not in their control, the staff should always do their best to help make the customer happy.
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Yes! I have experienced this! Only the item advertised would never have been in stock at my local store as the manager was not able to get it! And I tried ranting by email on their site and the comment box wasn't large enough! I've avoided every store in this chain ever since and I refuse to look at their flyers because they are works of fiction! (This was months ago, by the way…I can hold a bit of a grudge, apparently!)
That's so annoying! I can't imagine! I remember when my DS was younger, I was looking to buy him a leapster., the store only had the pink one on sale. The green one (i.e. boy colour) was not on sale. Needless to say I'm cheap and bought the pink one! lol! Annoying though!
I could never understand this as well. Why don't they make lots available. Let's face it – it is to get customers in and hopefully they will buy more. If the stores start to provide better sales with more variety they will get more customers IMO.
I absolutely understand. That is such an inconvenience. As a mother of twins I often find the thing that I want and then, can only find one. I used to try to look at second hand stores, but I know there is no point.
I cannot believe that the sales person recommend you go to the U.S. to buy the shoes. Craziness!
Or at least offer it get the item in from the other store for you! That is annoying!
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My favorite is "You can have a rain check" like you don't need them right away because they can wait for these things. I totally agreen. It's asanine to put things in fliers then not have them on sale when you go. 🙂 This was a good rant!
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