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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to wish Superdrug would row back on the hard sell at the till?

111 replies

Shortysoso · 03/02/2021 12:02

On Saturday I was offered three items, not a problem, it's the weekend, I wasn't in a hurry. The assistant went on a bit about the mascara but it didn't really bother me. Today I nipped in on way back from medical appointment to buy one thing quickly and the assistant just wouldn't stop - hand gel, mini hand gel, then how about two nivea lip balms for only £2?

Enough already! I know what I want to buy, by all means stick offers in baskets so the generally very long line of people waiting to pay can view them at leisure but stop holding up the queue, irritating the customers and asking staff to do something which can't be enjoyable.

It seemed the assistant today had to get through the script even though I politely indicated I only wanted what I had already chosen to purchase.

NB I wasn't rude and never would be but it's a bit wearing for all concerned surely?!

OP posts:
GellerYeller · 04/02/2021 00:03

Savers though! Thanks but no to I don't need to impulse buy cut price Lionel Richie/David Hassellhoff/Timmy Mallet perfume.
At our local B and M it's always crumpets or fruit teacakes they offer at the till. 😅

Mamamamycorona · 04/02/2021 00:17

In retail we don't have a choice. We are told to upsell and given targets, for which you are penalised if you don't reach. We don't want to harass you, just have to do our job

TidyOmlette · 04/02/2021 00:20

It’s annoying but the staff hate it as much as you do. It’s forced on from the fat cats above

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/02/2021 03:25

I also hate the way WH Smith have largely stopped giving out receipts - presumably to help the environment and save paper (and, if you ask for one, they sometimes look at you like you've asked them to name the 43rd largest city in El Salvador) - BUT they still give you lots of (not very competitive) offer coupons, without ever asking if you want them. Even more irritating if you wanted/needed a receipt and assume the paper they pressed into your hand after you paid included it. The self-service tills (that hardly anybody ever seems to use, even if there's a big queue) are always covered in ignored spat-out coupons and offer slips. Even they ask if you want a bottle of water for 95p or whatever before you can pay for the goods you've actually selected to buy; it's not even like the water bottles are next to the till as an impulse buy, so you'd have to agree to it, be charged and then leave the till to go and find one.

I shall miss some elements of Debenhams, but most certainly not the constant badgering to get a store card. The big (only) selling point was always the 10% off your first purchase, but they'd try to sign you up (obviously ordered to) when you were spending £5 on some pants or something. Yes, I'd love to be delayed for 10 minutes and sign myself up to a load of marketing communications and spam to waste my one single benefit of it and save 50p. Presumably, the big bosses thought (if they did at all) that people would hear of the 10% off and say "Ooooh, pause the transaction - I'll just leave these pants here and go and quickly gather another £3,000 of random items so as to maximise my discount!" Of course, in the real world, people just have the perfect reason to decline at that time: if they do sign up, they'll wait until another time when they're buying a lot more.

The additional insurance cover at Argos always irritates me. Leaving aside the fact that, if you're spending £1K on something, you'd normally want to examine the proposed policy, see what it covers, decide if it's appropriate for your requirements etc; you can buy a cheapo toaster for £6.99 and then be asked if you'd like to pay another £2 to 'protect' your purchase. Why ever would you?! Who would go to all the hassle of returning it and claiming in the first place? They once asked me if I wanted to pay £7 to insure a cupboard I bought for £40 in case it failed/broke down/went wrong within the first 3 years. I was genuinely bewildered. I think I said out loud several times; "But it's a cupboard?!?!" and must have sounded quite mad Grin

Sadly, I agree that complaining won't stop the bosses from doing it in the least. They see the tangible results of increased profits from the very small number who do capitulate, but the massive lack of goodwill from huge amounts of people (almost everybody) getting mightily irritated by it - and often deliberately avoiding their shops because of it - will all slip completely under their radar. If they do think about the latter group, their response will be to be even more draconian with their staff on their till to strongarm more added sales, as 'that's clearly what's needed'.

You might be a customer, who keeps their shop going in the first place - even one of a thousand customers complaining; but firstly, they will consider the majority of the customers who don't have the time/energy/will/knowledge/just cba to complain (possibly because they know it will do no good anyway), but are mostly still just as irritated as happy customers, ergo 'the vast majority of our customers WELCOME the chance to be offered additional purchasing opportunities'; and secondly, they have experience and maybe qualifications in marketing and you likely don't, so nothing they think will work can possibly be wrong, however many ignorant plebs (the ones actually spending the money with them) mistakenly tell them.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/02/2021 03:36

Incidentally, do the till staff forced to annoy the customers in this way see any benefit form any additional sales - such as commission like people in actual genuine SALES roles would do - or do they, as I rather suspect, only stand to lose their jobs if they don't? I think I can guess....

People employed in actual sales positions - ones that attract commission - are still allowed more leeway, though. They tend to have the freedom to target and profile customers who are likely to lead to a sale, based on interest shown or demographics, without having to ask 85yo men if they're interested in half-price sanitary towels or teenagers if they want 3 Vera Lynn CDs for the price of 2.

ChaToilLeam · 04/02/2021 13:55

I wonder if any company has ever done a survey on whether customers actually like this upselling at the checkout. I suspect not.

sunflowersandbuttercups · 04/02/2021 14:06

Incidentally, do the till staff forced to annoy the customers in this way see any benefit form any additional sales - such as commission like people in actual genuine SALES roles would do - or do they, as I rather suspect, only stand to lose their jobs if they don't? I think I can guess....

It depends entirely on the company and sometimes, the store manager. Some do pay commission or bonus based on your sales, some you get nothing. Others might be somewhere in between - an extra days holiday or the chance to leave early/take half days et.

I wonder if any company has ever done a survey on whether customers actually like this upselling at the checkout. I suspect not.

My old company did surveys on this - while a small minority will be vocal in their dislike, the vast majority actually don't appear to care, and so retailers see that as a green light to go ahead anyway. The other problem is, if the till shows that lots of add-ons are sold, then retailers see pound signs, and will want staff to continue to upsell.

One of the lines trotted out was "At the moment, 10% of people are offered an upsell and 50% of those people buy something. So if you ask 100% of people and 50% buy, then look how much profit we'll make!".

Melange99 · 04/02/2021 16:54

They will never know how many people have stopped shopping in their stores, they won't know who they are to survey them. There are several on this thread who swerve Superdrug because of this. I stopped going to Debenhams because of their hard sell at the tills.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/02/2021 18:21

Along with this and some other of their policies I have discovered that superdrug are a scum outfit of shit employers.

What kind of policies? What else do they get up to?

Lollyneenah · 04/02/2021 18:32

Yanbu, I actively avoid Superdrug for this exact reason

SherylX12 · 10/06/2021 13:13

@Shortysoso

On Saturday I was offered three items, not a problem, it's the weekend, I wasn't in a hurry. The assistant went on a bit about the mascara but it didn't really bother me. Today I nipped in on way back from medical appointment to buy one thing quickly and the assistant just wouldn't stop - hand gel, mini hand gel, then how about two nivea lip balms for only £2?

Enough already! I know what I want to buy, by all means stick offers in baskets so the generally very long line of people waiting to pay can view them at leisure but stop holding up the queue, irritating the customers and asking staff to do something which can't be enjoyable.

It seemed the assistant today had to get through the script even though I politely indicated I only wanted what I had already chosen to purchase.

NB I wasn't rude and never would be but it's a bit wearing for all concerned surely?!

EX Employee Superdrug used to be great when they weren't so target based I contacted them and asked them if they could reduce the number of questions at the till I emailed Jo Mackie one of the directors Peter Macnab CEO and Jerry Walkling who don't seem to give a crap the staff hates doing repeating themself hundreds of times a day I left exactly this reason staff are under so much pressure especially with covid where you are supposed to get customers in and out as quickly as possible so they were breaking the law. Staff hates doing this getting shouted by managers all day managers do f all just moan about targets. they don't care about staffs mental health or wellbeing at all terrible company to work for you even get disciplinary if you don't sell enough
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