Yes! We Have No $ITEM

[jim_p]

Today I went out to buy some ice melt. Granted, everyone in New England is probably on the same errand, so I was very much not alone. So much not alone that I didn't even get to Home Depot... couldn't find a parking spot. There's a Lowe's nearby that normally does not get the same crowds as Home Depot. I *was* able to find a parking spot there, but only barely. Once I got inside, I figured out very quickly that they had no ice melt either... all I saw was a half-pallet of water softener pellets where the ice melt would have been.

This is one thing that annoys me about some retailers: when they're out of stock on some item, especially one that is in high demand, they don't come right out and state it. Instead, they do one of two things. Sometimes they quietly do the "1984" omit any mention of the item at all, even shifting other inventory into the hole left by its absence ("Ice melt? What makes you think we carry ice melt or have EVER carried it? Now how about a nice gas grill?"). Other times, they feature a poor substitute where the item would have otherwise been (E.g. the water softener pellets. My favorite is in a summer heat wave, you go down to the store and they have a big display of fans and dehumidifiers. That's code for "Sorry, no A/Cs here").

It really frustrates me that in order to find out a valuable piece of information ("Yes, we have no ice melt!") I have to read the tea leaves of their inventory placement. Would it really hurt them to put up a prominent sign announcing its absence and expected restock time? Yes, I may turn on my heels and leave, but I would have done that anyway. Do they really think that, if they were not so forthright, I'd stick around the store anyway and buy something else? ("My driveway is an ice rink, I'm not seeing any ice melt anywhere, but maybe while I'm at it I'll go pick out paint colors for the bathroom!").

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I suppose the hope is that you'll wander the aisles in search of whatever it was you came in for and randomly impulse-buy crap, rather than simply turning on your heel and walking out.

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

They don't HOPE this will happen. They KNOW that in about 75% of cases, it WILL happen.

It's an intelligent marketing strategy geared to how a strong majority of the world shops.

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

Mind you, I'm in the 25% that doesn't do this and it drive ME right up a wall. SO much so that I CALL stores when I'm looking for $ITEM and know things like this are likely. If I don't get a straight answer, I don't go there.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the impulse buys make up for people who get pissed off at the behavior and don't come back (either for a while or ever). Although, in this quarterly-profit world, it might not matter. . .

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Actually, having an empty display in a prominent location is a BAD idea. So when $ITEM runs out, they're not going to have an empty display.

Also, it's much easier to not have a big sign, because 1) people don't read signs. Seriously, you could display WE HAVE NO ICE MELT LEFT WE'RE GETTING A NEW SHIPMENT THURSDAY SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE and most people would ask where the ice melt is and/or when they will be getting more in, and 2) they'll likely forget to change the sign when the ice melt comes in.

I've learned to call ahead or check online before I go.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

I had the same errand on Friday. I discovered that the big box store, Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart all were out of ice melt of any kind. But I found Sodium Chloride at a tiny independent hardware store in my town and we found the CaCl at Agway. Try the smaller places that people don't think about because 'Oh Home Depot will have it.'

Failing the salt, you could just get a couple bags of sandbox/playground sand. Or if you are really desperate, buy a couple boxes of kosher salt at the grocery store, it's still salt.

Good luck, my driveway is a sheet of ice too, I'm hoping the sun coming out today and temps above freezing will help break some of it up.

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

I actually ended up using this strategy; I found some ice melt at an auto parts store.

[xinghwy.livejournal.com]

ha! awesome. My brain came up with a similar strategy to the 1984 one, maybe coz I was worn out, but--after days of shoveling and de-icing other people's houses... I was up on someone's roof performing yet another rescue-from-ice-dams and thinking "wouldn't it be great if there were some way to make the walkway less slippery?" and picturing which of my garden implements would be most suitable for chipping the surface to roughen it up. After a while I thought "oh yeah, or those tilted barrels of sand we used to keep by the driveway..." The thought of something called Ice Melt had mysteriously disappeared from my imagination.

[xinghwy.livejournal.com]

p.s. I'm curious, I see that pantyhose trick is back in vogue. Has anyone tried that? We went through a phase of using those "salt snakes" about 20 years ago, but lost interest because it didn't seem effective enough to be worth the trouble. I tried it pre-emptively too, but it didn't keep ice dams from forming or causing leaks. But then, I had no "control group" to compare with :-)