Haggling in stores and levels of staff discounts.

RiaMac_2

Thanks for your replies. Tried to cook the dinner last night and my cooker's died :doh: So now I need 4 tv's, a cooker and a hoover to replace the one that blew up at the weekend (yes really, sparks were flying everywhere and the cats just sat and watched!) :eek: Do you think the SA will think Santa's come early when I go in with this shopping list lol ? Going in to Comet after my nightshift. Wish me luck.

spaceman5

jenniewb wrote: »

No, it appears you have not read the many posts which had been written by numerous posters here explaining that it is a sackable offence (or at the very least, a disciplinary action) if you use your dicsount on your own transaction, and also to use it without a managers supervision or authorisation.

The vast majority of stores (infact, all but places like a newsagents) require each staff member to sign in, they have a staff ID number, and this is also on thier staff discount card or if they want to use a discount, they have to give this number in. In addition, managers also have to have a manager actually doing the transaction- or an authorised supervisor. It is very thorough. To the point where staff have to wait until the end of the trading day to make transactions in some stores I have worked in. All tills are now hightly intelligent, the manager simply has to go up to the office, go to the computer, press the "discount" tab on the computer and up comes all the times the discount has been used that day/week/month. This used to get checked each day in one store I worked and any discrepancies would be reported. Luckily for my collegues, it only happened once.

It is also part of the job because for many jobs, you are required to wear store merchandise, if you don't, it can matter if a head office manager walks in and your working in river island and wearing topshop. (yes, there is a difference and the head office manager knows it). It is not just a perk from the job, its uniform and you as a staff member do not get it for free.

Added to that, there are limits to how much you are allowed to spend on discounted items. When I was in River Island, it was £300 worth of full priced items (to which you would get 30% off) per season- sale items not included. If the head office forgot to tell the stores the new season had started, you got no new allowance. One year we only had 2 seasons insted of 4. If you spend over the allowance, again, diciplinary action. Saw it happen twice.

By all means, speak to the manager about discounting further, but don't go anywhere near mentioning their staff discount, it will not get you on their good side which is entirely where you need to be to get any form of a discount.

Also, only ask for your discount from the manager, the store staff are not normally able to give discounts, and any discount they do offer will need to be authorised by a manager anyway.

I have worked at 3 major high street retailers to get the above knowledge (Arcadia, River Island and Marks and Spencers) correct me if I am wrong but these (all unconnected) retailers are generally how things are discount-wise with the vast majority of stores/retailers

i will repost my earlier post, as i said it was wrong to give out staff discount details:-

:eek: Staff discounts are a perk of working for the shop/company, if any retailer would even think about giving you a discount because they give there staff a discount, then they would not run the staff discount scheme in the first place, and just reduce all there prices by said percentage, i know this is a money saving site, but this request is just ridiculus, i read on another thread that a sky employee got sacked for posting a code on hkud, telling people how to get sky installed for free, and watch it free for a year, as this was meant to be for family, and they are now on about dropping that scheme, so he loses his job and others may suffer, because i am sure he was trying to help people out, we are all here to try and help one another, and i for one have posted loads of offers i have come across, and in a few posts i have mentioned what staff discount i recieve, but certainly not to give people ammunition to go and try and get the same discount, it is called STAFF DISCOUNT for a reason, it is for STAFF and Relatives, if you want the discount go and work for the company you want a discount from, Rant Over Sorry Dave

Thanks Dave