Having worked in retail, there’s plenty of people who either can’t or wont. Some won’t understand percentages at all.
What a reflection of the state of numeracy in this country that they had to do this.
I’m fond of the famous bagel shop on Brick Lane and I love waiting in the queue looking at the price list for multiples of the single bagel…. It’s just a 40p times table. No bulk discounts or nowt. (I think is 40 p now but might be 45!). Every half dozen, dozen. Or 200 bagels.. it’s simply the 1 bagel price x the qty. I can’t help but feel it’s a sort of semi serious malicious compliance for anyone trying to bargain their way to a discount. “How much for 100?”, staff points to sign. Works eh!
A friend of mine worked at oddbins where they had 10% of certain wine. A lady came in to buy 2 bottles and was adamant that it should be 20% off (10% + 10% is 20% init?).
He then pointed out if that was the case if she bought 10 bottles he would be giving them away for nothing.
Item is £5….wat do?!?! ☹
“Think of how stupid the average person is and realise half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin
Boots do this too. People are actually quite stupid.
if you’ve ever designed *anything* for use by the general public, you’ll know why they’ve done this
“if something is 50% off, what do you divide it by?”
25% of people would get this wrong.
It’s actually cuter than what you think.
By doing this, and using this as the only method to advertise the price, you don’t get customers coming to the till with price stickers that have been removed from a £10 item and “accidentally” placed onto a £50 item.
Less stickers on the clothes = quicker, more efficient and no erroneous or fraudulent attempt at making bigger savings.
Plus, when the 50% sale becomes a 60% sale? Just change a poster. Don’t need to remove/add tags and stickers.
What about £47
I mean, customers could be dyslexic or have dyscalculia…? So the sign could be helpful for some people?
What a weird thing to get mad about. I feel like I’m on Facebook with some of these comments lol.
I remember the first year B&Q didnt have a kitchen ‘sale’. They got pissed off with always putting signage out and the cost of it all so decided theyd just have the price set as low as they possibly could all the time. No more ‘sales’. They where cheaper than all the competitors on about 97% of the products during the sales period. It was one of the worst years they ever had for showroom sales, we could show people the same kitchen was cheaper than competitors but they would respond with, “but they have a sale on, theres is 20% off and yours isnt”. There was no amount of wrapping their head around 20% off £20k was a lot worse than 0% off £12k.
Its not that Sainsburys doesnt think much of their customers, they just know them.
This is nothing about people not being able to divide by 2, and all about being required to display the price
This way they don’t have to update every price sticker
You overestimate the intelligence of the average.
Yeah fair enough the majority of people in this country are thick as shit
You have to cater to the Lowest common denominator in all public communications and marketing
Maybe they’re expecting Grimes to come by
They heard Grimes was coming.
It’s non obvious onsite training for Sainsbury’s staff.
Having worked in customer services for over twenty years I can tell you confidently that customers are freaking idiots
I worked in Sainsbury’s many years ago, I also wouldn’t trust them with that. Though, that’s more “general public are morons” than anything to do with Sainsbury’s specifically.
If they didn’t have to explain it, they won’t.
So the fact that they have to explain it, means they probably had to
I can see quite some ppl struggle at 35£ to be honest
Obligatory *Having worked in retail…* comment to add to the rest… 😆
From my 5 years working on a Sainsbury’s checkout I can tell you that *people won’t read this.* Yes, even though it’s 5ft high and bright yellow.
A small subsection of people will argue over what 50% is, a small subsection of people (sometimes, but not always, the same ones) will argue that the discount wasn’t taken off properly when it very clearly was.
Because they seriously can’t
Customers are thick as fuck and can’t follow basic instructions on a screen let alone to maths.
“It’s telling me to remove my card what do I do”
“This self checkout is broken it’s telling me to press continue”
“I didn’t realise that the staff only sign meant I couldn’t wonder into the warehouse”
“Oh sorry I didn’t realise the water all over the floor and multiple neon yellow signs saying wet floor meant I can’t walk that way”
“I only want one yoghurt so why can’t I take it out of the multipack and just divide it by 6”
“Well it’s 30% off so I want 30% off the £7 price when it says £10 original price”
“This says is 50% off, is that 50% off the price or 50% off the 50%?”
Everyday in retail was a struggle of trying to answer a question without insinuating you think the person is an idiot.
But then Sainsbury’s spell Two Tu so they not understand numbers.
George Carlin (i think) said “think how stupid the average pression person is, then think realise half of them are more stupid” (or words to day effect)
29 comments
Having worked in retail, there’s plenty of people who either can’t or wont. Some won’t understand percentages at all.
What a reflection of the state of numeracy in this country that they had to do this.
I’m fond of the famous bagel shop on Brick Lane and I love waiting in the queue looking at the price list for multiples of the single bagel…. It’s just a 40p times table. No bulk discounts or nowt. (I think is 40 p now but might be 45!). Every half dozen, dozen. Or 200 bagels.. it’s simply the 1 bagel price x the qty. I can’t help but feel it’s a sort of semi serious malicious compliance for anyone trying to bargain their way to a discount. “How much for 100?”, staff points to sign. Works eh!
A friend of mine worked at oddbins where they had 10% of certain wine. A lady came in to buy 2 bottles and was adamant that it should be 20% off (10% + 10% is 20% init?).
He then pointed out if that was the case if she bought 10 bottles he would be giving them away for nothing.
Item is £5….wat do?!?! ☹
“Think of how stupid the average person is and realise half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin
Boots do this too. People are actually quite stupid.
if you’ve ever designed *anything* for use by the general public, you’ll know why they’ve done this
“if something is 50% off, what do you divide it by?”
25% of people would get this wrong.
It’s actually cuter than what you think.
By doing this, and using this as the only method to advertise the price, you don’t get customers coming to the till with price stickers that have been removed from a £10 item and “accidentally” placed onto a £50 item.
Less stickers on the clothes = quicker, more efficient and no erroneous or fraudulent attempt at making bigger savings.
Plus, when the 50% sale becomes a 60% sale? Just change a poster. Don’t need to remove/add tags and stickers.
What about £47
I mean, customers could be dyslexic or have dyscalculia…? So the sign could be helpful for some people?
What a weird thing to get mad about. I feel like I’m on Facebook with some of these comments lol.
I remember the first year B&Q didnt have a kitchen ‘sale’. They got pissed off with always putting signage out and the cost of it all so decided theyd just have the price set as low as they possibly could all the time. No more ‘sales’. They where cheaper than all the competitors on about 97% of the products during the sales period. It was one of the worst years they ever had for showroom sales, we could show people the same kitchen was cheaper than competitors but they would respond with, “but they have a sale on, theres is 20% off and yours isnt”. There was no amount of wrapping their head around 20% off £20k was a lot worse than 0% off £12k.
Its not that Sainsburys doesnt think much of their customers, they just know them.
This is nothing about people not being able to divide by 2, and all about being required to display the price
This way they don’t have to update every price sticker
You overestimate the intelligence of the average.
Yeah fair enough the majority of people in this country are thick as shit
You have to cater to the Lowest common denominator in all public communications and marketing
Maybe they’re expecting Grimes to come by
They heard Grimes was coming.
It’s non obvious onsite training for Sainsbury’s staff.
Having worked in customer services for over twenty years I can tell you confidently that customers are freaking idiots
I worked in Sainsbury’s many years ago, I also wouldn’t trust them with that. Though, that’s more “general public are morons” than anything to do with Sainsbury’s specifically.
If they didn’t have to explain it, they won’t.
So the fact that they have to explain it, means they probably had to
I can see quite some ppl struggle at 35£ to be honest
Obligatory *Having worked in retail…* comment to add to the rest… 😆
From my 5 years working on a Sainsbury’s checkout I can tell you that *people won’t read this.* Yes, even though it’s 5ft high and bright yellow.
A small subsection of people will argue over what 50% is, a small subsection of people (sometimes, but not always, the same ones) will argue that the discount wasn’t taken off properly when it very clearly was.
Because they seriously can’t
Customers are thick as fuck and can’t follow basic instructions on a screen let alone to maths.
“It’s telling me to remove my card what do I do”
“This self checkout is broken it’s telling me to press continue”
“I didn’t realise that the staff only sign meant I couldn’t wonder into the warehouse”
“Oh sorry I didn’t realise the water all over the floor and multiple neon yellow signs saying wet floor meant I can’t walk that way”
“I only want one yoghurt so why can’t I take it out of the multipack and just divide it by 6”
“Well it’s 30% off so I want 30% off the £7 price when it says £10 original price”
“This says is 50% off, is that 50% off the price or 50% off the 50%?”
Everyday in retail was a struggle of trying to answer a question without insinuating you think the person is an idiot.
But then Sainsbury’s spell Two Tu so they not understand numbers.
George Carlin (i think) said “think how stupid the average pression person is, then think realise half of them are more stupid” (or words to day effect)