employee BF question

[Guest spectraflamed]

While waiting in line at Myrven's (sp) a chatting woman was talking about how the day/night before BF employees and a select amount of friends get to shop and get the deals of BF. She went on to say this why so often the quantities of stuff is often so low. Has anyone else heard of this? Obviously she could be full of crap but it certainly would be interesting if this is true and what stores do it.

[Rebirth]

Since some GDers have friends or families that work at some of retail stores, we would know and already heard about it.

[elena_398]

I used to work retail and the store I worked at is that if you worked on BF, you were allowed to hold back what you wanted, but had to pay for it at lunch. So before the doors opened, the employees took what they wanted. Sad but sometimes true.

[Guest RealLivePrinces]

This is kinda a duplicate of another thread, but that one's getting kind of mean, so...

 

I work at Kohl's. For big doorbuster items, like the portable DVD player, associates are not allowed to put any on hold until the day of the sale when the doors open, just like any other customer. My store also does a lottery and allows a certain percentage of big items to go exclusively to employees. (For example, we had 23 DVD players and 5 were held by management for employees with the winning raffle tickets).

 

Kohl's also allows employees to get early bird prices all day long (and they are the only ones who can check out at customer service, since 15 minute breaks are not going to cover the long lines. Of course, if the associate is not working that day, tough luck - they wait in line, too).

 

Personally, I think that's more than fair. Associates are often the store's best customers.

[christib327]

I think that's fair to RealLivePrinces. It's not like the associates are getting everything before everyone else. And that gives the associates a chance too. Since they have to work and deal with all the black friday madness they should get a little bit of a benefit. I don't know about the first post, where employees AND friends get to go in the night before. That seems pretty unfair.

[Mom2Many]

My ex-husband worked at Wal-Mart for YEARS - he was not at any kind of advantage for Black Friday at all. They had to put all the merchandise on the floor & if they did not work, they could stand in line like everyone else. If they had to work, it was tough. He has not worked there in a few years, so I don't know how it is now & I am pretty sure it depends on the store managers.

 

 

Christy

[gunderda]

kohls was my first stop this year. was the 2nd person at one set of doors so i could see inside. there was about 3 or 4 people who were allowed to shop around 4:30, saw one lady walking around with a couple dvd players, and then about a quarter till 5 all of them were patiently waiting at the cash registers. not sure if i thought it was unfair... there was only a slight few... but maybe if i was going for the popular things i might have cared.

 

however my brother works at menards and they aren't allowed to shop while they are working. if he found out an employee was hiding a door buster item (or any other item) then he would go get it and put it back on the shelves. he said he had to do that more than a couple of times for one employee.

 

it probably varies from store to store. some managers go by they rules and some don't.

[bbyee]

I answered this on the other thread, so I'm just cutting and pasting the relevant stuff:

 

I work at BB - I was onsite at 3 am to work all of BF. We are NOT allowed to hold any items for ourselves....period. If there is something left at the end of the day, we can then purchase it (for instance, we had a pretty good printer for 20 bucks - if there were any left at the end of our shift, we could purchase them). It is strictly against BB policy to take advantage of our employment with the company in that way.

 

That being said, we receive a nice employee discount on purchases at any time of the year, so we aren't as tempted by the doorbusters and that kind of thing.

[elena_398]

I know when I worked at CVS when they were closing the store, we discounted the items ourselves using the calculator. Our manager told us to discount further if we felt it wouldn't "fly off the shelves". We had our tag gun and went to town. I swear I bought so much I wasted a months worth of paychecks. lol. We were allowed to keep anything as long as we bought it by the end of our shift.

[Kimp67]

I know when I worked at CVS when they were closing the store, we discounted the items ourselves using the calculator. Our manager told us to discount further if we felt it wouldn't "fly off the shelves". We had our tag gun and went to town. I swear I bought so much I wasted a months worth of paychecks. lol. We were allowed to keep anything as long as we bought it by the end of our shift.

WOW,,,,did the manager above your manager know about that???????

 

Don't want to start anything here, but working in various retail stores over the years (& some as management) sounds like that manager should lose his job for stealing.

[mom_of2boyz]

I work at Walmart, and we are NOT allowed to put ANYTHING back for ourselves. When the sales start, if you are working you are SOL. If you are not working then it is the same as any other customer, you get in line and wait.

It's really amazing, a co-worker had a call from a "friend" that she hasn't talked to in about 2 years. Right before PS3 was released. "Do you think you might be able to hook me up?". Yeah right, you come up here the day before and sit in line.

We had a few employees that were off when it was released, and they did the time sitting in line, including an assistant manager. And all he wound up getting was a raincheck.

 

 

Believe me, we are the LAST people that have a stab at the deals.

[cpthnsolo]

<snip>(For example, we had 23 DVD players and 5 were held by management for employees with the winning raffle tickets). <snip>

Personally, I think that's more than fair. Associates are often the store's best customers.

 

I couldn't agree more RLP! Sure a lot of people are going to whine about it but give me a break. Employees at these places typically make next to nothing so let them have a deal or two for crying out loud.