Let’s all congratulate Ross Dress For Less, winner of the “Didn’t Really Think That One Through, Did You?” award for businesses pushing the envelope of stupid.
This week, I bought a pair of sandals from Ross. I’d have taken a picture if I knew what was coming, but I never would have imagined. The sandals had a sort velvety-ish type of insole. The insole is where Ross always sticks its big gummy price tags. When I got the sandals home and attempted to remove the sticker, it wouldn’t come off. I considered using Goo Be Gone on it, but I don’t want that stuff on my feet and wasn’t sure I could ever get the chemicals out of the insole.
I returned the shoes. The cashier didn’t ask why, so I told her. She blinked at me like I had just told her the building had walls. Thinking maybe I hadn’t been clear, or she hadn’t had any caffeine yet, I added, “If you stick price tags on shoes with insoles like these, you’re ruining them.” She blinked a little more, but no expression change or response at all. I’ve had better conversations with cats.
My shopping buddy came up just then and commented, “She doesn’t care, huh?” I said, “No, she figures they can stay in business and keep their jobs through a recession by destroying their merchandise prior to sale.”
This finally elicited a response: “What do you want me to do about it? I didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t think you did,” I said. “You could point it out to a manager.”
“No,” she said. “They come to us this way already.”
“Then your manager could tell whoever sends them-”
“No, they can’t.”
“You’re telling me your corporation doesn’t have any way for one division to talk to another?”
“Yep.”
We’ll see if Ross survives the recession. I mean, true, it’s only a minority of shoes they’re ruining with their price tags because they can’t be bothered to exercise their brains and think, you know, glue can be pretty destructive and it’s always wise to consider where you’re putting it. It just blows my mind when a large, ostensibly successful corporation makes a really stupid mistake (that most chains stopped making back in the 1980s) and doesn’t care. It’s like if I wrote an article that was just the same word 500 times over, and you pointed out to me that it wasn’t so uninformative as to be completely useless, and I was like, “Yeah, some dude gave it to me like that and I don’t have any way to reach him.” Would you ever come back?
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Updated: November 17, 2010
Copyright: November 17, 2010
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
You need to look @ the whole picture. No, they probably don’t care. Most people are not that picky, we have grown complacent and accepting and really where is this leading us? Are we lemmings with blinders on?
Donna, I’m not clear on what’s your point? You’re saying people don’t mind wasting money on shoes they can’t wear? Because these were not wearable, or didn’t I make that clear? If people are that “complacent” they’re not going to survive the recession, either.
Ditto about Ross – the price stickers they put on their shoes (break away to deter price sticker changes) totally have ruined any shoes I have purchased there – or should say used to shop there. In this day of technology, there has got to be a getter way. But then, you would have to think outside the corporate box.
To bad, you could find a great deal on good name brand shoes – but the shoes are damaged after the label is removed and any fun in them disappears.
To remove stickers dab a generous amount of
Dawn over stickers. Come back 30
Minutes later and remove stickers. Do the process again if
Not totally removed. Use a damp rag in circular motions
Both ways to have nice clean sticker free insoles.
Ross corporate has to be crazy thinking that this will deter theft yet make the regular customer happy also. they don’t put it on the bottom because they could be sued for slip and fall. Whenever my wife buys there I spend to much time trying to remove the stickers. There is always residue left on the insole of the shoe. God forbid she buys the shoes the day I cut my fingernails as she is out of luck for that day plus. Chemicals work but I agree to dangerous to use on that part of the shoe.