There are many examples of retail workers giving student or senior discounts to people who are not students or seniors. Twitter user Apex Redditor actually got a military discount after he told the cashier that he is, in fact, not in the military. The cashier pretended not to hear that and allowed the person to save some money.
The tweet went pretty viral and inspired other people to share their own stories. There were people who also got military discounts just for knowing someone who is in the military or because the reason for buying certain things made the retail workers laugh. Retail workers would insist on finding an excuse to give something for free or at a lower price.
It doesn’t seem like it would be beneficial to a company to make exceptions for customers as they are losing money. Userlike agrees that “Allowing customers to return clothes past their due date or buy insurance after they drop their new laptop could be seen as irresponsible.”
But what actually happens is that the more profitable approach is just to be super friendly to the customer. A study showed that when a company had a relaxed and easy return process, customers were more likely to make a purchase but not return their item. But with a stricter model, the store noticed an 11.2 percent drop in sales.
It makes the customer appreciate the company and the people working for it because they realize that the worker isn’t supposed to do what they are doing and they might get in trouble if their managers or colleagues are strict rule followers, but they still do it for the sake of the customer.
At the same time, you can’t do that all the time and the customer can’t expect the same treatment the next time they come in. The workers actually can get in trouble for that and a cashier on Reddit started a thread where they asked “don't demand the same discount with another member of staff next time, we were feeling kind, don't get us in trouble.”
If the worker does this too many times, someone will notice. Most of the time workers give special treatment to people who they see are feeling down or who are friendly with them. There was actually another Twitter thread started by a woman who used to work at Hobby Lobby and would give discounts whenever she could to people if they complimented her.
But there is the other side as well. It was also mentioned in one of the tweets in this list that sometimes cashiers just don’t care. They don’t care if the business suffers a loss, they don’t care if they will get caught and get in trouble for bending the rules.
It’s a monotonous job that causes mental fatigue but it’s also physically draining and the compensation is too little to leave extra money after covering the most necessary living expenses.
Nonetheless, it makes the customer feel like they are lucky that day and lifts their spirits, especially if they had a rough day. All the Twitter users who told their stories were pretty positive about their experiences and were grateful for the unexpected treat.
Have you ever got a great deal out of nowhere? Were you especially nice to the retail worker that day? Maybe you are a retail worker and want to share what it’s like from your perspective? Tell us all about it in the comments.
