h a l f b a k e r y
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What already exists: some pubs and bars have happy hours where the tills are linked up to a screen behind the bar and a big red button on a stick. On the screen are around 9 boxes arranged in a grid, each showing a discount the customer could get for the round of drinks they've just ordered. Discounts
can include 'all drinks free', 'half price order', 'spirits £1' or the miserly 'full price', etc. The boxes are randomly highlighted one at a time, at speed. Just before paying for a finalised order the customer gets to press the big red button to stop on a box - and that's their discount, unique for that customer and that order.
What I propose: let's have the same system in supermarkets.
Happy hour could be at a non peak time to draw custom, or even in random 5 minute spurts throughout the day. The discounts might not be quite as generous but could include things like 'half price veg', 'free toileteries'.
Since, like the pubs and bars, each discount only applies for one customer at their point of payment and for products already scanned through the till, abuses of the system, like mad rushes in the aisles for certain products, would be avoided.
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In the real world I think off-peak discounts would be good as it would be of most benifit to the unemployed or pensioners. |
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A really sensible idea, though I was hoping for free drinks while shopping. |
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Marvellously thought up. And the increase in buying during the currently lax periods of purchacing would probably make up, in profits, for any of the discounts awarded. Everyone wins! S'rare to find a plan where that happens, isn't it? + |
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The margin on groceries is tiny, often about 1-2%. Bar margins on liquor are enormous, often 300-500%. |
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This towering difference likely affects a supermarket's ability to offer a happy hour modeled after a drinking establishment. |
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Supermarkets already have "double coupon" days. I would have thought that sufficiently similar to Happy Hour for the target market as to need no further effort. |
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No offense [boysparks], but your idea as is isn't too helpful. I see capital costs (software, training, inventory mgt, vendor compliance) far outpacing a marketer's willingness to absorb discounts. There's also the human toll to consider: the poor service employees and cashiers who find themselves in debates about lotteries and process details they're not really privy to. |
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There is currently a system in place that prints coupons (for the retailer) at its point of sale as items are scanned, and the discount is automatically deducted from the purchasers' tally. It is quite cool as implemented, and intelligent consumers with firsthand knowledge of ongoing promotions who are willing to do the math can breeze out without ruffling the cashiers and can expect to save 30% or more on items. It is an opportunity as well to keep tabs on particular cashiers who show tendencies to be helpful. |
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Here's a thought for you, though. One hour before merchandise expires and is pulled to be discarded, it is marked with a "happy hour" tag. Take it, or don't. No rain checks. |
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What is a rain check anyway? Must be a US thing. |
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I think this is a cool idea since I love to
go grocery shopping. <wags> a
raincheck is like an i.o.u. offered by
retailers when advertised merchandise
is out of stock. it is a promise that
when the item is back in stock, you will
be allowed to purchase it at the
advertised sale price even if the sale is
over. |
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reensure: I've seen grocery stores with "sale bins" of goods near or past their expiry dates. Not lately, though - I think they now give it all to God's Love We Deliver.
wagster: originally, if you went to an outdoor event that was cancelled due to rain, they would give you a rain check so you could come back when the event was rescheduled. Then it got applied to stores honoring coupons or special offers at a later date, because they had run out by the time you showed up. Now it is applied to just about anything postponed, and it has become a soft way to turn something down without a flat out refusal ("I'll take a rain check on that"). |
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I'll take a rain check. Nope, it's not raining. I've just checked. |
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reensure, you're right about the automated discounts that already exist; the difference with this version is meant to be the sheer randomness of it; a fun element, similar to the chance to win a trolley dash, holiday, etc. Therefore it's a shame that you're probably right about the unhappy in-store debates it might create. bristolz, similar re profit margins. I guess I'll just keep staring at that screen at the till telling me things like when the first Co-op store was opened, imagining instead I'd got 'all homebake for £1'... :) |
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