SCENE:
GAP store at the Grove in Los Angeles.
Conversation between Jessica and the Salestoddler:
JESSICA: I’m looking for a down vest.
SALESTODDLER: A don’t know what that is.
JESSICA: A down vest?
SALESTODDLER: (eyes filled with confusion) Sorry.
JESSICA: You know it’s like a down jacket but without the sleeves?
SALESTODDLER: Never heard of it.
(Suddenly, I spot the vest on a rack)
JESSICA: There they are.
SALESTODDLER: Oh, you mean a puffy.
CUT TO:
Standing next to a display of “Puffies” where on top there reads a sign:
30% OFF
JESSICA: Oh, great and they’re on sale.
SALESTODDLER: No, they’re on promotion.
JESSICA: But it says, right here, 30% off. That’s a sale.
SALESTODDLER: No, they’re on promotion.
JESSICA: Okay, but when I go to pay, am I going to walk out with a vest that costs 30% less than it says on the price tag?
SALESTODDLER: Uh-huh.
JESSICA: Well, then it is on sale.
SALESTODDLER: No, they’re on promotion.
JESSICA: This is the Gap on Earth right?
Just at that moment the girl’s walkie goes off:
VOICE FROM WALKIE TALKIE: Sherry, I need a price check.
SALESTODDLER (SHERRIE, talking into walkie while mercifully heading in another direction) This is Sherrie, go.
About Jessica Bern
I wish you had a chance to ask her to define sale.
All I can say is WOW!!!! Hope she starts to stimulate her brain cells soon before they all die!
Twitter Name: NickiLynnM
Ok that’s just scary. I was never like that when I worked retail. Then again, that was, like, a million years ago. LOL
Twitter Name: uthostage
I’m just going to assume she was chewing gum & twirling her hair & texting at the same time.
Twitter Name: robinplemmons
I would ask if she was blond but I guess that’s a bit blondist?
I *really* hate people who get so into the marketing lingo that they can no longer speak customer. I work with this at my job and sometimes, I’m all “dude, take off the tunnel vision, this is how the customer sees it and the customer is right.”
Wait.
Salestoddler might be the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. You say promotion, I say sale, tomato tomahto.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
OH MY GOD. This on sale/on promotion thing kills me. I work in retail, and some of our shoes are on promotion, and some of them are on sale. There is no point in making this distinction with our customers, because they do not understand the difference, because there is pretty much no difference. If the price has been lowered, it’s a fucking sale.
I don’t like this new-fangled world we’ve found ourselves in.
Twitter Name: schmutzie
You know, it seems fitting that the Gap is like that.
They should make an “Idiot’s Guide” book for the “Gap” lingo.
Wait, what happened to this “customer is always right” shit? ;-)
Twitter Name: mommygeekology
I imagine if you had time… and nothing better to do… it would have been quite fun to play with Sherrie.
Twitter Name: amadisonmom
Sales are permanent mark downs and promotions are limited time only deals *usually*, at least where I work. However, I am intelligent enough to know that is lingo exclusive to the store I work at. And, I can pull my few remaining brain cells together post-children and say “oh well they are actually on promotion for a limited time, not on sale until they are gone” instead of going around in a pointless circle with a customer. She is either very stupid or has zero customer service skills. Possibly both.
Twitter Name: Madatmama