Topic: Dobbies: Peculiar business

[Beersmith]

I am no big fan of modern "garden centres". Too much tat, scented candles, Christmas decorations, clothes, houseplants, cheap books, food and various other lines like jigsaws that for me have little interest.

But I fully accept that they need to be profitable and if their offer pulls in enough customers I cannot complain. I can take my business where I want and if I do occasionally shop there it's in the full knowledge of how they operate

What perplexes me about Dobbies though, is their approach to discounting. I visited one today to get some grass seed. I intend to grass around my apple trees rather than supress weeds using mulch.  It is a little late in the season for this but the grass seeds all seemed fully priced.

 But at the tills a pack labelled £15 actually came up as just £1. A huge discount and presumably a deliberate decision to sell off stock that at this time of year might sit on the shelves for months.  But you'd think such bargains would be advertised in some way.  Not much point in trying to shift stock if you don't let customers know.

Was it a mistake or have others experienced unexpected heavy discounting at this chain?

[saddad]

Well I've not seen it in ours, but by definition I wouldn't. I have found in Tescos and other large supermarkets many offers labelled on the shelf don't appear as items are scanned eg 4 for £6 are added at the end of bill by the till... so If I am watching the items go through the total exceeds what I know I have spent... almost causing a scene if I haven't the cash to pay the higher total... maybe it is working on a similar principle? The staff don't know what anything costs and offers are entered into the computerised tills.

[ACE]

lady La De Da  would not even look at the price if she was buying some seed for the gardener to put on the bare patches But if the gardener was buying instead he would still bill her for £15 and keep the change. The thing is though, he would have gone to a proper seedsman and paid a fiver. Your garden centre  would not advertise it otherwise they would be inundated with scuffy lady gardeners who when dressed for work could be mistaken for bag ladies and would lower the tone somewhat. A tip for your orchard. I used barn sweepings to seed mine and it is a picture in the spring with all the weeds wild flowers coming through, and a good excuse for not cutting it.

[ancellsfarmer]

I suspect that it is not an offer at all. Much more likely to be a mistake, bored data input clerk still thinking about last night, anything but doing the job precisely. Check -out assistant trained that 'the till knows it all'. Bar codes are only as good as the author, stops the customer peeling and switching a price ticket(oh yes ,some do!) Shrinkage is rife, but never fear, the priced margins are factored to cover it.
I hope it grows!