Monday, December 01, 2008

Monday Morning Assortment

As a night shift person, Black Friday can just be considered more convenient shopping hours. Unfortunately, for the 2nd year in a row I made the mistake of visiting Younkers to try and spend their "$10 off anything over $10*" coupon. (*Excludes... everything.) It wasn't a good experience. First they mark anything remotely close to $10 to $9.99, and then everything else they call a doorbuster, great value, or red tag clearance and exclude it from the coupon. All I can say is that if they're going to act like lawyers about excluding things from their coupons, they should be equally worried about accuracy when it comes to labeling their products and displays. I spend 2 minutes looking around the display of Hawkeyes sweatshirts to make sure it wasn't excluded, only to find out that it was technically a doorbuster even though there was no sign and the price was inaccurate. I think I'll take a pass on shopping there for a while.


Speaking of old news, last Wednesday night (Thanksgiving Eve?) there was a police chase through Davenport. I never saw it in the paper, but maybe I missed it. Apparently the Illinois State Patrol initiated a stop, the driver didn't stop, and somehow made it into Bettendorf. When I first started listening to it on the radio, Bettendorf PD was chasing the car up Iowa or something and across Locust. They went up Tremont, Arlington, and Carey at what seemed like high speeds until they reached 29th, which they took east to Eastern. There they went north, and the driver made the mistake of turning down E 35th, which goes nowhere but back to Kimberly Downs. The interesting thing was that Davenport PD was essentially pacing the chase, but was clearly not involved. It sounded like they helped block the car in at Kimberly Downs, though, which is where they finally caught it.

I felt like the chase could have ended much sooner if DPD had been allowed to participate instead of just follow along. I doubt Bettendorf officers know the streets of Davenport as well, after all. I know I harp on this a lot, but the car running from the police could have 2 bodies or a kidnapped kid in the trunk, and unless it was known to be involved ina serious crime, Davenport officers would be forced to let it escape. The risk to citizens of being hurt by a police chase is outweighed by the risk to citizens of letting criminals get away. Fortunately this time they were caught.


Davenport lauded for green projects -QCTimes
Of course since this is a positive story about Davenport, there are zero user comments. This and other good publicity about Davenport's change from an abandoned industrial town to an evolving progressive city on America's greatest river is all part of changing perceptions of those both around the Midwest and here at home. I'm still waiting for a lot of people to realize how good we have it here, although the economic disaster on the coasts might cause more to take notice of our relative stability here. Reading some of the posts on absoluteDSM.com's forums dating back to 2004 compared with current posts show a definite change in some of the Des Moines-area members' opinions on the QC area.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was glad to see the City 'green' award. I agree with you QCI, people tend to complaine about Davenport and not applaud the accomplishments.

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

Darn that Younkers. I had the same problem. I found a rug that said 1/2 off $24. Waited in line for a 1/2 hour and it rung up at $9.99. I was pretty bummed.

Anonymous said...

It is nice to see some love for the Green Award, and it's certainly worth celebrating.

As you said, I'm sure people will be quick to forget this good news regarding the City.

Anonymous said...

One has to wonder if Malin told the national organization giving out the awards how toxic our main stream is( Duck Creek) and how the City is trying to get out of cleaning up its air.Green green, its greener still on the far side of the hill.

Anonymous said...

Check out the interesting thread on Cruiser's blog dealing with the Promise Program. Malin's spin on it is worth a few Thursday morning grins.

Anonymous said...

What you arn't understanding QCI is that Yonkers wouldn't stay open very long if everyone that came through the door found and item for $11, and used a free $10 coupon against the purchase. Yonkers has high utility bills, Mall rent, and the employees who were there really want to be paid. That $11 item may have cost the store $9 wholesale, so it's a lose/lose proposition for them if you would have made a purchase. Younkers is looking for the customer with excellent taste, and with a big balance in their checking account, who would come in shopping and buy something in the several hundred dollar range, and be thrilled to get $10 off their purchase.

When you say you won't be going back anytime soon, don't think that the store will lose any sleep over not seeing you. You are not the type shopper they are seeking.

You must remember for Younkers to stay around, they must turn a profit. You are just accustomed to Democratic Davenport and all the money that they spend on their SHARING OF THE WEALTH programs.

Anonymous said...

I think that most people who are still out buying things in the "several hundred dollar range" during the current economic situation, wouldn't be too concerned with 10 dollars off.

Anonymous said...

I think 7:53 entirely missed QCI's point: point being (as I read it anyway) that Younkers intentionally created the _perception_ that there would be the $11 items to be found and to be bought with the coupon.

Good grief 7:53, QCI nor any of the rest of us aren't totally stupid about how businesses pay their costs of doing business. But neither are we stupid about what constitutes less-than-honest intent hidden in what may be, at least on the face of it, a literally-honest advertising promotion.

QuadCityImages said...

I couldn't have replied any better than 5:03 did. I understand their need to have exclusions, but I just believe that if they are going to be so picky, the customer should have the right to point out when they have mislabeled their merchandise, ie be "picky" themselves. They could have just not included the "$10 off anything" promotion, or labeled it as $10 off anything over $100. Or, as I said, I can pick another store.

Anonymous said...

5:03 P.M.:

Before you can make those conclusions, we must first have QCI's "rest of the story." In the original post, QCI fails to explain to the readers the exact wording of the ad that led him to believe that Younkers was creating the _Perception_ that the store would have $11 items for this promotion.

Another big part of this story that QCI fails to explain is what EXACTLY HAPPENED when QCI thought there was a problem, and asked to speak to the Younkers Store Manager.

Younkers is a very customer attentive business, and I'm surprised that his concern wasn't addressed immediately. Every store handles these situations in a way so that customers go away satisfied. At HyVee, they give you an item free if it doesn't scan at the register at the same amount stated on a display sign. If a Walmart customer thinks a sign is misleading, they sell it at the price the customer thought it should be.

As far as QCI thinking that he is getting even by not going back shopping there for awhile to teach them a lesson, you can bet Younkers doesn't give a rat's patootie that QCI is bargain shopping and cherry picking someplace else.

Now if QCI just fills in the blanks on those two questions the readers can make a judgement.

QuadCityImages said...

Well, I'm not going to go minute by minute through my shopping experience. I know some of you love to believe I'm an idiot, but I was far from the only one having this experience. They failed to provide me with a good shopping experience, and the problems could have been easily avoided. That's all I have to say about it.

Anonymous said...

We gave QCI a chance to fill in some missing facts, but by his incomplete answer, we can only read inbetween the lines that he was mad while at Younkers, and instead of trying to get the problem solved, he stomped out and said nothing.

It's just like QCI says. If you don't vote, you can't complain. Same goes for shopping experiences. If you don't complain, you can't bitch.

It's like the old saying goes, If you expect to get something for nothing, you end up with nothing.

And that's all I have to say about it. I'm picking up my toys and going home.

Anonymous said...

The "inquisitor" 's cross-examination of QCI sounds like a monolog from an old SNL Church Lady skit.

Self-righteous and anal to the tenth.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but the Younkers incident is just a good example of how stupid and mature imble QCI really is. Rack it up for a great Quad City image

Anonymous said...

This whole coupon debacacle could be easily solved. All QCI has to do is email the Younkers Store Manager, copy it to their Corporate Office, and explain to them exactly what happened that morning. Then QCI can post the answer from store executives so we can see how they explain themselves. They will either say they were wrong, or they will point out the errors of QCI's ways.

The worst thing that could happen is that if they are wrong, that they might send QCI a $100 gift card for his trouble.

This solution seems far more prudent than the slander suit that is looming caused by QCI defaming Younkers, and their large staff.

Anonymous said...

You are on the right track 8:45 a.m., and this whole coupon thing is sorta like a SNL sketch.

But you might consider this parallel parody a little closer to home. One episode of SouthPark had the opening of a Walmart, and the whole town loved shopping there for all the bargains. Then Jimbo and his dad called a town meeting, and they decided the way to solve all their problems was to form a line, and that the person to the left would bury the person to their right head in the sand, and they would continue down the line until everyone's head was covered. The finially came when Eric Cartman took his RC Cola and Cheezypoofs, and got on his big wheel, and said, "screw you guys, I'm going home!"

QuadCityImages said...

You guys are missing the point. A good shopping experience does not involve running into mislabeling, conflicts, and surly clerks. It should not involve complaining or meeting with the manager or writing letters. A good shopping experience for me is one that works smoothly and as advertised.

My experience at Younkers did not include those things, and the idea that I should be doing all this stuff to correct them is the opposite of what I'm talking about. Why try to get Younkers to fix their issues when other stores have their act together already? Some stores run Black Friday like a well-oiled machine, and some can't cut it. Best Buy didn't seem to have any issues, for example.

Anonymous said...

You need to give us more facts QCI. You have still failed to say EXACTLY in the Younkers ad what was misleading to you, and what it said EXACTLY that made you expect or anticipate something that didn't happen.

Were you thinking they would have 100's or 1000's of items priced at $10 for you to use that coupon and they had none?

How much was the lowest price item that was more than $9.99 that you could have used your coupon towards?

Was there nothing in the store priced between $10 and $25?

Why EXACTLY was the store employee unprofessional to you? What exactly was said by you, and what exactly was said by her?

There has to be something that is not being said here because alot of people who enjoy quality merchandise love shopping at Younkers, and enjoy the clean, well stocked store with knowledgeable and friendly store clerks.

We are just trying to understand this QCI, there just has to be something you are hiding.

Anonymous said...

Wow-sounds like Younkers PR googles their name and charges onto blogs to protect their name. Just wow and move on.

Snarky Chick said...

OK, I have to come back out of hiding just to stick up for QCI on this. I learned after the first couple years that the Younkers coupon the day after thanksgiving isn't nearly as good as they say it is. Granted, I usually spend more than $10 anyway so it wasn't a problem for me, but there was a huge line and about half the people were arguing about being able to use their coupon. One lady spent $50, but most of the items were considered doorbusters or special buys in spite of no labels.

Glad I came back for a worthy discussion.

Anonymous said...

I'd file a complaint with the attorney general. I'd be fine if they left, we'd probably get Macy's or some other better department store to enter to market in their place.