I'm not sure where corporate had there heads, but it was somewhere dark that no light, or intelligence can get to. As with just about every other grocery store in the entire United States, our high end seafood went on sale around the Christmas/New Year Season. We sold a lot of shrimp, king crab legs and every other kind of seafood. Our lobsters were supposed to on sale for $6.99 a pound. When they were sold live, they rang up at the right price. But the lobsters that had been steamed, rang up wayyyyy wrong at $6.99 a package (which could include 2, 3 or more lobsters).
The first time I caught the mistake, I think it was on a Tuesday, so I have no idea how many steamed lobsters were sold before then. I had a man come through with a package of steamed lobsters that rang up with the savings card at $6.99. I finished his order, kept thinking about the sale, printed off a duplicate receipt, flashed my light and got Boss #3 over tell her I thought there was a problem. There was! The steamed lobsters were not supposed to be ringing up at that low of a price. Everyone involved, Boss #3, the Seafood Manager, all thanked me, told me I did on great job of catching it.
Now mind you, this mistake was not just in our store. This mistake was happening at all of our stores, across the state, plus a couple of stores not in our state. I can't even imagine how many steamed lobsters got sold at $6.99 per package when they should have rung up $6.99 a pound.
Seafood Manager contacted corporate immediately and everything was straightened out.
Last week.. working along on Wednesday.. steamed lobsters were the last item on the belt for me to ring up.. I rang them.. the sticker looked right.. it did not ring up right though. They rang up at $6.99 per package, not $6.99 per pound. AGAIN this mistake was happening. AGAIN this mistake was happening in ALL our stores throughout the state plus a couple of extra stores not in the state. I immediately flashed my light so Manager on Duty (Mrs Manager it happened to be) would come over so I could inform her of the problem. She told me to ring it up the right way and she would get it fixed (less than pleasant this one is at times). Not even so much as a thank you, good catch, or even a pat on the back. Boss #3 showed up at my register to see what was up, followed by Boss #2. I explained that I had caught the Lobster Mistake again. Both of them told me thank you, and Boss #2 even said they should give me a lobster just for catching the error again. If she had said it twice I would have taken her up on it, but she only said it once so I didn't know if she was kidding or not. Boss #3 told me I did a great job, catching the mistake again, and that I must really love my seafood. Seafood Manager was informed and I saw him walking out for a break a short while later.. shaking his head.
My way of thinking.... would you let even one steamed lobster go out of your department without checking the price on it after the Lobster Mistake had happened the first time? If you were in charge of the seafood department, wouldn't you want to double check the price of your steamed lobsters to make sure that your department was not going to lose a bundle of money again if they rang up wrong? I'd love to know how much money I saved corporate.
I can all but guarantee the next time steamed lobsters are on sale.. more than just I will be keeping an eye out for the price they scan at. Looking at the label just doesn't cut it. Scanning a steamed lobster before handing it over to the customer would be a very good idea. Just to be on the safe side.
Lobsters anyone?
