Bath & Body Works | The Semi-Annual Sale Blues On Social Media

As I am catching up on my other work needing to be finished I have been taking breaks and reading social media posts while checking out others hauls.   Goodness y'all got some great things at your stores, congrats. 

 

 

 

And in this exploration of day one Bath and Body Works Semi-Annual I am finding a lot of...unhappiness too.  I debated on mentioning anything at all...and since this is my place to share my thoughts as an archive...I think I will.

First...this isn't anything new.  The store has a sale like this twice a year.  And every year it is the same old complaining about the same old stuff. My thoughts are just my perspective...

• A man/woman came in and bought the entire table of 75% off body care

After last year...and this year...and pandemics and disease...and death.  Many deaths. Chunks of humanity gone forever...and the virus isn't gone yet... ​How does that person buying all of the body care affect you?  Did you need that entire table of body care?  Or is it the fact that they got there before you?  Did they take it out of your hands when they bought the entire table of body care?  Were you at work and missed out on getting anything because some random stranger bought up the entire table of body care hours before you got to go to the store?  

• A reseller bought all of the 75% off body care

Maybe that is the only way they can make extra money for their family.  Maybe that is what they do to have extra money to buy things for themself.  Selling anything to others is NOT FUN AT ALL.  Trust me.  I have been in sales forever...in one way or another...and it is tough and daunting.  We all, can never know what drives people to resell items, or know their individual situation in life and rather than asking for help they seek out other means to take care of things - which also sometimes helps those who cannot get to a store to get what they want.  How many of us used ordering online to get something this past year and a half?  And it cost us a fortune to do so...didn't it.  But there was a need...and a solution.

• ​A reseller bought all of the 75% off body care to resell at 3-10 times the cost.

Do you know the cost of fees and sales expenses related to selling anything?  It's crazy. The company doesn't care so why should we?   They made the product to be bought.  It sat on shelves unwanted until this particular sale time and now it is being sold so they have room to bring out more, new full priced items for sale.  The managers have sales quotas to meet daily to keep their jobs so they shouldn't care who buys the stuff.  They are glad to clear it out rather than box it all back up again and hear from the DM's on numbers not being met.  Well, that is MOST managers. 

 I have read a few managers who post on social media - write they determine who gets how much.  Hmm.  Really?  Interesting.  For SAS?  Doesn't it benefit your store to sell off this unwanted until now stuff?  Are you always doing the morally correct thing you say it is, in all you say and do, in all aspects of your life...or only for social media posts? ...because I know store managers who work extremely hard for their staff and stores and selling is what you are there for and they do it excellently!

Semi Annual Sales, from what I have seen and known are not limiting - meaning I can go buy fifty bottles of hand soap if I want to.  Now holiday One Day Only Try It To Believe It Sales at those special prices kinds of sale do place limits on what a customer CAN purchase.  Some stores will ring up items separately doing multiple transactions...and some make the customer leave and come back to get more than the limit.  I never buy the limit or over the limit so it doesn't happen to me...but I have been there and saw people getting multiple transactions.   

And I have read in groups where the manager makes some go out and come back in to get more.  They say to make it fair...  But I have never saw a manager tell someone you can't buy something or offer up a "made up" amount for SAS shopping in all of the places I shopped at over the years.   Thank goodness.

I understand the disappointment of not getting that scent or item you wanted because it was sold out before you got there.  And I understand the workers/managers don't want to hear us whine that we couldn't get a bottle of something or a candle knowing someone took them all.  It's hard for everyone.

• A man/woman/reseller came and took all of the 75% off candles... Took them all in front of me as I looked.  Took them all before I got there.  Had bags and bags of them on the floor in front of me.  As a worker, I had to push a cart of all of this out to their car with them.

If you are a worker having to do it, be glad for the sales so you can get a few hours of work this week...because that will change.  If you are a shopper and someone is taking everything...look and grab what you want.  It is not theirs until they pay for it. I am not saying do a  "sack the quarterback" kind of move to get it...a simple excuse me as you reach can do wonders.   If you had no interest in it anyway, be glad it is gone and be happy to know the sooner the old is gone, the quicker the new comes in!

• A man/woman.reseller came and took everything

I have friends who are so charitable and generous they stock up on these kinds of sales for donations to many, many non-profit organizations​. No sales...just kindness for others to enjoy some luxuries when they are having a tough time.  Again...we never know what someone is buying something for.  Years and years ago someone I know would buy fabrics, and heath and beauty supplies and I would help them wrap it up carefully and they would send the items to their county of origin...for the family there to resell...to live.  I see many people at times in the Dollar Tree grabbing up health and beauty items to do the same.   I like to think, we get what we are supposed to have...when we are supposed to have it.  Or...somethings are out of our control.  HAHA.  What we can control is how we react.  I am a work in progress of my reactions.  :)

My Bath and Body Works store is not a modern style store.  It never gets test candles in it, or during these kinds of sales gets the same things some of the bigger stores with White Barns attached get. Some floor sets here don't have the same products other stores have.   I understand that feeling of missing out and the disappointment when you hoped to see and buy so much of what others had in their stores...but we have to not let it become so upsetting that all we have is misery over it.  Social media breeds misery at times doesn't it?  Here's to not being a petri dish.

I had a great experience in my store yesterday and I hope that when you get to your stores these upcoming weeks, you can have a great experience too.