Rebate Hell

Well, I'm off today, most likely because they thought I needed to rest up for the Great Paint Sale which begins tomorrow and runs for 6 days.  Wait a minute, let me correct myself.  There is no paint sale.  There's a paint rebate.  And it's a good one.  You just need to take advantage of it.  I did over the Memorial Day Paint Rebate.
There are a lot of people out there who don't like rebates.  In fact, they hate them.  We know this because we started getting phone calls a week ago from customers inquiring about our upcoming sale.  When we inform them we're offering a rebate the response is always the same, a complaint about rebates.  The bottom line is these people want their money up front.  Well, they're not going to get it.
When people complain I let them know that if everybody processed their rebate form, rebates would disappear.  Nobody listens.  They don't understand.  The percentage of people who actually process their rebate forms is in the low 40's.  That's right.  This means that well over 50% of the people who buy a product with a rebate never take advantage.  Retailers love this.  Why facilitate a sale when you can sell the product at full price?  Duh.  They're going to make a lot more money with a rebate then they are with a sale.

There are a lot of interesting stats out there regarding rebates, and the people who process them.  Did you know that most of the people who file a rebate make more than $50K per year?  Wouldn't you think the opposite would be true?  And evidently there's this 'cracker jack' reasoning among certain groups out there, which I'm not even going to try and comprehend, that buying a product with a rebate is practically the same as buying a product which is on sale....  As I said, I'm not even going to try and understand that one.

And in today's world, if you have a computer, filling out a rebate is easy peasy.  I mean, you will need to type in your name and address, and your email address, and, in most cases just your receipt number (it's at the top of your cash register receipt).  That's it.  No UPC numbers, no quantities.  Takes maybe 5 minutes, if you're a slow typist.  Just think, if we could get the percentage of people who file rebates into the mid 80's, sales would probably return and rebates disappear.  Of course, we know that's never going to happen and we're going to be stuck in rebate hell forever.

Human Resources and a Business Decison

Well, it's another early morning.  If I worked a fixed schedule where early mornings were the norm it wouldn't bother me, but they're not.  I have one this week.  Today.  Next week I don't have any.  I do have 3 closings, they wouldn't bother me either if they, too, were the norm.  They're not.  And some times I get mid-shifts, but they don't always start at the same time.  Sometimes I start working at 0900, sometimes 1030, sometimes, like yesterday, I was there at 0800.  Yesterday I had an ' Onboarding.'  Store Managers were transferred back in February, and 'Onboardings' are done, several months after the transfer as way of seeing how lower management is adjusting.  They are always handled by a DHRM or an RHRM.  Yesterday we had a DHRM (District Human Resource Manager), and she did her job well.
Many people get confused with HR.  They believe those individuals are their to help associates, they hire, they fire, and deal with issues.  In reality they do more.  I know, I did HR for a while.  If you are in HR, you are a Company Man / Woman.  One of your main jobs is to manage associate opinions of the Company.  A good HR manager will guide associates and keep them on track and the associates won't even know it.  They'll regard HR as their friend.  They're regard HR as their friend... and that is never really the case.  They are there to enforce company policies.

Back when I worked for xpedx, the distribution subsidiary of International Paper, we had a RHRM named Dave G who was the worst.  I worked with him on a Peer Review Board and he was totally one dimensional.  Associates were nothing to him.  He seemed to enjoy saying, "this is a liability which needs to be taken care."  Yes, he said things like that.  When 37 jobs went to Krakow, Poland, he shrugged and said, "It's a business decision,"without understanding that people were losing their livelihoods.  He was being paid around $300 K a year, which is really good money, to hand you a plate of shit and say "just remember, it's only a business decision."  Isn't it amazing what money can buy?