That's the key...do you want someone in town other than Borg? If so, they'll have to be patronized. If they don't meet up, they'll not be long and it's unlikely anyone else will try, either, unfortunately, unless it's a really large market.
Also, depending on the exact circumstances, they might end up with wierd items on the shelf that can't even be sold through conventional means. Wrong UPC, wrong size, wrong color, whatever. Just because it says "Crikey's Sput Wax" on the can doesn't mean it's the same Crikey's sput wax they normally carry.
Wal-Mart won't do this either as a matter of course. This kind of thing has been going on for at least 20 years, and it's no reason to get pissed off and single out a particular retailer. Why, I bet even Lee Valley wouldn't split open a three-unit promo pack under these circumstances.
Silvan responds:
Ah, the joys of modern retailing. This wouldn't even have been a question 30 years ago, and probably not 20. The promo pack would have been opened, someone would have used a pen or a slap printer to reprice the three items, two would have gone back on the shelves, and...
The good ol' days may have sucked, but there were some good features.
Charlie Self "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2,
2000I am a former employee of Walmart, and I seen them break up "packs" on numerous occasions, usually after Christmas. They would "add" a UPC if necessary, and then adjust the inventory on the computer. Not rocket science. But I could see where a smaller business wouldn't want to get stuck with a bunch of "widgets" that weren't in big demand. Just my 2 cents!
In some instances that might be true, but in this case all three items were identical to other items they sold individually. And their cash register must have an easy way to correct inventories.
I know for a fact HD will do stuff like this. I bought a closeout transfer switch and found it was defective. I took it back, but all they had was kits. They took one out of a kit and replaced mine. They didn't have to think about it; they just did it. Say what you want about HD, they always come through.
Yes, also as a former employee of Wal-Mart, I still maintain that they would not do this as a matter of course. It was always done en masse, at the end of some promo, in a carefully controlled manner. Not a one-off, on-demand operation just to placate one person's whining about the dearth of sput wax.
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