Brushing Away The Sale

(I work at an arts and crafts store that’s part of a national chain. I’m a cashier, not a manager or a supervisor. I’m walking through the store when a customer gets my attention.)

Customer: “Excuse me. These brushes are $24.99 this week, when last week they were only $12.49. Why is that?”

Me: “They must have been on sale last week. But it’s a regular sale, so they’ll be back on sale in a few weeks.”

Customer: “When, exactly?”

Me: “I’m not sure. It happens about once a month or so. But they don’t tell us when exactly it’s going to happen, sorry.”

Customer: “That’s a horrible business model.”

(I happened to agree, but all I could give her was a shrug. I don’t know why she thought complaining to a part-time, minimum-wage employee was going to convince the entire corporation to change its business model.)