Fifty Percent Off Is Way Off

(I’ve been helping a woman with her fabric. She has been a challenging customer from the start, insisting I carry her fabric for her, choosing fabric inappropriate for her project (using blackout curtain lining to upholster a chair), and disputing the measured length. I’ve finally cut her fabric and given her the ticket to check out when she asks if she can use a 50% off coupon on her purchase.)

Me: *in an attempt to be lighthearted* “The bad news is you won’t be able to use your coupon; the good news is that it’s because this fabric is already on sale for 50% off, so you can save your coupon and use it on your highest priced non-sale item!”

Customer: “I can’t use my coupon? It didn’t say it was on sale! I don’t want it then!”

Me: “You don’t want to buy this fabric on sale for 50% off because you can’t use your coupon for 50% off? Is that right?”

(It took me and the manager on duty ten minutes and a calculator to show her that she was paying the exact same amount for the fabric either way and was actually saving money because then she could use her coupon on another item in her transaction. She still didn’t believe us and the manager thankfully took over and rang her item at full price and let her use the coupon on it.)