September 6th, 2008
Be wary of Kmart’s “in store prize drawing”
I was hunting for clearance video games at Kmart this week when something strange happened…
A woman (who appeared to be the store manager) went through the store handing out raffle tickets, promising a giveaway at the jewelry counter. Once the customers gathered around for the “giveaway,” we were instead subjected to a 5 minute sales pitch for really cheap (and cheap looking) “gold” jewelry at a “special price” of $21 for 4 necklaces and 4 bracelets.
At first, she claimed to be taking a “survey” of whether the audience liked each piece or not. I’m pretty sure the survey was just a ruse of social engineering to get people thinking about whether they would like to own each piece. That’s when the “special” sale came in.
The woman claimed it was some kind of partnership with the Home Shopping Network (dubious!) and after we all endured the soft sell of standing in place for several minutes, the giveaway was for one of the bracelets (big deal).
This was obviously not Kmart’s usual jewelry, as the woman literally dumped the stuff into ziplock bags before selling it. You stay classy, Kmart.
I’m amazed that Kmart thinks this is better for business than, oh, say, having more than one checkout open at any given time.
My recommendation is if you get a raffle ticket while in Kmart, just ignore it, because it’s really not worth your time.
Anyway, the whole thing smacked of something scammy, and I’m really curious to know if anyone else has seen one of these pitches in a Kmart recently. If you have, please leave a comment. For the record, this was at the Kmart in Hagerstown, Md., on Wednesday, Sept. 3, around 4 pm.
And as for games, I picked up Square Enix’s Project Sylpheed (Xbox 360) on clearance for $10. I also saw Nights for the Wii on clearance for $10 but left it behind.
September 8th, 2008
brian j. parker Says :
I remembering overhearing one of these, like, a year ago, in a local K-Mart. (Just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.)
I’m pretty cynical and neither my wife nor I are interested in jewelry, so luckily I didn’t waste a single minute on this. Like every trip to K-Mart, though, I did waste about fifteen minutes wandering around trying to find things…!
September 13th, 2008
phear3d Says :
they’ve been doing this at sears for awhile. but instead of handing out raffle tickets, they give out an announcement that they’ll be giving away free knives or something else. my mom was lured onto these things and eventually bought 2 sets of knives for $30. my wife recently was pulled into one of these while i was scouring the games in electronics but she was only there to get the free knife. i dont even know where that knife is now.
September 27th, 2008
Joe Says :
QVC is not HSN.