Why does the 991 system allow items go severely below cost?

why Does the 991 system allow items to go below cost in the first place?

I like doing 991s but it’s tedious when you have to change the price back to minimum if $50.00 over cost, reprint the ticket and not only rewrite the closeout paper but then rewrite the blowout sign.

I was told that after changing a price manually, there is not a price reduction for 3 weeks. Anyone know if this is true?

We have a large selection of whirlpool refrigerators wagers dryers and dishwashers in the 991 area. Now without a good printer battery to print the 991 ticket I have to manually type each item.

I do write the cost of the item in the upper corner of the ticket so I know when the ticket prints if it has fallen below cost. But dang, it’s such a slow procedure without having a clear crisp barcode to scan!! Then.. if item goes to zero, I have to add back in and make a separate list to give to person over MPU to add back into system.

This will be even slower when I am training someone to do this! And when will trainees be declared fully trained to do in their own? Surely not just after 1-2 hours of shadowing!!

Does anyone know if back in the day they use to ship these appliances off to the sears scratch and dent stores if price went to zero?

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10 replies (most recent on top)

1dwk- our sales people prefer not to sell the 991s

Most of them are whirlpool-beautiful appliances

Maybe they are not advertising them I really don’t know-

@1ses - What is going on at your store that 991s aren't selling? I can't recall a 991 appliance in our store that didn't sell before hitting 50% off. As soon as a 991 appliance would go below the normal sale price, our associates were calling their leads. In most cases the appliance would be sold by the close of the following day. The only exception would be a severely marred appliance, however, once it reached about 50% off, a landlord would buy it.

And how does that change the 991 report that shows the price change and how many days it’s been on the floor?

1imv- oh yeah, I am going to let a refrigerator that costs $1.200.00 go for $232.00? I think not! And if I let everything go to zero, about 60 washers, dryers, dishwashers and refrigerators would have to be Taken to the dock and we already don’t have room to do the truck on Wednesday’s!!

I think the point of 991s is to SELL at a reduced price not give the stuff away! I think the store wd take a hit for the cost too!

@1imv - I agree with you completely, except for the "ya dummy" remark. Most of the direction given to the associates on 991s is complete nonsense created by their SMs and ASMs. Believe me, the SM and ASMs in my store were always coming up with schemes to game the 991 system; especially in the big ticket divisions.

There is no Company policy like that. Bunch of bull. The company is the one that sets the pricing cadence, ya dummy. They set the hard limit that it goes to. Scan your 991s each week and replace the tag if the price updates. Continue with this until it sells or it rolls to zero and send it to RTV. That's the process. Quit changing your 991 prices on product we're trying to get out of the building!

Let it update at its normal cadence, but posting the cost is a good reminder to associates selling it to ensure they sell with PA to make some sort of margin.

Company policy is to never go below cost plus 10%. Many times it will go way below that and you are suppose to bring the price back up

phb- I only change to $50 above cost as I was told by prior SM.

You can change the price to what ever you want!

You could drop it to a penny, of course you don't want to do that. But its possible, you need to get rid of the product so price it to sell

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Why does the 991 system allow items go severely below cost?

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