Carrefour made a Bigger Deal from a Raw Deal!
While leafing thru the Carrefour “Bigger Deals” promotional flyer, one of the promotional items which attracted us was the Johnson’s PH5.5 2-in-1 body wash with moisturizers refill pack (600ml) offered at RM5.90 each (normally retailed at around RM6.90). The offer was for a 11 days’ duration i.e. from Aug 11 till 21, 2005. 
On Aug 15, we went to the Carrefour store at Jalan Peel, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. However, to our disappointment not even one pack was available, despite having checked the promotional end caps as well as the category allocated for this product. It was only the 5th day of the promotion but they seemed to have run out of stocks. 
Two days later on Aug 17, we were in Carrefour store at Wangsa Maju. As this Carrefour store was a bigger outlet that the one at Jalan Peel, we expected it to be better stocked with the advertised items. Unfortunately, it was none the better – NO STOCK again. 
This was not our first experience neither expected it to be the last. As far as Carrefour is concerned, such occurrences are part and parcel of their routine retail business – no big deal to them but just a raw deal to consumers! After all, Carrefour make sure they cover themselves by putting the statement “offer valid while stocks last” in fine print on all their flyers. 
However, there’s one thing I noticed common in both the C4 stores - zero stocks of the refill pack but ample stocks of the standard 750ml in dispenser bottle being offered at a discounted price of around RM11+. Can’t remember the exact price ‘cos wasn’t interested in buying as the refill pack worked out to be much cheaper. Probably their ultimate aim is to push the 750ml product. The refill pack promo was just a gimmick to pull crowd with the impulse purchase strategy that most consumers would conveniently pick up an alternative offer pack (i.e. the 750ml pack) if the advertised refill pack was not available. (Wonder if it’s Carrefour’s scheme or the manufacturer – Johnsons & Johnsons’ plot in this case.) 
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 20th, 2005 at 2:46 pm and is filed under General.
