Hot Duvet Cover Deal

Over the past few months, after years of regular use, it became clear that my duvet cover was wearing out and that I would need to procure a replacement. Yesterday I finally got around to really shopping for one in earnest. For better or worse, and given my budgetary constraints, I decided to go to Zellers to see what they had to offer.

After a brief and unsuccessful search for duvet covers I decided to ask one of the staff members where I might find them. She directed me to the aisle where they were housed. After a few moments of browsing she joined me in the aisle and mentioned a discount section that had a few different options, though the selection was likely to be somewhat hit or miss and unpredictable.

After poking around the discount section for a few minutes I was starting to think that I was unlikely to find anything I was interested in buying and that I would resort to going with one of the cheap duvet covers from the regular priced section when I happened to see one that tempted me. The 60% discount meant that the $104 (originally $139) duvet cover would be just over $40 (only $10 more than the low end option). I decided to splurge and go for this one.

When I took my purchase to the checkout I explained the discount to the cashier, who seemed to be having trouble scanning the item. After a few attempts he explained that whenever he scanned the item the system failed to provide a price. Shortly after he explained the situation he called over a manager to help. Almost as soon as the manager heard what was going on he told me that he would give me the duvet cover for $20 (instead of $40), presumably because I had been inconvenienced . So in the end I paid about $21 for a duvet cover that was originally being sold for $139.

What I still find surprising about all of this is why the manager dropped the price by $20, it was not as though I felt particularly inconvenienced or had complained about the service. It was actually quite to the contrary, I was feeling a little guilty about getting the item form $100 less than the original price and I was quite pleased with the service provided by both the cashier (as he let me know what the problem was) and the linens department employee. I guess the advantage for Zellers is that I am certain to go back and spread the word about their good customer service (and they only had to give me a special $20 discount).