Rockler is having a sale... again... and again.... bench cookies- get 'em while hot.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Before I post this, let me say in bold print, that I really do like Rockler's staff, and they have a great selection of stuff. They also have really good T-slot and miter slot stuff, which is mostly what I buy from them. I also got my PC router, router plate, and fence there, and love them. That said...


Email from Rockler (poetic license extensively used by me here)

Hey, we're having a one-day sale, but don't worry, because we are having another one-day sale tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day... Do you have any bench cookies? Because we have tons of them. In fact, we will pay you to take some bench cookies off our hands. Please, we are begging you- PLEASE take some bench cookies. How about a nice set of blue tools. We are having a sale on everything blue.

Uggghhhh.... Am I the only one that gets annoyed by the never-ending sale? I keep deleting myself from the list, but somehow I pop back up. More daily emails, more sales, more bench cookies. In fact, my wife, who occasionally buys stuff from Rockler for me (unashamed gloat), came to me and said, "What's up with Rockler- are they desperate? I get an email every day about some sale. And what the heck is a bench cookie?"

To me, it makes them look desperate. They should follow Veritas' lead- One big sale every black friday, great opening offers on new tools, and now and then a free shipping offer. It keeps my interest without giving me the impression that everything must be over-priced because it's always on sale.

In all fairness, at least now they have a decent one- $20 off any purchase over $50. Oh man, I hate myself. I might have to give in to that one.... but I will NOT buy any bench cookies. I do love that the new Veritas flyer has hockey pucks and stick-on rubber and says, "For more than a year we resisted the impulse to join the herd of firms offering shop work standoffs, as they can be made so easily at home...." going on to say "We did, however,succumbtothe impulseto exercise a bit of lateral thinking on our position on work standoffs." So they sell hockey pucks and stick-on rubber. Well Played, Veritas, well played.

[Garrett Ellis]

...everything must be over-priced because it's always on sale.

Sorry for taking your quote out of context, but this exactly how I feel about many stores, including Rockler. Hobby Lobby is the worst! Everything is always 50% off. And don't forget a coupon.

[Steve Peterson]

I signed up for email specials from a different (non woodworking) company and received about 40 emails in the first month. I refuse to give any money to a company that can be that much of a pest. Rockler is not nearly as bad, but they should learn that they would probably get more business with fewer emails. One email per week is the limit for me. Anything more than that makes them too easy to ignore. A lot more than that and they get blacklisted.

Steve

[Brian Tymchak]

... Do you have any bench cookies? Because we have tons of them. In fact, we will pay you to take some bench cookies off our hands. Please, we are begging you- PLEASE take some bench cookies.



...I wonder why my bench cookies have been on back order for almost 4 weeks??...;)

[Malcolm Schweizer]

...I wonder why my bench cookies have been on back order for almost 4 weeks??...;)

Wow, really? They are always pushing the bench cookies! I figured they were like those "tribbles" from Star Trek that kept multiplying.

[David Weaver]

Until they come in chocolate chip, I'm not lending them an ear.

The woodworking retailers just don't seem to get enough of pushing the race to the bottom.

[Rick Potter]

Sorry,

I just don't understand all the hype about bench cookies. They really don't slide on the ice very well.

RP

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Apparently there are not that many of us out there who dislike seeing overpriced items constantly on sale. Penney's tried it, P&G tried it years before that as well as others trying to run a "value-priced" business. Part of the problem is advertising and gaining new customers instead of just the repeat customers. Without the sales to lure new people in, the less firmly established businesses that try to run on low-priced models like Walmart & Amazon simply can't draw in enough new customers to survive.

[David Weaver]

It's clear that the average person likes the coupon model more. It gives them some sort of sense of getting something for nothing, when they're just getting the same thing for the same as they did before, but they have to bring proof that they have coupons.

I can watch all of my relatives jump for the kohls and bed bath and beyond coupons, and there is nothing else that gets them moving as fast. My wife is caught up in it, too. when she says "what do you want from kohls, i have coupons", I always say "I'd like you to go to costco if you want to get me work shirts, because they'll be cheaper and much better quality and you don't have to screw around with coupons". She always believes the coupon is going to dig some magic savings up, but there really aren't any deals there that I've seen (based on what comes in the door and gets handed to me). It's always full, though.

Two weeks ago, I had to get a coat and a suitacase. There is a clearance type store ("burlington") next door to kohls. It always has a third of the people in it that kohls does. I got a coat off of a rack there (no coupon) and it was $80. On the other side of the tag was "Kohl's" at the top with "$265.00" at the bottom. I don't think kohls has enough coupons to make it match the burlington price. The difference is, burlington always has piles of stuff like that, all you have to do is go in and get it.

Luggage was less than half as much for the same thing, too (same brand, same style, etc). But I guess kohls could have a sale and let you use two coupons on top of that, or whatever else, and maybe get to the same price.

The whole coupon thing really drives me up a wall, mostly because it works which means that it'll be around driving me up a wall for a long time.

[Dan Hintz]

I might read the email subject first, but I tend to just delete Rockler, Woodcraft, et. al. emails without bothering to open them. I might keep a coupon around just in case, but there's never anything interesting in them. As you said, Rockler has the same few items "on sale" every single email, which loses its novelty very quickly.

[Chris Kennedy]

I maintain a separate e-mail account for my shopping transactions, so all the junk e-mails go into it. Every now and then, I go in and delete e-mail en masse. If you are using Gmail, you can set up a filter to dump the bulk mailings into a folder. I assume other mail services have similar capabilities.

Chris

[Brian Elfert]

For some reason I am getting Rakuten (Buy.com) emails pretty much every day. The strange thing is I am pretty sure I haven't updated my email address with them so no idea how they got my new email address. One day I noticed in Gmail that all of my shopping type emails are now in a separate folder without my having done anything.

I fail to understand why companies think just because I bought something from them that they can send me email for the rest of my life. Ebay keeps sending me emails about stuff I searched for on Ebay months ago and no longer care about.

[Dan Hintz]

Want to see junk email, Brian? Order something from X-10... they will email bomb your inbox several times per DAY! I had to practically threaten bodily harm to them and theirs so it would stop.

[Pat Barry]

I got 4 of them bench cookies as a christmas present a year ago and they work great.

[Myk Rian]

I keep deleting myself from the list, but somehow I pop back up. More daily emails, more sales, more bench cookies.
Make sure the e-mail address is not in your contact list, and mark the messages as spam. End of problems.

[Jeff Erbele]

My wife shops at Kohls sometimes, but almost always during one of their frequent sales and usually with their coupons.
I'm the chef and buy some culinary equipment and gadgets at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but usually wait for one of their routine coupons. They have us trained not to pay regular, full retail price. In our case it costs them revenue as we buy less than we would other wise. Often the Bed-Bath coupons are 20% off on one item so that is all I will buy. If I need more items, especially the more costly, I will wait for another coupon or ask the neighbors for theirs if they don't intend to use it. Same with the Ace Brown Bag Sale. We trade bags and coupons, both ways. Someone always has one they do not want.
I've even seen them on Free Cycle and the community Facebook items for sale group pages, offered for free or requested.

[Fred Perreault]

Giving up your email address any time, any where, is inviting trouble. The address will be sold numerous times. But, I am sure most of us know that already......... :-( :-(

[Ernie Miller]

i would be thrilled to get an email a day from Rockler as I usually get three or four. When I boot up the computer in the morning and there's no email from Rockler, I turn on the tv to make sure the world hasn't ended.

In my neck of the woods, Joseph A. Banks - Clothier is a big offender. They take a $200 suit, give it a "retail price" of $800, and then constantly have a "buy one suit - get three free" sale. So you end up buying four suits instead of one. They make out like a bandit and their customer thinks they've gotten the upper hand on that deal. It must work - they've been doing this forever.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Irony: sandwiched between two email notifications of response on this post was a Rockler advertisement email.

[Prashun Patel]

Due respect, they've been doing it for a while. If it wasn't working for them, they would have changed direction. To you it looks desperate, to them, it must be resulting in $$. Also I give props to Rockler for producing some of their own products. By and large, I've been happy with the stuff I get from them. Their attempts at innovation strike me as genuine. I'm like you; I know that there is no real savings to be had with the coupons. However, about 50% of the time, it still gets me on their site, looking at clearance items or checking out a new product. IMHO, it's mission accomplished.

[Dan Hintz]

I don't know how many products Rockler staff actually designs themselves, but I do know the majority of their designs come from users like us. They help with the patent process, tweak designs as necessary, etc., but people like us come to them and work out a trade deal. I think more than one of the woodworkers here on The Creek have submitted designs to them.