Why Are Retailers So Fucking Stupid?

Back in 2008, Dr. Pepper made a deal with America: If Guns 'N' Roses finally released "Chinese Democracy" before the year was over, they would give everyone in America a FREE DR. PEPPER. Sounds sweet, huh? I don't normally drink Dr. Pepper, but hey, free soda, right? I don't remember the details of how they did it at all, but I do know that they way they did it was bad: You had to apply for it within a small window of time. I never found out when and when I saw people on a message board I go to complain they didn't get it, I didn't really care.

The fallout was Guns 'N' Roses management was angry with how Dr. Pepper did the offer and created some sort of lawsuit to make them to do it again. Let me state, this is all from memory because I don't feel like wasting time finding it. Apparently, Dr. Pepper decided to give it another go because they offered a Free Diet Dr. Pepper if you applied for a coupon on their site. It was incredibly easy to do and I was done in 2 minutes. Last time, people spent nearly an hour waiting to get through!

Well, I got my coupon Monday after only 2 weeks of waiting (again, as opposed to the 2 months some people went through waiting). I decided to use it today and was pleasantly surprised I could also get a regular Dr. Pepper as well. Cool, huh?

There's a 7-Eleven near where I work and it's run by this god-awful Russian woman. I love Russia, I love Russian women, but her? HORRIBLE! She treats her employees badly, has no respect for customers, and just doesn't know how to do her job. In turn, handing her a coupon from a major manufacture, a fairly simple thing at a retail chain, she said, "We don't take coupon." I took it and left. That place sucks ass. 8th and Chestnut, in case your wondering, next to Quiznos and across the street from Starbucks.

The 3rd place I went to was Rite-Aid. I went to another place in between, a really sweet small shop (Old Nelsons, 7th and Chestnut. Great folks!) who couldn't take it, either. "Rite-Aid! I can't go wrong there!" I was greeted with this: "We don't take Internet coupons." "This isn't from the internet, it was mailed to me by Dr. Pepper themselves." "How did you get it?" "....OK, I had to order it online, but it was MAILED to me." She mumbled that "it didn't matter" and went to check with her manager in the back. If he was like me, he was pissed that a rather simple thing like taking a manufactures coupon was turned into a 5-minute ordeal. They took it, I got a free soda, and went back to work.

All and all... decent. I may have to drink more Dr. Pepper now, it's pretty good.