Badge

Badge

n. Your official NAME TAG, issued by the STORE upon hiring.

NOTE: If you're a MANAGER or FULL-TIME EMPLOYEE, your Badge is gold metalized plastic and your name is engraved. MANAGERS get pocket-protector-style Badges, FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES' have pin-backs. If you're PART-TIME, like me, it's white PLASTIC and your name is applied as a piece of printed labeling TAPE.

Besides the individual EMPLOYEE'S name, Badges show the STORE'S logo and motto. At least for PART-TIME EMPLOYEES, it's customary for your EMPLOYEE NUMBER to be written on the back, so you don't forget it.

Whenever you're working, you have to wear your Badge. It's part of your UNIFORM. If you lose it or forget it, see the FRONT-END MANAGER for a replacement or temporary substitute. Expect a scolding (I speak from experience) if it happens more than once.

BOGO

BOGO Shelf Tag Flag

BOGO Item Sticker …

BOGO

adj. “Buy One, Get One (Free),” meaning a sale where you get two of the same ITEM for the REGULAR PRICE of one. Also B1G1.

NOTE: BOGO items are not half price. If you only buy one, you still pay full price.

BOGO ITEM SHELF TAGS are flagged with the distinctive “FREE” decorator you see in the photo, upper right. Individual ITEMS themselves may or may not have small BOGO stickers, as in the photo, lower right. Note the PERFORATIONS. Only the top part of the sticker has adhesive, allowing the bottom, printed portion of the sticker to be torn off once the SALE is over if the ITEM goes unsold.

TRUE STORY: It's embarrassing, but I've done it. I once picked up only one unit of a BOGO item that was on sale two-for-one. At first I didn't think I needed that much, so why take two? Checkout proceeded normally. After all, it's not against the rules to bypass an opportunity. Halfway home a little light in my head sputtered back on. “D'oh!” I said, as I smacked my forehead and drove back. I took my receipt to the CUSTOMER SERVICE DESK where the nice lady behind the counter smiled and then gave me permission to go and pick up the second unit that I'd actually already paid for.

Brand

Brand

n. 1. An identification between a product or service, its manufacturer or provider, and an associated perception or value in the mind of the CUSTOMER: “I'm sorry, Ma'am. We don't happen to carry that brand.” 2. A logo, trademark of other means of promoting such an identification or association. See also STORE BRAND.

NOTE: Branding, and the building up of what's called Brand equity is a multi-billion dollar industry, involving marketing, advertising, PRODUCT placement, positioning, and so on.

For example, when you think of a facial tissue, you probably think “Kleenex®”, and when you think photocopier, you probably think “Xerox®.” Those are Brands.

TRUE STORY: Kleenex® and Xerox®, among others, are in fact such powerful national brands that the companies that own them pay big bucks to put ads in Writer's Digest and similar magazines to plead with writers not to use their Brand names as generic words. If a Brand name ever becomes generic, anyone can use the word, and the owner looses both a huge marketing advantage and a huge financial investment. For example, did you know that “zipper” was once a Brand name owned by B.F. Goodrich? Not anymore!

For more information on lost Brand names and trademarks, see, e.g.,
^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks}