Rockler discount

[maxwellsmart007]

There's a Rockler discount for IAP members, if anyone's interested...good way to save 10 percent, and learn about making pens at the same time!

Andrew

[Joe Lyddon]

What is IAP?

[Doug B]

Joe, IAP is the International Association of Penturners and is a fantastic resource for pen makers. I find the forum to be rather hard to break into, but there are some really awesome ideas, and great deals on everything you ever need for making pens.

The address is www.penturners.org/

You have to join in order to see pictures, which I really hate, but it is worth the trouble to join up just to see the amazing pens these guys make. Very nice pen blanks are available there too, as well as anything you could possibly imagine concerning penmaking. Some really nice fellows there too, but some others can be a bit snobbish. I enjoy the site as a great resource, but find it awkward to try to be social there.

P.S. I never buy anything pen related from Rockler...there are a lot better prices elsewhere, even given the discount.

[maxwellsmart007]

Doesn't have to be pen related, Doug - that 10 percent applies to everything!

[Doug B]

Oops! I just assumed it would be pen related since it was from IAP...

Sorry.

[rrich]

Inside Rockler, it is known as a "Guild" discount. They will generally give to any club members or students.

Unlike Woodcraft, all you have to do is to ask. I don't think that they have ever asked to see my Student I/D card.

[wisardd1]

I am so pissed off at my local Rockler I don'tknow if I will ever go back there again. Went there on a Tuesday nite. Missed the closing by 5 minutes. It was the old geezer carving nite so the door was open. I needed some black tint to finish a project I was behind on. The guy told me he couldn't sell it to me because they were already cashed out. I suggested, let me give $20 cash and you can register it in the morning. "Nope, can't do it" I said, c'mon man, you see me in here every other week for at least a year. I have spent I fortune here. Please help out" Nope can't do it. So I said, you mean to tell if one of those carvers over there want to buy a couple of chisels tonight you're gonna say sorry joe, you gotta come back tomorrow? Even if the guy needs it so he can finish it tonight at the meeting. "Sorry dude, I don't know what to tell you" As I walked out I said, "you know, I don't think I will ever come back here again" He said "Sorry" I said, "Not enough, you just lost my business for now on"


He said he would save for me if I wanted to buy it in the morning.

[maxwellsmart007]

I don't think it would be worth getting fired over - if he let you buy it after the till is cashed out and the computer turned off, and the manager saw him do it, he could have gotten in big trouble.

On the other hand, if he let you take it, left the $20 on the counter, and someone took it before it was rang in, he'd be in trouble...

He was in a no-win situation there. It's not like it was a mom-and-pop store that doesn't have corporate rules.

I understand how frustrating it is, but I don't think it's worth boycotting an entire store over - he was just protecting himself too...PLUS, it's a LOT of work to cash out a till. If he DID do it, and he's a stickler for doing it right, obviously, he might have had to redo the entire cashout...and he's not getting paid to be there after closing!

Just another perspective...feel free to ignore it!

[sawduster]

What Andrew said, plus he may not have even been able to re-open the register for another sale after cashing out at closing time. Them new fangled computerized and linked to corporate have all sorts of abilities and could easily have a time driven lock out system in place.

Besides, if I were lucky enough to have a Rockler store in my neck of the woods I would welcome the competition with Woodcraft.

[wisardd1]

So you think they would make old joe come back in the morning?

[sawduster]

Probably. What seems a little strange to me is that they would shut down sales while they still had a class going on that had the potential of making a few more sales afterward. Of course, that's just me and my capitalistic mind set. ;D One of the reasons they have classes in those places is to generate sales (and maybe some tuition if they charge for the classes).

[rrich]

Jan 19, 2010 10:23:59 GMT -6 maxwellsmart007 said:

...He was in a no-win situation there. It's not like it was a mom-and-pop store that doesn't have corporate rules.

...PLUS, it's a LOT of work to cash out a till.

...and he's not getting paid to be there after closing!

You're right, there was nothing that he could do. I saw it happen once and the grief that it caused is unimaginable. If the regional manager comes in, first thing in the morning, which they do, and cash is lying about loose and unaccounted for, it is a nightmare for the store manager.

Yeah the manager has to close out the till every night. Even the 'take a few / leave a few' penny bowl causes issues at close out. (We're only talking a half a buck.) Remember the first unwritten rule of accounting, "It doesn't matter how much it costs to count the beans so long as the beans are counted correctly."

As for pay... Every hourly employee at Rockler clocks in and out through a computer in the back room. If you are supposed to work 9 to 5 and clock in at 8:55, out at 5:10 you are paid also for the extra 15 minutes and probably at overtime rates. Rockler is probably the best company in the way that employees are paid. I started there in the middle of a June (Part Time) and was paid a full 8 hours for the July 4 holiday.

[wisardd1]

woodcraft is much friendlier. Austin Lumber beats them all. If I buy from Rockler, it will be online after i have looked at Amazon and everywhere else.