I’m an ex-B&M manager – the exact time to go and bag the 10p bargains everyone loves & the worst customers we ever had
A FORMER B&M manager has revealed the behind-the-scene store secrets – including the best time of day to visit to nab the best deals.
Roxanne Noble, from Huddersfield, had to answer “10 basic questions” before getting offered a job as a cashier at B&M – one of the most popular discount stores in the country.
The 34-year-old, who is currently a sales fulfilment administrator, spent the next eight years working her way up to supervisor before eventually being promoted to deputy manager.
After gaining years-worth of insider knowledge following her shifts at the Brighouse, Huddersfield and Shipley branches, she’s now spilled all to Fabulous Digital – including the tips and tricks to bagging the best bargains and the worst types of customer she’s had to deal with.
First up, Roxanne reveals there’s a super simple way to be the first in line when it comes to getting your hands on discounted goods – and it’s all to do with what time you visit the store.
According to the ex-B&M manager, Wednesday at 10am is prime time…because that’s when items get slashed to as little as just 10p.
“If the company wanted rid of something to make room for new stock they’d discount things to 10p,” she says.
“It’d be anything and everything including £30 bedding sets, curtains, rugs etc.”
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“They do price changes every Monday to Thursday, but the main one was on a Wednesday when they’d do quite a lot at once and they’d drop the prices to 10p.
“The report usually came down on a Tuesday night and then got actioned on Wednesday – and it’d be done by 10am in the morning.”
For Roxanne, a massive perk of the job was that staff got first dibs on the reduced-price items before they were put on the shelves for customers to snap up.
“I’ve had £40 curtains for £1 and bedding sets – they were always the best because they’re things people use over and over again,” she says.
“Other popular reduced price items were throws, bedding sets, rugs – any home furnishings really.”
“Rugs were really popular because they’re normally around £30-£40 and they get knocked down to £1 or 10p, so that’s really good!”
And DIY fans listen up because Roxanne points out that another item that was often reduced was the house paint.
“If they had an item they were re-branding, they wanted to get rid of the old version of it,” she says.
If the company wanted rid of something to make room for new stock they’d discount things to 10p
Roxanne Noble
“Our paint stock came from Dulux and Johnstone’s and they kept re-branding how it’d look on the paint pots, so they’d want to get rid of the old ones and would knock it down to like a fiver from £25.
Roxanne quipped: “I’ve decorated my house and it only cost about a fiver if you look at it!”
She goes onto say that another major perk of the job was the 10% staff discount, which would “every so often” be increased to 20% for occasions such as Christmas and Easter.
But as well as bargain hunters, the store also attracts a large volume of shoplifters – something which the former B&M manager says was the worst part of her job.
“It was nigh on every day,” she says.
“It depended on where the store was located…I worked at one in a rough area and it was pretty much daily.
“The company had its own security team but they don’t give you regular security, so if you have a security guard every day of the week, you were considered a high-risk shop.
“Sometimes you might be considered a low risk shop if you only reported a couple of incidents a week.”
While she says every shop may be different, Roxanne would use a specific word to notify her colleagues there was a shoplifter in store.
“We’d go over the Tannoy and would say the name of the security guard and then use the word ‘immediately’ – that would let them know something was wrong and they needed to be somewhere straightaway.
“That raised a sense of urgency for whoever was listening.”
During her eight year stint of working at B&M, Roxanne started to notice a pattern in the sorts of items thieves would try and steal.
“It’d be electronics so it tended to be portable speakers and soundbars – they’d always try to get the big bulky hoovers too,” she recalls.
“Most stores are set out so the tills are opposite the doors.
“But the tills kind of block customers from getting out so they’d have to go back up the first aisle to go towards the door.
“So, if you saw someone walking up towards the main entrance away from the tills, you know they’re going to try and steal it.
“They’ve got no shame!”
She adds: “It wasn’t in my store but I’ve heard of another store having a hot tub stolen.
“We couldn’t believe it – we were all like, how on earth did that happen?”
And it may surprise you to hear that according to Roxanne, some of the worst customers were mums.
“They’d try and get away with it by paying for some items and then shoplifting others by hiding them in the little storage space underneath prams,” she explains.
“We used to spot them quite a lot and would say, ‘you need to pay for those’ and be really polite about it.
“They’d pretend they’d put it there just to store it because they couldn’t carry it!”
Roxanne says it was mainly little things like makeup sets and expensive shampoos and conditioners in big bulky bottles.
She adds: “Other worst types of customers were those who were very entitled and always wanted money off already discounted items, or those who started arguments.”
The ex-employee says the store she worked at would often get 15-year-old school girls come in and steal “£1 and £2 fake eyelashes.”
But Roxanne had the perfect way of making sure they wouldn’t be committing the same crime twice.
He got his man parts out and peed all over a few plants that were on display
Roxanne Noble
“We used to get them a lot but we’d embarrass them because they’d be caught on camera in their school uniforms,” she explains.
“We’d call the schools and say, ‘do you know who this is because they keep coming in and shoplifting?’
“We’d burn the footage onto a DVD and give it to the school and then they’d play it for that particular student or their parents.”
But the shoplifters aren’t the only visitors Roxanne wished she’d never had to deal with – she once saw a man take out his private parts out and pee all over the plants.
“It was madness,” Roxanne recalls.
“Some of the bigger stores have garden centres…
“It was quite a sunny day and me and my manager were going over to something to do with the garden centre stock.
“I was there with my clipboard and then I spotted it out the corner of my eye and thought: Is he pulling his pants down?
“He got his man parts out and peed all over a few plants that were on display.
“He knew we saw him do it and could hear it and me and my manager were like – did this just happen?
“Is this real life?
“Did he just actually do that?
“We were mortified!”
Roxanne says the manager “scolded him” and banned him from returning before “frogmarching” him out of the store.
“We then put rubber gloves on and put big bin liners over the plant so we weren’t touching anything we didn’t want to touch and we just threw them away,” she says.