After months of panic about organized retail theft the National Retail Federation says they made a math error. They had previously announce that organized theft was half of the $95B retail shrink causing a nationwide panic and new laws. Last week they retracted the claim but the damage was done.
7 Likes
Doesnāt really say āhow they soldā the BS story. They just made it up told āthe 4th estateā (snickering slightly up left sleeve, here) and apparently, theyāll fall for anything. What I want to know is why they decided to make up that story and sell it. I mean for reasons other than, as the article says, to push a narrative. Was this an in-house joke that morphed out of hand and they decided to milk it while they could? Was it actually ginned up by the ever popular greedy executives who then ordered marketing to get it out there? And why come clean now instead of doubling down on it which is the current vogue in USA? This data / that data? Whatās data anyway? Who cares? Itās what you feel that matters.
When I was controlling aeroplanes the saying was: Good information is good. No information is bad. Bad information is (a disaster in progress, a hazard to navigation, fill in rhetorically picturesque catastrophe metaphor)
4 Likes
They probably didnāt have to sell it at all.
I bet āorganized criminals loot storeā sells a lot more newspapers (and increases online eyeballs) than ābuyers screw up and buy goods most people donāt want, so they have to mark prices down.ā
And what red-blooded politician can resist a strong āwar on crimeā campaign versus a āstore managers are incompetentā one.
Heck, if politicians started a war on incompetence, 90% of them would be out of a job.
6 Likes
Isnāt that the definition of management at most businesses?
4 Likes
Sometimes itās the sensational that grabs yer imagination. Last week was the 2 day Miracle Shopā¦an annual event to help low income families with their childrensā Christmas gifts (a small way to facilitate keeping up with other bills)
Anyway, we had a bit of a scare this year because, in addition to a very small number of folk just showing up unexpectedly, claiming to have registered and claiming to be shopping for 8 or 9 kids, there was a sudden appearance of names appear as āregisteredā on the website but who hadnāt gone through usual channels (a simple enough process that ensures a geographic eligibility and, importantly, that we donāt run out of toys) We came up with all manner of explanations ā¦ including, but not limited to, an organised posse of folk intending to snag the excellent quality stuff we had available and sell it for profit on the internet.
Further digging revealed the obviousā¦someone not doing their job right. In this case, an inexperienced liason person at one of the schools thatāre served simply loading their names onto our site at the last minute to āsave timeā. We all felt a bit silly after thatā¦once the panic to get extra toys subsided (thank gawd for available husbands/partners willing to be co-opted for the task)
Hereās how we startedā¦
A grander effort than previous years but demand was even greaterš
10 Likes
One thing comes to mind. The hysteria about gang rapes of stores went hand in hand with announcements of store closings. Maybe management didnāt want to admit they had over expanded/expanded into areas too expensive for them to make a decent profit/couldnāt attract staff in those locations without paying a āburdensomeā salary. Management regards itself as infallible, so needed an excuse to cover up their mistakes?
Steve
2 Likes
They are management. The definition of an ongoing mistake.
1 Like