Car Renters Beware!

Posted on April 7, 2013 by bermanevansretail
Car rental agencies generate a lot of profits from the supplemental  insurance coverage offered to customers. In some instances, this insurance is marketing aggressively — some would say too aggressively.
According to a recent New York Times story by Tara Siegel Bernard:  “The problem is that [several] customers [have] said they unwittingly signed for the coverage on an electronic tablet even though they had verbally declined it. As for Dollar, which was acquired by Hertz last year for $2.3 billion, a spokeswoman said that the company complied with all laws and denied allegations that it sold customers products they didn’t want. But at least a hundred customers, according to one consumer lawyer, contend that’s precisely what happened (mostly at Dollar, though a smattering said they had experienced the same thing at Thrifty, a sister rental company). The lawyer said he had heard from the consumers over the last year and a half. Four of them are at the center of two lawsuits against Dollar Thrifty seeking class-action status. One complaint, which was amended this week and filed in the Federal District Court in Northern California, alleges that the company engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices. A second separate complaint, filed in November with the Federal District Court in Colorado, is also still pending, according to  a consumer attorney in San Diego, who is working on that case and representing the plaintiffs in the California case. The spokeswoman for Dollar Thrifty said the company intended to defend the cases vigorously.”
Click the image to read more.

Photo by Mary DiBiase Blaich for the New York Times

 

Posted in Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Privacy and Identity Theft Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tracking Employee Behavior to Reduce Theft

Posted on April 6, 2013 by bermanevansretail
The term “retail shrinkage” encompasses any financial losses due to employee theft, customer shoplifting, vendor fraud, and administrative errors. Globally, inventory shrinkage exceeds $125 billion annually. Of that amount, employees account for 35 percent, customers 43 percent, vendors 6 percent, and administrative errors (faulty paperwork and computer entries) 16 percent.
As a result of the wide extent of employee theft, more retailers are developing and enacting technology-based tracking to monitor employee behavior.
Stephanie Clifford and Jessica Silver-Greenberg report for the New York Times that: “Facing a wave of employee theft, retailers have helped amass vast databases of workers accused of stealing and are using that information to keep employees from working again in the industry. The databases, which have tens of thousands of subscribers and are used by major retailers like Target, CVS, and Family Dollar, are aimed at combating employee theft, which accounts for a large swath of missing merchandise. But the databases, which are legal, are facing scrutiny from labor lawyers and federal regulators, who worry they are so sweeping that innocent employees can be harmed. The lawyers say workers are often coerced into confessing, sometimes when they have done nothing wrong, without understanding that they will be branded as thieves.”
One of the largest provider of information is First Advantage Corporation’s Esteem database.
Click the logo to read more of Clifford and Silver-Greenberg’s story.

 

 

 

Posted in Global Retailing, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Privacy and Identity Theft Issues, Technology in Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Even for Wal-Mart, Cost Cutting Has Its Limits

Posted on April 5, 2013 by bermanevansretail
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer prides itself on its cost efficiencies and the resulting low prices. Hence it’s slogan: “Save money. Live better.” Its aim is to always be the lost-cost, low-price leader.
But, even for Wal-Mart, costs can sometimes be cut too sharply, such as with the recent case of Wal-Mart’s reducing its store staffing.
As Stephanie Clifford reports for the New  York Times: “Michelle Obama visited a Wal-Mart in February to extol the fresh, healthy food in the company’s grocery aisles. But Wal-Mart, Ms. Obama’s corporate partner in a campaign to make food healthier and more affordable, has been running into problems with food that is not so fresh. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly, according to some employees and industry analysts. Internal notes from a March meeting of top Wal-Mart managers show the company grappling with low customer confidence in its produce and poor quality. ‘Lose Trust,’ reads one note, ‘Don’t have items they are looking for — can’t find it.’”
Clearly, Wal-Mart will have to remedy this situation.
Click the image to read more of Clifford’s story.

Photo by Nadav Neuhaus for the New York Times

 

 

 

Posted in Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment