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Post by G✇JI☈A on Aug 2, 2022 19:16:33 GMT -5
How about another Tale of Failed Australian Business Practices.. This one involves giant hardware stores.. See Australia does not really have the big box stores that big in America and The UK.. don’t those combined supermarket/department store like Walmart and Tesco.. closest we have is Costco One thing we do have is the gigantic hardware store.. Bunnings Warehouse is the main game with some moderate competition… but it’s Bunnings that’s the big snag in town. Supermarket chain Woolworths decided to get into the big hardware store racket by launching a nationwide lot of big stores called “Masters” And I mean they went all in… they built these giant stores from the ground up.. meaning they acquired land, demolished what was on it and built these giant warehouse like stores. And it failed miserably, they lasted half a decade with stores always nearly empty of customers and then Woolworth pulled the plug, all stock was heavily discounted to to clear the stock and stores shut down.. leaving all these massive new warehouse like stores were left empty and abandoned. They eventually sold most of the buildings … one I lived near was converted into a Coles supermarket (Woolworths main competition) It was a massive failure.. Woolworths lost 3.2 Billion Australian Dollars over 7 years over this fiasco.. I’m sure you can find better reading elsewhere.. that was just the gist of it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_Home_Improvement?wprov=sfti1Speaking of Bunnings .. they did try and fail to expand into the U.K and that fail for them.
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Push R Truth
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Post by Push R Truth on Aug 2, 2022 19:25:47 GMT -5
Skittles got rid of LIME and replaced it with Green goddamned Apple and still has the sheer audacity to put "ORIGINIAL SKITTLES" on the freakin' package. BURN IT DOWN!
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Post by James Fabiano on Aug 2, 2022 19:43:16 GMT -5
Coincidentally, this is now under the Scoob and Batgirl threads.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Aug 2, 2022 19:49:56 GMT -5
Unless it's been debunked, I remember hearing that Shane McMahon tried talking Vince into buying UFC way back in the day, and Vince passed on it. This was a while before UFC blew up and became huge in the 2000s. I don't remember the source for that rumor tho I just remember reading it somewhere. They were in negotiations to buy PRIDE years later, but Vince sabotaged it so it ended up being WCW'd by UFC. Yeah, Shane was interested in both UFC and PRIDE FC at different points in time but was essentially talked out of it because of his last name. Nobody would believe an MMA company owned by a McMahon was on the level. And in UFC’s defense, they did have legit plans to operate PRIDE as essentially the Japanese branch of UFC. They even created PRIDE Worldwide LLC to run it, but they had no f***ing clue how hard it was for a foreign company to run a company in Japan, and how damaged the brand was due to the Yakuza scandal. Couldn’t get TV, didn’t do their due diligence and found out a lot of the contracts were non-transferable and basically just said “f*** it, we’re out”.
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Post by Ash Kingston on Aug 2, 2022 19:51:56 GMT -5
Probably Gary Gygax telling the Blume brothers to take a hike from TSR in the early 80's (as they were running it into the ground and were trying to sell it out from under him to pay off the $1.5 million debt they had built up while Gygax was in Hollywood), only for them to turn around and sell their stocks to Lorraine Williams - a woman who hated gamers and thought D&D was anti-Christian - and making her the majority shareholder, which led to Gygax selling his stocks and leaving in 1985.
Also, how Williams generally handled running TSR and D&D 2nd Edition (no playtesting stuff to make sure it wasn't absolute shit/imbalanced to hell, deciding to launch a card game because of how Magic: The Gathering was doing, running a bunch of Buck Rogers stuff through TSR because her grandfather owned the license and she was set to inherit it when he passed, drastically increasing the number of novels published by TSR, most of which ended up sucking and being sent back).
Maybe just... TSR in general? Yeah, let's go with that.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Aug 2, 2022 19:59:10 GMT -5
Oh, Target Canada has to be mentioned here. Launched too soon, didn’t have a proper national inventory system in place, suffered from massive stock shortages, terrible pricing and couldn’t compete with WalMart Canada and shut down all locations within 2 years. Plus wouldn’t send out flyers or advertise sales outside the store, and basically were insanely consumer unfriendly
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fg
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Post by fg on Aug 2, 2022 20:19:10 GMT -5
Skittles got rid of LIME and replaced it with Green goddamned Apple and still has the sheer audacity to put "ORIGINIAL SKITTLES" on the freakin' package. BURN IT DOWN! But at least they are (in the words of AEW’s Jim Ross) “DELICIOUS! DELICIOUS! FRUITY! FRUITY! OH BAH GAWD THEYRE FRUITY SKITTLES!”
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fg
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Post by fg on Aug 2, 2022 20:30:16 GMT -5
I made mention of Sears Shop Your Way program and how it’s a perfect example of how NOT to have a rewards program.
Well one brain fart was in the mid 2010s, they introduced one benefit of the program if you were a member…if you were on Sears.com or Kmart.com and came across a piece of clothing, you had the option to reserve it. In most or all Sears stores the Reserve it rack we’re in the womens department. When I worked for Sears, our manager said that if lots of customers came by the rack and took an item or two not realizing it was already reserved, then he would move it into the womens stockroom.
The Reserve it rack was either 100% empty or mostly empty all the time and I think the problem affected all stores so they discontinued it. One potential problem would be a customer could take an item from the rack, take off the sticker that says that the item is reserved and buy it at another register with no problem. Another potential problem that I said was customers could take an item from the rack not realizing it’s reserved and be disappointed when they find out it’s reserved and this would really be a problem if that’s the last item in that size available.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Aug 2, 2022 20:47:28 GMT -5
Skittles got rid of LIME and replaced it with Green goddamned Apple and still has the sheer audacity to put "ORIGINIAL SKITTLES" on the freakin' package. BURN IT DOWN! they have fixed their mistake now...
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Aug 2, 2022 21:20:42 GMT -5
Oh, Target Canada has to be mentioned here. Launched too soon, didn’t have a proper national inventory system in place, suffered from massive stock shortages, terrible pricing and couldn’t compete with WalMart Canada and shut down all locations within 2 years. Plus wouldn’t send out flyers or advertise sales outside the store, and basically were insanely consumer unfriendly Not to mention wasn't even competitive with Target USA, since most of the population of Canada lives within however many miles of the USA, it was still worth it for people to travel to the US and shop there at Target, if Target is what they wanted.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Aug 2, 2022 21:25:46 GMT -5
Oh, Target Canada has to be mentioned here. Launched too soon, didn’t have a proper national inventory system in place, suffered from massive stock shortages, terrible pricing and couldn’t compete with WalMart Canada and shut down all locations within 2 years. Plus wouldn’t send out flyers or advertise sales outside the store, and basically were insanely consumer unfriendly Not to mention wasn't even competitive with Target USA, since most of the population of Canada lives within however many miles of the USA, it was still worth it for people to travel to the US and shop there at Target, if Target is what they wanted. Oh, it was absolutely cheaper to just drive to the States and buy shit there other then day to day goods like groceries and toiletries. But for clothes, electronics, small furniture etc they absolutely couldn’t compete with Target USA in terms of pricing
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Cranjis McBasketball
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball on Aug 2, 2022 21:53:03 GMT -5
Not to mention wasn't even competitive with Target USA, since most of the population of Canada lives within however many miles of the USA, it was still worth it for people to travel to the US and shop there at Target, if Target is what they wanted. Oh, it was absolutely cheaper to just drive to the States and buy shit there other then day to day goods like groceries and toiletries. But for clothes, electronics, small furniture etc they absolutely couldn’t compete with Target USA in terms of pricing I never set foot in ours, not because I was a Zellers fanboy, but there was no reason to. Everything I needed was closer and by closer I mean, like a click closer.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Aug 2, 2022 21:57:35 GMT -5
Oh, it was absolutely cheaper to just drive to the States and buy shit there other then day to day goods like groceries and toiletries. But for clothes, electronics, small furniture etc they absolutely couldn’t compete with Target USA in terms of pricing I never set foot in ours, not because I was a Zellers fanboy, but there was no reason to. Everything I needed was closer and by closer I mean, like a click closer. I went to mine from time to time, it was directly across the street from where I worked at the time and you could catch the occasional really good deals on movies or video games. A lot of my Wii U games came from there, and my iPad came from there because they were giving away a $100 gift card if you bought an iPad but those deals were few and far between. I did buy a tonne of Blu Rays there when they were liquidating
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MolotovMocktail
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Post by MolotovMocktail on Aug 2, 2022 23:57:37 GMT -5
McDonald’s has a track record of trying to add mode “sophisticated” or “exotic” items to their menu, always forgetting the whole pint of fast food is the fast part, and each time they spent more money on the ad campaigns than they made on the product. McPizza, the Arch Deluxe, Mighty Wings, the list goes on. For more McDonalds, holding a promotion to give away free food for every medal the US won in the 1984 Olympics. Then the USSR and other communist countries boycotted, and they swept nearly every event, leading to a huge loss on the deal.
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Aug 3, 2022 0:04:01 GMT -5
McDonald’s has a track record of trying to add mode “sophisticated” or “exotic” items to their menu, always forgetting the whole pint of fast food is the fast part, and each time they spent more money on the ad campaigns than they made on the product. McPizza, the Arch Deluxe, Mighty Wings, the list goes on. For more McDonalds, holding a promotion to give away free food for every medal the US won in the 1984 Olympics. Then the USSR and other communist countries boycotted, and they swept nearly every event, leading to a huge loss on the deal. The Simpson's made fun of this at one point too
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Post by YAKMAN is ICHIBAN on Aug 3, 2022 7:34:46 GMT -5
Sadly it is looking like we are going to be talking about the Discovery/Warner merger and the destruction of the HBO brand in a few years.
Or maybe it'll be good for business and just bad for making good programming.
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Post by Mozenrath on Aug 3, 2022 7:44:18 GMT -5
McDonald’s has a track record of trying to add mode “sophisticated” or “exotic” items to their menu, always forgetting the whole pint of fast food is the fast part, and each time they spent more money on the ad campaigns than they made on the product. McPizza, the Arch Deluxe, Mighty Wings, the list goes on. The Arch Deluxe failed, but it at least supposedly gave them valuable marketing data that let them successfully launch a line of salads that did well, even if a lot of it came down to, "How not to advertise a menu item."
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Post by SkullTrauma on Aug 3, 2022 11:16:37 GMT -5
Speaking of studios making bad calls, how many studios decided to pass on Peter Jackson wanting to do Lord Of The Rings before he got the deal with New Line? Speaking of New Line, they got their first big hit when every other studio passed up on a movie based off of a cartoon series in 1990. Pretty sure New Line's first big hit was A Nightmare on Elm St.
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Post by jason1980s on Aug 3, 2022 12:19:18 GMT -5
I'm glad a few people mentioned JC Penney. The culprit's name was Ron Johnson. I worked for them 2010 to early 2013 and when I quit I cited Ron as the reason for quitting as he caused massive employee lay offs, stock decline and customer alienation. Funnily enough he was gone the next week but I found a much better job. I guess he was quietly asked to leave so technically "fired" but he got a parachute I'm sure while so many long term employees suffered.
The customer base, middle age to older women probably never returned. The clothing coming in was meant to appeal to a younger crowd, I was in my late 20s and I thought it looked awful. They were marking down really nice clothes and accessories like crazy, getting rid of them. I got some awesome jeans, shirts and socks before they brought in the garbage. I felt so bad for the employees AND the customers.
The ideas should have worked on paper, lower prices with no gimmicks but I get the psychological reasons why people thought it wasn't good for them. Prior to how bad things got, our store (not sure if company wide) was giving prizes for the most surveys-the top four people mentioned in surveys got $50 gift cards and multiple others picked out of a drawing got $5 off certificates. That stopped around early 2012 when the company was taking a nose dive. Not necessarily related to Ron, probably a store decision but the root was Ron.
I remember being called into the manager's office from home, begging to be told if I was being let go but she couldn't tell me. My position was changed to that of a floater (from standing behind catalog) and I enjoyed it, got out more and lost a lot of weight walking around (gained it back 2x a few years ago) but again, I felt awful for those being let go in my position, managers and other employees who gave years to the company. Nearing the end of my time I was one of the people getting as little as EIGHT to FOUR hours a week. The manager who was let go for telling employees in advanced they would be let go was a former manager at Home Depot, told me to apply there and outside of a few rough first months with them, I never looked back. I'm totally grateful it didn't out at JCP (which was what Ron wanted it to be rebranded as) but I do wish Ron Johnson and CEOs couldn't get away with destroying companies and people's livelihood like they do.
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Aug 3, 2022 16:08:50 GMT -5
Speaking of studios making bad calls, how many studios decided to pass on Peter Jackson wanting to do Lord Of The Rings before he got the deal with New Line? Speaking of New Line, they got their first big hit when every other studio passed up on a movie based off of a cartoon series in 1990. Um..... no? New Line is called "The House that Freddy built" & for good reason.
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