Retail stores’ policies benefit shoplifters

http://www.upiu.com/articles/retail-stores%E2%80%99-policies-benefit-shoplifters

Summary

The article is about how most stores are benefiting the shoplifters. As many small store owner know it is quite expensive to post arrest and this will also hurt their store's image. Instead many stores don't report the shoplifter, instead they ignore it and increase the prices of their products to repay for what they had lost. This really upset the balance because the honest people are basically paying the store, without telling them, and the shoplifter is still out there with the product/s. Places like U.S.A have an average of half a million shoplifting activity each day. With an annual lost of 13 billion dollar worth of merchandises. The number show that 92% of all stores had experienced organized retail crime, and the number will continue to grow as long the economy is going down to the red zone.

Connection

This article connects to the book because there is a section in the book that talks about Detaining Suspects, Legal Charges, False Arrest. Detaining talks about how criminal act must be taken to conform to the Criminal Code. So the stores will try to decrease the chance of them being robbed, by training their employees, and having camera, these will increase security. Yet if the store accused a person of stealing, and the person was found innocent. This can hurt the store name, and the accused person would be able to sue the store. This is related to the article because many stores don't want to face these charges instead they would forget about the problem and increase the prices when the customer don't know about. On the other hand if the store is true to their policies, for example customers won't be able to carry their bags inside this will make the customers uncomfortable, and they might even leave the store because they might feel they are being accused for something they didn't do or planning to do.

Reflection

I personally think the store owner in the article did the right thing for their benefits. If I was the store owner I wouldn't want to risk the chance of accusing somebody because if my conclusion was wrong it will lead me to a lot of trouble. For example the accused person will have the right to sue my store, and I would make my store look bad. If I was true to the policies, I would ask everybody to remove their bags when entering the store, this will make the people uncomfortable which will make them think I don't trust them.

Bleak Friday.

Summary

This special day only happens once per year. When businesses start moving to the black line, which is a good thing. This time of year is when everything is on sale from toys, electronics, clothing and so on. Unfortunately this only happens once per year, consumers are abandoning brick and mortar retailers for online retailers. Online retailing offers a lot, for example it allows people to compare prices quickly and easily, it has lower prices and is more convenient. According to the National Retail Federation, Online sales grew 13%, on the other hand brick and mortar only increased 1%. Even if online retailers are increasing they only hold 6% of all retail sales while Brick and Mortar hold 94%. Brick and Mortar is trying to making shopping more exciting. For example Disney is using new feature “magic mirrors,” which allow kids to interact with the character. Lululemon athletica started to sell music lesson along with its musical instruments.

Connection

In Chapter 7 it talks about how different stores operate. Non-stores is when a person is trying to make profit by sell it on the street, mobile. The article is connected to the book because online retailing don't need a store, it only need a storage to store all the goods. E-Bay is a huge online retailer advertisement and biding. In Black Friday all the store from department store, superstores, supermarket are all in sale. In Chapter 9 it talks about location and how it is very important to make money, location, community, place, and people. Online retailers don't have to worry about thinking about location they don't have to worry about it because the internet is all connected.

Reflection

I agree that internet retailing will become very big later, but it will never over come brick and mortar. I think that brick and mortar retailers will alway have the upper advantage because people still need the touch and feel. For many people including myself I need to know how it feel and look like in person. If I buy something online I will be concern if the product is good, or it is a scam. Brick and Mortar can't scam because I am making the purchase in person, but online retailing I could get scam or hacked without knowing. This is what I think about the online retailing.

Terror Marketing

Summary:
A woman believed she was being stalked by a man. The stalker was sending her e-mails and videos which made the woman emotionally distressed, but she didn't know this is a new way to promote their product. All of this misunderstanding soon leads to a 10 million dollar lawsuit accusing Toyota for "Terror Marketing."
Marketing Professor explains in this age ads have to be different and even annoying to be remembered by their viewers. Company will use unique way of getting their message to people. For example Aylmer pasta sauce is using an angry chef breaking into people’s houses and pop out and yell "TRY THE SAUCE!" When people see this commercial, it will be stuck into their mind, but a lame commercial will be forgotten because the human mind only remember things that are unique, different, or even annoying.
Connection:
People are always going to find ways of promoting their product to the public, and when views from all types see the company ads some might think it is funny or offensive. For example the pasta commercial made the chef scare people who go into houses like a stalker. This commercial might offend people who are cookers or chefs. Niche Marketing is a method of aiming at one group for example teenagers. Store will sell things that teenagers will buy and use, this might offend people because the way that the media shows how all teenagers act. People are going to get upset when ads are different and out of place, but they are going to make more sales. In the business world if some is offended that is alright, it doesn’t make much different.
Reflection:
People are exposed to ads throughout their life, and all of them seem normal and don’t offend us. Some commercial I saw in my life did make me feel upset “I saw a Chinese woman driving their car and she hit somebody else’s car” this will make people think Chinese people can’t drive. On the other hand, the commercial will remain in the person’s mind because it was unique, it was funny, and it was kind of annoying because of the women’s voice.

Retail sales down over the summer

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/699445
Summery:
Larger Businesses are planning to build smaller stores and trying to lower the prices on their products. On the other hand there are no signs that the consumers are spending their money, because of the bad economy. This cause the retailers to lost around %0.6-$34.2 billions. Fingers are pointing everywhere explaining the massive drops, like cool summer that we were getting lower the sales from beer, food, and clothing. Another reason there are a lot of unemployment which lead to people not willing to spend their saving. Some places say that this maybe forever because people learning how to spend less.
Connection:

People are learning how to save money due to the bad economy, this will cause problems to the business world because businesses are losing money. This will cause people to shut their company, people are losing jobs, factory workers, whole sales, retailers, and the chain continues. People are not willing to spend their money on luxury things should as cars, jewelry, top class food and the list go on. This will cause business people to think of new solution to counter this problem.
Reflection:
I personally think people are doing the right thing because they are trying to save money to put into better use should as medical help, funding for their children. On the other hand things are getting expensive, and I am a person who don't like to spend money on unnecessary things. My parents are complaining about how bad the economy right now because we were all planning to buy 2 fish from a shop and it used to be cheap but now they nearly doubled the price. Fruits are getting expensive. Even going down to London Drugs to buy some pencils, and paper were like more than 5 dollars, and when I lost one of my pencil I will get all worry.