HUGE FINE FOR TESCO STRAWBERRY SCAM

In a landmark case Tesco have been fined £300,000, and ordered to pay costs of £65,000 after they were caught misleadingly claiming that 400gm punnets of strawberries selling for £1.99 were “half-price” in 2011.

The price tickets were marked with crossed-out prices of £2.99 and £3.99 and noticed by pensioner Daphne Smallman in Tesco’s Sheldon, Birmingham store. When she asked staff there whether the strawberries had ever been on sale at the crossed-out prices the staff promised they would “get back to her” but never did, rejecting her complaint. Accordingly she suspected she, and thousands of others in Tesco’s 2,300 stores were being duped by Tesco and called in local trading standards officers who investigated.

In court Tesco admitted that the strawberries had been sold for the higher, crossed-out prices for just two weeks, and the lower “half-price” for 14 weeks, this in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act 2008 The lower-price sale should not last longer than the time the higher prices were being charged. Continue reading

DERAILMENT FOR HIGH SPEED TRAINS PLAN?

The all-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a withering report on the Government’s £50 billion plan to build a high speed rail link from London to Manchester and Leeds, via Birmingham.

Criticisms include claims that the Department of Transport has based its decisions on questionable forecasts of future use of rail travel for business, and equally questionable ten-year old assumptions that business types would pay a premium for shorter journey times because “they could not work on trains using modern technology”. (such as mobile phones, perhaps?)

Other concerns were that the line would suck jobs down to London rather than boost employment in the North, that the £50 billion estimate did not include any contingency or impact costs of construction on small business, that the taxpayers money could be better spent on improving other parts of the rail network and benefit many more people and that the figure given was likely to spiral upwards as benefits spiralled downwards.

NOMOPHOBIA RULES

A study by web security company AppRiver has found that despite the amount of easily-exploited and confidential business and personal information stored on mobile phones only 50% of users say they bother to secure them with a password.

Apparently more than 50% of users claim to suffer from “Nomophobia”, a fear of being without their mobiles, perhaps because they know that they contain items that they would really like, or need, to keep confidential. The study also found that women were 17% more likely to be nomophobic than men.

GET ‘EM ON

Another blow to the rapidly dwindling circulations of “lad’s mags” has been delivered by the Co-op, which is proud of its ethical approach to business matters and is insisting that the magazines be packed in pre-sealed “modesty bags” designed to obscure the front covers.

Publishers of Loaded, Front, Nuts and Zoo were given until September 9 to comply or be taken off the shelves of 4,000 Co-ops, where many of the stores have low-level shelving units which can easily be viewed by children, who many parents are concerned are becoming sexualised by the proliferation of lewd images. It is an offence to display indecent and obscene matter – that which has a tendency to deprave and corrupt – in a public place. Continue reading

BET ON HARRIET

Plucky and deeply principled government campaigner Harriet Harman, who has tirelessly fought the “blight” of betting shops, courageously gave up her opposition to them when bookmakers Paddy Power gave her 30-year old son Harry a well-paid job in its advertising department in July this year, this reported in The Sun, so it must be true.

Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour party and shadow culture, media and sport secretary, told us all with impressive conviction at the beginning of this year that the proliferation of gambling shops was “causing a blight on people’s lives and on our high streets” and pointed out in 2011 that Paddy Power was targeting poorer areas and the less well-off with its location of shops, having “three in Tottenham High Road but none whatsoever in Highgate Village or Muswell Hill”. Continue reading

NO MORE DUCKINGS IN LIVERPOOL?

A fleet of “Duckmarine” amphibious vehicles used as city tour busses has been repossessed in Liverpool after two incidents where the vehicles, which are supposed to float, sank in the Salthouse Dock.

Tourists loved the splashdown finale in the dock at the end of the road trip but some were less keen on the emergency evacuation experience.

Marketing Matters Sep/Oct 2013 ISSUE 34

HUGE FINE FOR TESCO STRAWBERRY SCAM In a landmark case Tesco have been fined £300,000, and ordered to pay costs of £65,000 after they were caught …

DERAILMENT FOR HIGH SPEED TRAINS PLAN? The all-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published a withering report on the Government’s £50 billion …

NOMOPHOBIA RULES A study by web security company AppRiver has found that despite the amount of easily-exploited and confidential business and personal …

GET ‘EM ON Another blow to the rapidly dwindling circulations of “lad’s mags” has been delivered by the Co-op, which is proud of its ethical approach to business matters and…

BET ON HARRIET Plucky and deeply principled government campaigner Harriet Harman, who has tirelessly fought the “blight” of betting shops, courageously gave…

BETTER LATTE THAN NEVER Those wanting a long life could cut back on their consumption of coffee, a new lifestyle study of 43,727 Americans has warned…

NO MORE DUCKINGS IN LIVERPOOL? A fleet of “Duckmarine” amphibious vehicles used as city tour busses has been repossessed in Liverpool after two incidents…

Event Organisers Update ISSUE 108 September 2013

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS BOYCOTT Free Tibet and other international groups concerned with human rights are calling for a boycott of the IntreContinental Hotels …

ROBBING THE DEAD, AT RYANAIR Those booking flights with Michael O’Blarney’s Ryanair and paying months up front should make sure they don’t then die until 28 days …

I’LL HAVE THE RUMP Bespoke Hotels, which has 15 three and four-star properties in London, the Cotswolds and Scotland, has closed its Gregg’s Bar and Grill at its four …

NICE ONE, FIONA A comment in the Daily Telegraph by presenter Fiona Bruce that redundant St Peters Church, Sudbury, Suffolk was an “empty relic” has upset the local …

FEMALES WIN THE RAT-RACE Women are better at coping with stress, perhaps such as that produced by running events, than men, due to the female hormone oestrogen…

LEND A HAND Before you leave your hotel room do you make the bed, tidy up and wash tea and coffee cups? If so you’re in good company as a survey by online hotel service …

VEGAS HOTEL DEATH RAY TO LONDON A concave-shaped hotel in Las Vegas, the Vdara, which reflected and magnified the suns rays to burn guests in and around its …

CONFER IN A CARBUNCLE? The 234-bedroom Premier Inn in York Road, Waterloo, London has made a shortlist of six for the annual Carbuncle Cup, an award for …

NEW FIVE STAR FOR LONDON Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Square is to become a 100-bedroom five-star hotel. The Grade 1 listed building was built in 1911 to commemorate …