An appropriate cartoon at War on Guns shows how a store can quickly lose business.
When I was on the hunt for a dive watch, I got the idea to go to Jared because they carry a much larger selection of watches than the local mall. I had never been to one, and as my hand touched the door handle I spotted their "No Guns" sign, making me about-face on the balls of my feet and get back into my car.
The logic of such signs may make sense to some people at first glance, with the desire to not have armed maniacs visiting places that sell expensive jewelry, but they have never considered that said maniacs don't care about the signs during the course of armed robbery, if they are even literate enough to read them to begin with. Like it makes sense to prevent a scumbag from using a firearm to violently steal from a store by posting a sign telling them not to.
But why would someone neeeeeeeed to carry a gun to shop for jewelry? CTone, it just seems so silly! Well, consider that a shopper going into a jewelry store, where merchandise has heavier price tags than say, the dollar store, is very likely to have large amounts of currency on their person; and people leaving the store are likely to have small and highly valuable property in their possession. If you try to think like a criminal, if you were looking for the maximum payout for the holiday season, would you be looking to select a victim from Jiffy Lube, or Jared? Making sense now, huh?
Same thing with banks. Only a criminal would carry a gun to a bank, I've heard it said. Well, that's thinking like a criminal too, as people that harbor that mindset don't see a gun as a defensive weapon for preservation of life, but as an offensive tool to hurt somebody. Shame on you. Sit in a bank parking lot for a couple of minutes and watch who goes in and out. There is a high likelihood that those individuals are flush with cash. A Piggly Wiggly, not so much.
6 comments:
I've discovered that Jareds doesn't actually have prices that are that much better than Tiffany's. Tiffany's has a lot more high end stuff, but for the things they sell that are on-par with Jareds the markup isn't that much greater. And I don't believe Tiffany's has a no guns sign. They definitely have plain clothes, armed security though.
No guns, no business is my rule...
And Tiffanys? Most of the 'security' folks are former Embassy Marines.
I did not know that. It would explain the good dress but projected attitude of "you aren't gonna try anything in here if you know what is good for you."
I didn't know that about Jared's. I'm starting the long search for expensive 'gift jewelry' and can X them off the list right now, which makes my life easier.
I've never even seen a Tiffanys. I might have to check them out one day.
Gerald Ratner, a previous CEO, made possibly the most famous gaffe in twentieth century British business when he explained to a major business conference that the reason why one of his products was so cheap was that it was "total crap". He then went on to unfavourably compare some of the company's earrings with a 99p prawn sandwich. His remarks were gleefully reported by the media, The company lost over 500 million pounds off its share price and consumers subsequently avoided the Ratner branded stores, nearly 300 of which were closed between January 1992 and May 1994 as the group went through a financial restructuring. Ratner resigned in November 1992 and the group changed its name to Signet Group plc in September 1993.
this dude probably thinks those signs are brilliant
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