The No Picture Policy and Customer Service
Marketing guru Seth Godin was busted at the Stop and Shop. The store manager intervened as Seth was trying to photograph the 19th flavour of Oreos for use in a presentation. There would be no picture taking in the Stop and Shop without approval from corporate headquarters. To ensure Seth didn’t try again, the manager followed him throughout the store.
Seth got better treatment than my friends and I recieved from Wal Mart.
This was a few years back, now. I was part of a caravan of sci-fi fans, headed to Indianapolis for a Star Wars convention. We’d made a stop at a Wal Mart in Fort Wayne to stock up on munchies for the impending room parties. To our delight, the new action figures had been stocked and a large display of Star Wars merchandise stretched down the aisle. We gathered everyone together to do a couple of group photos in front of the toys. Faster than you could say ‘Cheese‘, security descended upon us.
We were polite and apologetic. It should have been obvious that this rabble of Canadians were not competitors but a group of overzealous geeks on a road trip. But the security guard, decided to give us the bum’s rush, telling us not to return. I guess he felt that ejecting us from the store made more sense than letting us purchase a couple hundred dollars worth of toys, snack foods and sodas. So we sat in the parking lot, amazed that we’d actually been banned from Wal Mart and wondering when our one friend who wasn’t with us during the photo shoot would realize we were no longer in the store and come out so we could get back on the road. Target and Toys R Us ended up the benefactors of our thirst for merchandise.
I know he was speaking to the issue of digital rights management and the internet, but I think Cory Doctorow hits the nail on the head when he says treating your customers like criminals is not a viable business model.
April 24th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
what a great drawing!
thanks