The big bad business of exploiting eager interns for free labour January 27, 2013 THE disillusioned young worker struggles out of bed at dawn and heads off to a menial and mindless job, offering only pitiful pay, poor treatment, and long hours. Happens in Asia, right? Africa? Well it happens here too. I met two people recently with worrying stories. Betti was excited about the world. She had just [...]
Sorry seems to be the sweetest word for some C2C commuters January 24, 2013 THE ART of the official apology is a difficult one to master (see: Tesco’s “hit the hay” tweet and Nick Clegg’s video mea culpa), and rail operators are not known for their human warmth when trains break or go missing. So The Capitalist is heartened to hear of C2C’s act of contrition, which came in [...]
Amazon gains over Christmas January 23, 2013 AMAZON tightened its grip on CD, DVD and game sales at Christmas, taking a quarter of the market at the expense of the high street. Research from Kantar Worldpanel Entertainment found that the online retailer took 23.4 per cent of entertainment sales in the 12 weeks to 23 December, up from 20.3 per cent last [...]
Rose will keep up Ocado’s appearances – but little else January 22, 2013 WHEN Sir Stuart Rose dipped his toe back in the retail waters by becoming chairman of Blue Inc and backing The Hut last year, it should have been obvious he had his eye on bigger things. But why Ocado? This column – not to mention several high-profile City analysts – have long taken a dim [...]
Tesco is already bouncing back from burger debacle January 22, 2013 SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has faced a brand crisis with the revelation that it sold beef burgers contaminated by horse meat in its stores. In such situations, daily tracking of the public’s perceptions of the under-pressure brand really comes into its own. So – how quickly did the news spread and what was the impact on [...]
Tesco in new online push January 21, 2013 TESCO intensified its dotcom push yesterday by opening its fifth “dark store” near Crawley, West Sussex. The dotcom store, which will create 700 jobs, will serve only online shoppers. The supermarket typically offers an instore pick-up service for its online customers, but is ramping up its dotcom store presence thanks to growing demand in and [...]
Fighting against the future can only buy so much time January 21, 2013 THE decision by HMV’s administrators Deloitte to honour gift vouchers and to pay proceeds raised for charity singles is a piece of luck for those caught out by the music chain’s crisis. While at first sight this is less heartwarming for the chain’s other creditors, it may in fact be slightly upbeat news for them [...]
Entertainment pros who thought outside the box January 20, 2013 WHEN Michael Comish and Adrian Letts first met, they prefaced everything they said with “just so you know I’m not stealing your idea, here’s what I think”. They needn’t have worried. What emerged was a concept that seems so obvious now it may leave you pondering that frustrating question: “Why didn’t I think of that?” [...]
Tesco cuts US jobs ahead of exit January 17, 2013 Retail giant Tesco has slashed 50 jobs at its US company Fresh & Easy as it gears up to pull out of North America. Most of the cuts are coming at its head office in Los Angeles. Tesco said: “We have cut a small number of positions in the head office as we continue the [...]
Fiasco over results tests M&S’s loyalty to Tulchan January 17, 2013 THERE is little more certain in life than this: one firm’s misfortune will be seized on by rivals desperate to take advantage of another’s woes. So it is that a host of financial public relation agencies have been bending the ears of Marks & Spencer executives to test the retailer’s loyalty to its incumbent agency [...]