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People Break Down The Stupidest Move A Company's Ever Made

What clown thought that was a good idea?

People Break Down The Stupidest Move A Company's Ever Made
Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash

Running a successful multi-million or billon dollar business is no easy task. It takes an endless well of blood, sweat and tears. The The key to staying powerful as a company is staying innovative and ahead of the curve. Business in all fields morph at a record pace, so you have to think big or go home. Often that BIG thought and plan is lucrative and life-changing for the better and sometimes.... its a disaster and it crumbles a dynasty.

Redditor u/RusherTheBFDIFan wanted to discuss some wrong decisions made by corporations by asking...
Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash

The Ratner

Shocked Bbc Three GIF by BBCGiphy

British businessman Gerald Ratner was the CEO of powerful jewelry company Ratners.

In 1991 he gave a speech to a business forum in which he explained how his company was able to sell its products at such a low price. His words were "because it's total crap." The remarks were televised and widely publicized. Overnight, Ratners lost about £500million of its company value, was forced to rebrand (it's now called Signet) and Ratner was made to resign.

Such a blunder has now entered the English lexicon as "doing a Ratners."

Iamstillnotyourmate

Think about that....

There was a weight loss product called AIDS. When the AIDS disease emerged, they decided not to change the name of the product so as not to compromise its identity. Who would have thought that people no longer wanted to buy AIDS, despite all the success that AIDS has in losing weight?

DELAIZ

The Balmer Bomb

Steve Ballmer didn't take the smartphone seriously, laughed at the first iPhone, and Microsoft has basically become an enterprise services company because of it. A hugely successful one, but that was a huge miss and it cost him his job.

Oh he chose to retire? No. He was gently shown the door.

FizzyBeverage

Sounds like....

Confused Season 1 GIF by ManifestGiphy

Pepsi had a contest in the 1980s where the bottle caps had letters on the underside, and if you spelled your own last name, you won. Of course, the vowels were very rare.

But they forgot about Vietnamese people named "Ng," along with similar Eastern European names. Oops.

DenL4242

Video Down

video games 90s GIFGiphy

Blockbuster basically telling Netflix to go screw itself.

Feralmedic

They absolutely would have f**ked up Netflix. They would have screwed up Redbox if they actually gone through with that purchase, too.

Why would Blockbuster start mailing you videos? It would have made no sense to anyone in that company when there's a Blockbuster within rock-throwing distance of everyone's front porch. They would have never seen the value in the mail-to-home DVD.

Maybe... MAYBE, they use Redbox as a drop-off, but a large portion of their business depended on you going in, dropping off a video, browsing the shelves, and buying overpriced popcorn with your DVD rental.

Mu-Relay

When its too free

McDonald's had a contest where you collected game pieces and if the US won a medal in the Olympic sport on your game piece, you won a prize. I think it was something like:

Bronze = free medium soft drink Silver = free regular size fries Gold = free Big Mac

Russia and East Germany boycotted the Olympics. This was when Russia hadn't split into different countries and they were by far the biggest US rival. It was also when testing for performance enhancing drugs was very unsophisticated... so Russian athletes often had big advantages.

The Redesign

I worked for a Sprint/Nextel dealer in the 2000s. We actually had a couple phones with a Microsoft OS. Think of your Windows desktop with the start button in the lower left. Now imagine that in a flip phone with a tiny screen. It was a pain to use, just a ridiculous design. We sold very few.

Microsoft did a complete redesign with their Windows 7 phones, released in 2010. It was a good design, and a good product, but iPhones and Androids had been around for 3 and 2 years respectively, and the Windows 7 phones were left in the dust.

Similarly, I remember all these teenage girls abandoning their Blackberries when the iPhones and Androids became available.

aRoseBy

$500,000,000? Is that all?

scrooge mcduck 90s GIFGiphy

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005, saw its value rise to over $12B as it became the biggest social media platform by 2008, but then didn't adapt the company to the changing social media landscape that came to be dominated by Facebook and Twitter, and wound up selling it to online ad network Specific Media for $35 million in 2011, a loss of over $500 million (or $11+ billion if you count the company value at it highest point.)

VictorBlimpmuscle

Osbourne Pro....

The Osbourne 1 was the first portable computer, they announced the Osbourne 2 before they'd made a profit on the Osbourne 1, people stopped buying the Osbourne 1 in anticipation of the Osbourne 2 as a result of this there never was an Osbourne 2. The official economic term for announcing a product too early and killing sales (and therefore profits) is called the Osbourne effect because of this. Now that's how to Munson like a pro.

Martipar

Bad Eddie

Frustrated Clint Eastwood GIFGiphy

Sears hiring Eddie Lambert as their CEO. Very long story, but the short is that he used Sears Holdings as his own personal hedge fund, having no desire to actually keep Sears/Kmart profitable, and knowingly and willingly allowed these companies; long established American institutions, to completely go under.

llcucf80

Days of Hoover

British vacuum manufacturer Hoover ran a promotion in the 90s to try and sell off old stock; buy a cheap vacuum, get return flights to the US. They tried to make it difficult to claim the free flights, with some pretty dirty tactics designed to reduce the likelihood of a successful claim on the promotion.

It did not end well, with the company completely misunderstanding of how far a British person will go to get something for, essentially, nothing.

CodyDogg

Pics of the Future

instagram picture GIF by ChallengerGiphy

Kodak owned digital photography but couldn't break the addiction to film revenue to pursue it. I worked with a senior executive who was forced into retirement because he wouldn't shut up about digital being the future.

Vulgarly_dressed

Diggs....

Back in like 2009, Digg.com was the go-to link aggregation website on the internet.

But they revamped their site using a new algorithm that focused on following "power users" instead of just following topics and the users hated it. I'm assuming it also made it much easier to inject sneaky ad content into the feed.

So everyone migrated to Digg's smaller rival, Reddit (which was mostly tech-focused at the time). Reddit exploded after that, and I don't think anyone uses Digg anymore. All because they fucked with their algorithm.

ckuiper

Oh Dell

Dell. Michael Dell didn't think smartphones were a good idea. Then he saw how prevalent they were becoming. Dell then released a Windows 7 phone. Someone else manufactured it and Dell put their logo on it. It was absolute junk and the only carrier Dell could get to sell it was T-Mobile. After sales completely flopped, the phone was discontinued and no longer sold.

Rumor is that Dell had ordered almost 7 figures worth of the phones in anticipation of big sales. All of the discontinued inventory went into the shredder and was recycled. Dell took a big tax write-off and pretended like it never happened.

xlSuperdomelx

Naughty No

Tumblr taking away naughty/NSFW content. If you create a site where people can be themselves, why would you block that?

rickiwwefan

The ironic thing is part of why they banned porn was likely so they could be more appealing for a potential buyout. I'm sure they anticipated some blowback when they did it but couldn't have imagined the mass exodus it resulted in.

DisturbedNocturne

Patty Cakes

Flames Feed Your Happy GIF by Hardee'sGiphy

Hardee's in Australia got caught using dog food in their meat patties back in the 1970s and were forced to close all restaurants and exit the country as a result.

BroadwickStreetDunny

HP Down

Around 2008/2009, while the economy was tanking, HP decided to cut the salaries of all it's employees by 15%. Makes sense, right?

Nope.

The government contracting business was booming in the Washington DC area and was one of their few profitable divisions. They lost 40% of their cleared employees before they sent a VP from California to figure out what was going on. They still haven't recovered from that debacle.

opus_4_vp

The Bottom Line

Shlitz beer decided to cheap out on their product which caused it to have weird slug like growths in the can. They soon folded because no one would drink their product again.

That's what happens when you start caring about the bottom line more than the quality of the product. An interesting article about it, pop up to sign up for their mailing letter is a bit much though

I first learned about it in a business class at my junior college, never actually had the product.

JohnBurgerson

The PC World

When IBM decided to get into PCs they didn't really take it seriously. They always thought that mainframes were always going to rule the day. So, they rushed to get the chips and the OS in deals with Intel and Microsoft. Contrary to deals with previous suppliers IBM did not demand exclusivity from Intel and MS. This let Intel and MS sell their IP to whomever they chose. IBM could have owned personal computing but instead the IBM clones outperformed IBM PCs and IBM is a shadow of their former clout in computing.

HokeyPokeyGuy

Pasty

Giphy

Colgate, the toothpaste and toothbrush company, tried making tv dinners in the eighties.

Aninternerloser

Red Flags That Signal Someone Wasn't Raised Right

"Reddit user spirallinggg asked: 'What immediately tells you that a person wasn't raised right?'"

Two young boys are having a pillow fight
Photo by Allen Taylor

Parents are meant to teach offspring how to survive in this world.

They're meant to guide us on how to be a good member of society.

But either some parents fail, or too many adults don't get the message.

And all that can lead to a mighty dysfunctional adult.

Redditor spirallinggg wanted to hear about the ways we can decipher if others have bad parenting, so they asked:

"What immediately tells you that a person wasn't raised right?"

Basic human decency is a sign of a good upbringing.

Garbage

"They throw trash out a car window."

shershae

"I live on a busy road and I’m so sick of people throwing their trash in front of my house. Some guy tosses out a tall boy beer nearly every workday. I can’t wait to move. Also- so many cigarette butts! We live in a high fire hazard area so I’m worried one of these days they’ll start a fire. I try to go pick up litter twice a month."

Pinkmongoose

Random Aisles

"People who dump refrigerated grocery products on random aisles."

glockops

"I work in a grocery store. The best one I saw was someone who ordered a hot pizza from our pizza station, which is made-to-order. Then abandoned it in the cooler with the refrigerated take-and-bake pizzas we have."

"I get finding stuff from our service case abandoned, it's already cold and our prices are much higher than some people think (the last abandoned item I found was a $20 container of our fresh fruit salad [which comes in pre-cut]), but the pizza station has set menu prices, they should have known what they were getting into before they ordered."

weedtrek

Be Responsible

"Lack of personal accountability. they can never admit wrongdoing on their part. it's always someone else's fault."

Sona-kin

I always told my kids that a mistake doesn't define who you are... but what you do AFTER the mistake DOES. We're human. We're gonna screw up throughout our lives. It's unavoidable. What we can control, however, is choosing to apologize, fix the situation, make amends, etc."

nakedwithoutmyhoodie

Rude

Mean Girls Gossip GIF by Paramount MoviesGiphy

"When they talk badly about someone who hasn’t done anything wrong behind their back."

flowerzforthedead

THIS. I've seen coworkers talking behind the backs of new employees and drawing conclusions about every aspect of their lives. Like, you've seen that person for three days, you MF.

Cold-Load-4388

If you can't say it to their face, then don't say it.

Why do people have to crap talk?

Check Please

Escalate Customer Service GIF by FILMRISEGiphy

"Being super rude to people in any service profession. There is a time and place for actual, appropriate complaints but I see people constantly abuse service staff for no damn reason. Hell, even using 'please' and 'thank you' seems beyond some people. Bums me out."

CaptainLawyerDude

Others

"Lack of consideration for others."

NewVAinvestor1

"A lot of people do not fundamentally understand other people exist. They understand things exist. They understand those things should be referred to as people. But they do not understand those things have an entire existence and experience all their own exactly like them."

Sh3lls

No!

"When they can't take no for an answer."

NerdyPlaneResident

"I'm going to step up and admit to being guilty of this. For the longest time, I had it in my head that persistence pays off. Some of that was pop culture, some of that was tenacity in other areas of my life being rewarded, and then applying that to interpersonal relationships. Older and wiser me, though is more along the lines of learning to let go. It's still a struggle though, working against that original conditioning."

SergeantPsycho

Professions

"When someone looks down at others based on what they do. That just clearly shows that they've learned the same thing from their caregivers."

Leekayleigh_

"Oh yes. My husband took on a second job doing pizza deliveries. A few people laughed at him doing that at his age. They don't laugh when he explains his main job is simple and, deliveries are just driving blasting tunes and adds $900 a month after tax to our income. Then they see all the travel. Usually shuts them up."

CurvePuzzleheaded361

Offensive

For Real Wow GIF by DeStormGiphy

"Zero manners."'

Fuzzteam7

"I took a guy to a family beach condo because he says he never goes to the beach. Let him tag along with our group. Never said thank you one time. I dropped him back off at his house, and I said can you at least say thanks, he was so offended I asked or was trying to force a thank you."

berrey7

"BUT"

"When someone apologizes, and then adds a but onto it. For example, my boss held a meeting among the kitchen staff where he apologized for his attitude, and then added 'But you guys need to understand that I'm a no-bulls**t kind of person.' No sir, that's not how apologies work."

GimmickInfringement1

I hate a BUT.

Either you mean what you offer or don't say it.

man and woman together with boy and girl looking at green trees during day

Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

Parenting isn't a simple job.

The health, safety and well-being of another human being is on the line. Eventually that human will enter society with all the lessons or traumas of their childhood shaping them.

That's a lot of responsibility.

But even the most well-meaning parents can mess up.

Keep reading...Show less
People on a date
Photo by René Ranisch on Unsplash

Though we mean nothing by it, there's no denying the fact that there are some characteristics, personality types, and behaviors that we find to be a total turn-off when it comes to dating.

The difficult part, though, is that what we find to be unattractive might be an unusual or unexpected thing to point out to someone else. To each their own, right?

Curious about what others' expectations were, Redditor DawnOfLegion1 asked:

"What's the weirdest dating requirement you have?"

Similar Intelligence

"He should be as smart as or smarter than me."

"There's no bigger turnoff than a guy who is noticeably dumber and there's nothing hotter than a guy who is particularly intelligent."

- _hootyowlscissors

"I'll second this. If he's slightly less intelligent, I can deal with it (although it IS a turnoff), but I've had friends date hot dumb guys, and I never got the appeal. At all. Even if the guy was sweet, I just kept thinking I would feel like I was messing with the village id**t. Not my thing at all."

- LeRuseRenard

Completely Available

"I require my date to be single. Not 'we have an understanding', not 'she doesn't understand me', and not 'we're separated and neither of us can afford an apartment on our own.' SINGLE. Not married."

"The last time a guy told me that his wife was okay with it, I told him that I wanted to hear those words from his wife. Never talked to him again."

- INobodyisme

Mind the Rules

"No getting up at 6:00 AM to do CrossFit."

"No drinking and driving."

"No crazy ex that seems to hang around with them a lot."

- Haelifae

One Word: Reciprocity

"Not a requirement, but if I paid for dinner, you paying for two ice creams or coffees isn’t all that bad."

- Soup_and_Rice

"Reciprocity."

"The older I get, the more I realize how important it is that they put in as much effort as I am."

"It doesn't have to be the same thing, have your own style; but I can't be doing all the work, all the time."

"This is with money (buy me dinner sometimes, offer to get my drink), sex (I can be a little more dominant, but you have to initiate sometimes, you have to be into it, I can't do all the work), romance or intimacy (reach out and grab my hand to walk, touch my back sometimes), or communication (text me first just to check in, for once)."

- TheLateThagSimmons

Weird Requirement: Weird

"She must be weird. And I mean truly, the kind of weird that makes other men run away."

- Vamluck

Just Equally Weird

"They have to be a little bit pervy and a little bit weird."

- CherryApple89

"When I was younger, if I was at the bar and there was a guy I thought might be fun to talk to, I would walk up and in the sexiest voice, I would tell them they have the hottest knees I have ever seen on a man."

"10 seconds flat, I would know whether they were someone I wanted to get to know. So I think I have the weird thing down."

- Dull-Geologist-8204

The Importance of Quiet Time

"I wanna be able to just chill with them doing nothing. I've been with someone who always had to be doing something and it got exhausting really fast."

- Shatteredfart

Seems Fair

"Not currently recovering from something."

"All tattoos must be spelled correctly."

"Employed."

"Four-tooth minimum."

- Mohawk60

Staying on Equal Footing

"Not sure how weird it is, but my rule is that I pay for myself every step of the way until we decide to become a couple."

"After that, we can split the bills, or take turns treating each other, etc., if that is what we both choose."

"Too many times I let a guy buy me dinner, and it is somehow implied that I now owe him something. Nope. All done with that."

- One-Internet-1982

"As a man, I have a lot of respect for that. I don't mind paying for dates and such, but I always get a bit of an icky feeling when the woman expects or demands it."

"I prefer more of an equal partnership rather than old-school gender roles, and stuff as basic as, 'Hey, you paid for the last date, let me get this one,' goes such a long way, and I feel like it also shows genuine interest from the other person."

- CaptainFresh27

Willing to Try New Things

"No picky eaters. It’s okay if you’re not a foodie, but I like to cook, and if you won’t give my food a chance, it’s not gonna work out."

- Pandaburn

A Lover of Drama

"If your profile says, 'No drama, please,' I immediately assume you are the drama or are too immature to handle life’s normal ups and downs and consider that to be drama."

- WillowWispWhipped

Intense Passion

"I love it when they have a hyper fixation."

- Unlikely-Base-4989

"The ADD/ADHD community loves you back."

- YakitoriChicken93

Knowing Your Own Limits

"No horse girls."

"I've got nothing against it, but it’s always very important to them and I’m too terrified of horses to be properly supportive, lol (laughing out loud)."

- Former-Finish4653

What's in a Name?

"They cannot have the same name as my sister or my mom."

"Alternatively, my name is unisex and a girl with my name is a turn on."

- Smellymyhand

Quite the Commitment

"I've decided that anybody I plan to spend my life with has to be willing to buy and ride a tandem bike with me."

- Sheepherder_7648

Despite the prompt being "weird requirements," some of these make a lot of sense, and more people might be adding these to their list of requirements after reading this.

But others are slightly more unexpected and likely fall under the "to each their own" category.

People on a busy street
Photo by Jason Wong on Unsplash

We all find ourselves having an unexpected run-in with someone we know on the street every now and then.

In some cases, it's a pleasant surprise and plans are immediately made to catch up.

In other cases, you dig out the first excuse you can to keep on moving, as this particular individual was not someone you hoped would re-enter your life.

Then, of course, there are the times you run into an ex.

Whether you ended things amicably or acrimoniously, it's always going to be an awkward encounter.

Just how awkward it will be, however, depends on your reaction.

Redditor rageondad was curious to hear how people would react if they unexpectedly saw their ex on the street, leading them to ask:

"You see your first ex on the street, what do you do?"

Nothing But Happy Memories...

"1st ex: say hi, nice conversation."

"All good."

"2nd ex: hide from her again, like I did that one time at the gas station."- jfg1435

Who?

"Ignore him because he’s not worth saying hi to."

"And I wouldn’t care about him at all."- Big-Elevator2491

One Way To Handle It...

"Start taking a sh*t on the side walk immediately."- ceiling_fanzz

Excuse Me What GIF by BounceGiphy

No Harm, No Foul

"Say hi."- hot-breadfruit_poop

"And ask how they are doing."

"I'm a curious creature, what can I say?"- Lamacorn

Nothing But Excitement

"Give each other a huge hug."

"We're going to see each other next week for the first time in 25 years."

"It'll be good."

"We've remained friends this whole time, so we're both looking forward to it."- riceme0112358

"Say hi, give him a hug, ask him what he's doing in town."- m00nf1r3

Couple Love GIF by PantayaGiphy

Ouch!

"Didn't you die?" -Reddit

"Wonder who dug her up."- 8urfiat

"Walk On By..."

"Just keep walking."- MythicalMicrowave

Walking By Moe Szyslak GIF by Football AustraliaGiphy

Even If It Means J-Walking

"Cross the street."- no_days_grace

Avoiding Your Ex In Five D's...

"Dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge."- catinatank·

The Passage Of Time

"I would wish her well if I recognized her."

"It’s been over 20 years since I’ve seen her."

"It’s not like we parted on bad terms or anything."- Fangsong_37

Lana Parrilla GIF by Paramount+Giphy

Go For The Jugular

"You've sure gotten old."- drpepper1992

About Face

"Run."- saus_blu

Remain Amicable

"Have a chat."

"We are still friends."- Mentalfloss1

Meg Ryan Comedy GIF by Coolidge Corner TheatreGiphy

Of course, the worst element of surprise is having no idea how we might react.

Try as we might to plan just what we'd do should we ever run into an ex, we can't possibly know what will actually happen should that moment arrive.

Though, hopefully it won't ever lead to defecating on the street.