101 dumbest business moments

[wmw999 2,558]

Northwest Airlines gives "how to save money" booklet with tips on dumpster diving to laid-off employees
Andrew Young discusses why Wal-Mart is good for consumers
Glorious nation of Kazakhstan misspells "bank" on its new currency
Radio Shack lays 400 employees off via email

Y'all have fun now, y'hear? This is in Bonfire, not SC

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[karenmeal 0]

NorthWest Airlines really pisses me off. My brother and sister-in-law work for them. You would not believe some of their craptacular policies.

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

[ExAFO 0]

See also:

New Coke
DeLorean
Segway
Yugos

Illinois needs a CCW Law. NOW.

[Richards 0]

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NorthWest Airlines really pisses me off. My brother and sister-in-law work for them. You would not believe some of their craptacular policies.

Sounds pretty sad when they are giving dumpster diving advice to thier employees, but unfortunately that is a sign of the times with most firms. Whats sad is with all the trends towards treating employees like expendable assets, I still hear senior management types bitching about how you cannot find dedicated employees anymore. They can rationalise that the dedication to ones workforce that existed for the boomers is no longer practical in todays economy yet they cannot fathom why they should not still get the same dedication that resulted from such practices.

Incedentally I could not find the word "Craptacular" in the dictionary, so I have to presume it is your own invention. I hope you don't mind if I violate copyright and plagiarise you on that one.

My biggest handicap is that sometimes the hole in the front of my head operates a tad bit faster than the grey matter contained within.

[BillyVance 34]

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See also:

New Coke
DeLorean
Segway
Yugos

I'm not so sure that Segway had a dumb moment... May take a while, but they've got a chance to take over the big cities where people live close to their jobs, such as in Manhattan, etc... but will they become a Fortune 500 company? No...

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Stumpy 284]

Gerald Ratner's "all my jewellery is Crap" moment was a pretty good one.
Or the Enron school of creative accounting

Never try to eat more than you can lift

[Lindercles 0]

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In an August interview with an African American newspaper...

How does a newspaper become African American?

[ryoder 1,590]

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I'm not so sure that Segway had a dumb moment... May take a while, but they've got a chance to take over the big cities where people live close to their jobs, such as in Manhattan, etc... but will they become a Fortune 500 company? No...

Umm....lemme see:
- Costs 5 times as much as my bike.
- Weighs 2-3 times as much as my bike.
- Requires recharging, which limits range, (unlike my bike).
- Has a top speed of 15mph, (my bike can do 30 on the flats, 45 on the downhill).
- Provides no exercise.

Now 'splain to me why I would want one.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[wmw999 2,558]

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How does a newspaper become African American?

Sangiro probably publishes it . He's African, right?

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Lindercles 0]

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Umm....lemme see:
- Costs 5 times as much as my bike.
- Weighs 2-3 times as much as my bike.
- Requires recharging, which limits range, (unlike my bike).
- Has a top speed of 15mph, (my bike can do 30 on the flats, 45 on the downhill).
- Provides no exercise.

Now 'splain to me why I would want one.

You? I don't know. The general public? Because they're lazy bastards.

[BillyVance 34]

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Umm....lemme see:
- Costs 5 times as much as my bike.
- Weighs 2-3 times as much as my bike.
- Requires recharging, which limits range, (unlike my bike).
- Has a top speed of 15mph, (my bike can do 30 on the flats, 45 on the downhill).
- Provides no exercise.

Now 'splain to me why I would want one.

You? I don't know. The general public? Because they're lazy bastards.

Bingo!!!!

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Buried 0]

segways are still going. they were just really expensive and didnt' get to the vision of the creator. It's still amusing to see Chicago police ride around a few areas on their segways. i always want to ask them to try it out, but i doubt that would happen. I think there is a segway store somewhere around chicago..

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[lekstrom10k 0]

I worked on the original De Lorean in Roseville michigan . His head engineer was the only engineer ever fired by American Motors.If he wasnt good enough for them making the Alliance with Frances car company Renault. De Lerium as his wife called him deserved him. As far as the Yugo .it was a 1971 Fiat that still had the dies ready for the scrap yard . They bought, cleaned them .built them then put a Yugo emblem on them and called them Yugos . By the way Fiat is an acronym for "Fix it again Tony" As far as Delorean comig up with the "GTO" another scam . It was another guy on his teams idea that he claimed as his own.. I met him when the first models were cut what a jerk.

[nathaniel 0]

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Now 'splain to me why I would want one.

cuz it's like a scooter, only the wheels are on the sides instead of in the front and the back, and it doesn't go very fast, has terrible range. And you can't sit on it. Although you still get to look like a douche, in that way it's the same as a scooter.

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[FlyingJ 0]

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segways are still going. they were just really expensive and didnt' get to the vision of the creator. It's still amusing to see Chicago police ride around a few areas on their segways. i always want to ask them to try it out, but i doubt that would happen. I think there is a segway store somewhere around chicago..

I don't recall exactly, but I believe NYC adopted legislation outlawing the use of a Segway on the sidewalk. I knew two people that got them when they first came out and they weren't able to use them as easily as they had planned.

Not sure if that is still the case up there.

Killing threads since 2004.

[airtwardo 7]

How about Ford's cost / benefit 'analysis' in regard to recalling... or even informing the general public that ass tapping a Pinto ignites it faster than a gas grill on Superbowl Sunday!

Almost as questionable a 'business decision' as putting Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football!

And hey...

...What ever happened top Ron Co. Spray On Hair?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[happythoughts 0]

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Almost as questionable a 'business decision' as putting Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football!

Remember when they had the former Miss America who was married to the Gov of Tenn ?

Once she was sitting between two ex-player commentators quietly. They did a half-time discussion show. She said nothing until one of them asked her if she had any observations.

She replied that the flower centerpiece on the table was just lovely.

[lekstrom10k 0]

The Pinto that got hit on the ohio turnpike was driven by a girl with three friends at a gut wrenching speed of 20 mph. She never sped up from the toll gate.The guy that hit her was in a full sized Chevy van. He was doing over eighty at night as the speed limit was 75 pre embargo. He had dropped his doobie bent down to pick it up in time to see the rear of the Pinto. Basically having a closing speed of 55, like hitting any parked car it would explode. Not saying it was a great car but to put some rational behind it. Immediately Ford said the Corvair and VW Bug would explode with their front mounted gas tanks into a brick wall. Problem solved.

PS no one has mentioned tho Ronco Pocket Fisherman or Chia pets and pet tocks

[ryoder 1,590]

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The Pinto that got hit on the ohio turnpike was driven by a girl with three friends at a gut wrenching speed of 20 mph. She never sped up from the toll gate.The guy that hit her was in a full sized Chevy van. He was doing over eighty at night as the speed limit was 75 pre embargo. He had dropped his doobie bent down to pick it up in time to see the rear of the Pinto. Basically having a closing speed of 55, like hitting any parked car it would explode. Not saying it was a great car but to put some rational behind it. Immediately Ford said the Corvair and VW Bug would explode with their front mounted gas tanks into a brick wall. Problem solved.

PS no one has mentioned tho Ronco Pocket Fisherman or Chia pets and pet tocks

You sure you have the facts straight about that crash? The most famous Pinto crash happened on Hwy33 between Goshen and Elkhart IN in 1978. That was the one that resulted in Ford facing criminal charges. I remember vividly because I was coming back from Elkhart to Goshen and got stuck in the traffic jam caused by the crash. About two years later I took a job at Goshen Hospital (where the victims were taken) and met people who were working there the day of the crash.

The facts of that crash were that the driver of the Pinto stopped in the righthand lane of a 5-lane 55mph hwy to check if she had remembered to put her gas-cap on at the gas-station she had just left. They were hit by a Chevy van in which the driver was momentarily distracted.

So why didn't they pull off the road instead of stopping in a traveled lane? Because the FUCKING IDIOTS who designed that road put an 8-inch tall curb on both sides all the way from Goshen through the countryside to Elkhart. In my opinon the fools who decided to do that share the blame for the accident. Another effect of those idiotic curbs was to capture water every time there was rain or snowmelt, making the right lane unusable due to hydroplaning.

I found a very good write-up of the legal issues here:
http://www.wfu.edu/~palmitar/Law&Valuation/Papers/1999/Leggett-pinto.html

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.