Gerald Ratner was the boss of a successful jewellery firm. Here he jokes about how crap his products are for lols from his elite business audience.
His comments caused a £500m drop in company value and forced his resignation.
Gerald Ratner was the boss of a successful jewellery firm. Here he jokes about how crap his products are for lols from his elite business audience.
His comments caused a £500m drop in company value and forced his resignation.
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It's a shame Martin Bally was unaware of Ratner before he called his company's products 'shit for poor people.'
https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/campbell-soup-executive-allegedly-calls-company-products-sh-poor-people-secret-recording
That’s the news that reminded me of Gerald. They called it a gaff but really he was just recorded saying what he always likely said to his elite chums.
I worked years back at a privately held company worth about $3bil. The owner would hold these 'fancy' company luncheons. He notoriously said the most unthinkable things most of the time at those. Everyone got kinda excited to go and see what would come out of his mouth.
Edit: typo.
Who? What did he say? Why don’t you tell us?
Well, if he's telling the truth, he probably doesn't want to get sued.
he doesn't need to name the company, just relay what was said. "our customers are dupes" or the like.
How?
If he is telling the truth he can’t get sued
Yes they can, doesn't mean the company will win but they can attempt to sue and bankrupt op
How on what grounds?
You don't need grounds to sue someone. It might get dismissed or thrown straight away but that's not the point. You can sue someone and lose but in the process they need to get a lawyer and can go bankrupt with lawyer fees. That's how big companies have got away with things for decades they sue the little guy knowing they can't afford to defend themselves for decades.
"That's how big companies have got away with things for decades they sue the little guy ..."
ah-AH-scientology-choo!
Yes he can. The point is to bankrupt your victim with litigation fees, not to win the case. Usually the victim settles out of court to avoid millions in legal costs.
Settle? What are you talking about?
settle: sɛtl Vb
accept or agree to (something that one considers to be less than satisfactory). "it was too cold for champagne so they settled for a cup of tea"
end (a legal dispute) by mutual agreement. "if the dispute was not settled it was possible there would be strike action"
pay (a debt or account). "his bill was settled by charge card"
Example : McLibel
In 1990, McDonald's brought libel proceedings against five London Greenpeace supporters, Paul Gravett, Andrew Clarke and Jonathan O'Farrell, as well as Steel and Morris, for distributing the sheet on the streets of London. This case followed past instances in which McDonald's threatened to sue more than fifty organisations for libel, including Channel 4 television and several major publications. In all such cases, the media outlets settled and apologised
… for defamation. Most if these companies have their employees sign NDAs which prohibit publishing any info about meetings, etc, and they have lawyers billing by the hour to try and force you into a bad settlement or bankruptcy.
I was waiting too.
Cautionary tales podcast. public speaking episode
Fans of Tim Harford will lover this podcast episode about this speech.
But Ratner's never pretended to be anything else? It was so cheap, it couldn't be anything but crap.
He didn't condescend or insult anyone, he just stated the blindingly obvious.
But it turns out some people get really upset if you don't pretend their tat isn't tat in much the same way some fat people get really upset if you don't pretend they're not fat.
[deleted]
Maybe it was the comments about Indian workers.
He said that Indian people “can’t even think for themselves”. Not a great guy
Because the recording is not leaked or with video, Bally is likely to survive.
It was so bad "Pulling a Ratner" became a term for having a successful business and tanking it by admitting something that ruins your reputation.
[removed]
This world doesn't want honesty. It wants convenience.
Give me convenience or give me death. So sayeth Jello Biafra, who has his own issues with being a dick.
This is extremely accurate.
Had a bunch of colleagues complain about their pay to me for the past a few years, almost on a daily basis. This week the union came by to tell us to vote in favor of striking because for the past few years our effective salary has gone down, due to inflation etc.
All people had to do was scan a QR code and vote. Guess what? Pretty much none of the people that were constantly complaining even voted... When I asked them why, they said it was too much hassle and gave a bunch of other excuses.
It's no wonder the world is the way it is today. People allow themselves to be abused and I don't think it will ever change.
This is one of the most infuriating comments I've ever read, but it doesn't hit like it used to. It's completely unsurprising. I'm not even mad at people being complete imbiciles who can't comprehend the idea of cause and effect anymore. I'm just tired.
Except that this wasn’t about honesty at all. He was basically laughing at how gullible his buyers were to a room full of elites. His comments were supposed to be an inside joke while his actual business was dishonest in nature, upselling low quality merchandise.
Is he though? He's talking about selling $1 earrings
Some people need to learn that you can be honest without being insulting.
And that you believing something doesn’t automatically make it true, nor does you being rich.
Oh, and that sometimes you can even keep your opinions to yourself.
Honesty is the best policy if you're not a massive piece of shit
this wasn't "honesty" per say, it was mocking his own customers with glee to an audience that clearly enjoyed themselves (mostly, note the blonde woman and the one behind her sitting there motionless)
Pulling a Ratner predates this moron by decades, re: Fast Times At Ridgmont High School
People always say that Damone's a loudmouth, and they say that a lot, but I always say hey, you just don't know Damone!
So it's the grand father of "Pulling an Elon."
And yet... while he ended up losing his job as CEO (but not his shareholding), the company carried on. The Ratners stores that didn't close were simply rebranded as H Samuel, still selling the same crap. Between H Samuel and Ernest Jones, they still have a presence on just about every high street in the UK, and the parent company has a market cap of £2.9 billion / $3.8 billion.
Still funny tho.
Ratner's became Signet which now owns Zales, Jared (oh my god he went to Jared??), Kay Jewelers (every kiss begins with Kay) and Blue Nile.
They've always been crap
That's an expensive joke.
That's why people should follow their true passions: sure seems like he wanted to be a stand-up comedian.
it seems like his only mistake was telling people something he assumed they already knew.
who thinks you can get genuine gold earrings for a dollar? lol these customers must have been fucking morons. people still do this today and wonder why so many businesses chase quantity over quality. its because stupid people love to waste their money on cheap garbage.
Theres a difference between you saying it and the ceo saying it.
Ratners was not known for its quality, it was, i quote, "the place where working class boys bought rings for working class girls." The operative word was "affordable."
But once Gerald called it crap, that was it. Affordable no longer, now it was just crap - officially, crap. No working class boy could make a gift of anything from that store. No working class girl would accept it.
The brand had to change its name to get the stink off.
Theres a difference between Campbells selling "budget priced soup" and its ceo calling it "shit for poor people."
there is an optical difference sure, but there is no substantive difference. the product is exactly the same as it was before.
he isnt telling you something new, hes changing how you feel. i think people should be taking more responsibility about their perception of consumerism.
The rather brilliant ‘when it hits the fan’ podcast did a Ratner special, interviewing him. What made it fantastic was the one of the presenters was the then editor of The Sun newspaper the effectively brought him down.
It’s very insightful, as he explains that another joke was pulled by his pr team from that speech, but they thought this one was just light banter and it didn’t even register when being reviewed.
Ratner comes across as intelligent, erudite, contrite and rather humbled by his experiences. He went on to build another multimillion pound business and has a great insight in his several successes and failings.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001trw4
Great listening..
Ratner’s subsequent company is called Signet Jewellers. It owns People’s, Kay, Zales, and a bunch of other popular, accessible, and poor quality jewellery chains
Take her to Jared’s
Jared’s is also a Ratner business
Tim Harford covered this in an episode of his podcast Cautionary Tales
He portrayed the speech in a different light altogether. He said Ratner was standing up for his working class customer base against the elites in the audience at the Royal Albert Hall. A couple of tongue in cheek lines from the speech made the newspapers while the broader context of the speech was ignored
It's a while since that episode came out though, I might be misremembering it, I'll have to go back and listen again
I would love to see the moment where they found out they said something completely stupid. I want a series of photos showing the look on their faces - immediately before and immediately after. I wonder how long it took him to realize that what he said was idiotic. I mean, did he ever realize?
A rare moment when the wealthy actually tell you what they think of normal people. Don’t ever be taken in by their bullshit.
I don't see what's wrong with his comments, to be honest. Like yeah, 99 cent earrings probably aren't all that durable. He's not saying their expensive products are crap.
Sucks about the tanking the company thing, though.