STORES Magazine - September 2008 - (Page 94)

POSTSCRIPT thelastlaugh Walkie Trash Talkie WHEN a child utters his first expletive, there’s always that awkward discussion between Mom and Dad over where the little tyke could have heard such a thing. One West Virginia family knows just where to pin the blame. Deborah Pancaro became curious when she overheard her child’s walkie-talkie picking up phrases like “10-4.” The Fisher-Price toy was supposed to have a range of about 20 feet. As it turns out, it wasn’t only picking up signals from hundreds of miles away, it was intercepting a profanity-laced CB conversation between truckers. “They said, ‘We should go smoke some weed,’ and were talking about being in a strip bar, some really explicit things,” Pancaro says. Sold exclusively at Walmart, the toy is intended to allow children to role-play animal rescues like the Diego character does on the cartoon series “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!” According to Fisher-Price spokeswoman Juliette Reashor, the toy will occasionally pick up transmissions from other products due to a limited number of available radio operating frequencies. Though the product has not been recalled, a note on Walmart’s website says it is being discontinued. faced on the MySpace page of Timothy Tackett, showing the 25-year-old taking a soapy four-minute bath in a utility sink at one of the chain’s Ohio restaurants. In the video, shot by another (former) employee, Tackett refers to himself only as “Mr. Unstable” and appears to be naked. The video was removed within 24 hours, and Tackett says he regrets taking the bath because it led to the firing of the videographer and the restaurant’s shift manager (a Burger King spokeswoman says the two employees involved in the incident were fired and a third quit). The sink, which is used to clean large pieces of equipment, was immediately sterilized. That’s Just Swell HAVE YOU heard about the latest drug to surface at New York’s trendiest night clubs? It’s Preparation H. According to an in-the-know bouncer, young macho men are slathering up their torsos with the hemorrhoid cream in an effort to look “ripped.” According to some reports, this may actually yield results, as shrinking nearby tissue can make muscles appear more defined; body builders have been applying Preparation H to their obliques to take away any lingering water weight before shows. What? No Salisbury Steak? MANHATTAN is home to the $60 burger, the $95 beer and, now, the $30 TV dinner. With a flair for nostalgia, executive chef Andrew Rubin of the Loews Regency Hotel created the feature for one of the hotel’s restaurants. What does one get in a $30 TV dinner? The partitioned trays are made of porcelain; the fried chicken is free range; the cheese in the macaroni & cheese is cheddar Asiago with a Parmesan crust; and the pot roast is braised in a Burgundian pinot noir. A Dirty Deed THE EMPLOYEE handbook outlines the need for good personal hygiene, but one (former) Burger King associate took the suggestion a bit too far. Last month, a video sur94 STORES / SEPTEMBER 2008 WWW.STORES.ORG © The New Yorker Collection 2008 Robert Mankoff from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. http://cartoonbank.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - September 2008

STORES Magazine - September 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Office Depot Unveils First Green Store Dunkin’ Donuts Debuts DDSMART What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Are You a Facebook Fan? RFID Concept2Watch E-commerce Supply Chain Marketing ERP Credit Web Optimization LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Cover Story LP Program Building Biometrics Industry Perspective Customer Service Site Selection E-Commerce LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - September 2008

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