Final Word from Thursday, April 18, 2013
In the wake of the horsemeat scandal, international grocery chains are facing some of their biggest criticism ever from the Czech media. TV Nova has been picking through rotten produce and confronting store managers with the unsightly results. Czech TV quoted the ČOI retail inspectorate as saying that more than 80% of supermarkets cheat their customers. The biggest violations are higher prices at the register than on the shelves and deceptive discounts. When challenged, the retailers invariably attribute it to the "individual failure" of employees. Yeah, right. When a light-fingered customer is caught stealing, he or she is hauled into a back room, searched, questioned and threatened until the police arrive. Why shouldn't the same be done to, say, GM David Morris of Tesco or GM Jan van Dam of Ahold when one of their stores steals from a customer. What makes them any better than a common shoplifter?[Czech Republic shoplifting Television Stores retailing]
Glossary of difficult words
Correction: The new general manager of Ahold is Jesper Lauridsen.
to detain - to keep someone in official custody, typically for questioning about a crime or in politically sensitive situations;
in the wake of - in the aftermath of; as a consequence of;
produce - (accent on the first syllable) fruits, vegetables; food, foodstuffs;
unsightly - unpleasant to look at; ugly;
Czech TV - see the 27:30 mark;
invariably - in every case or on every occasion;
yeah, right - used to reject a claim in disbelief;
light-fingered - prone to steal;
GM - general manager;
shoplifter - someone who steal goods from a store while pretending to be a customer.