The crazy thing is, the self-deprecating humor could have actually worked well...he was making fun of himself saying what all the others had been saying about him. If he had called his jewelry "total crap", but then followed up by saying something like "in reality though, we give our customers great value and a sense of style at an affordable price point; our customers know we're not the Tiffany's or Cartier, but they can FEEL like high end customers without taking out a 2nd mortgage", he could have really won over his customers. You can make fun of yourself and your brand, but you've got to follow it up with something positive. That was his failure
Temu is also losing a ton of money. But@@christopherborum6551 is absolutely right, Temu customers deserve what they get, including all the Chinese spyware and viruses.
Is it low quality? Or is it just that they obtain clothes and sell them at a model that makes it really cheap. Takes a long time to ship, but as good as any other.
It's also pretty funny how the company went on to recover just as massively as it had fallen-US customers may recognize them as the owners of Zales, Jared (the Galleria of Jewelry!), and Kay Jewelers. If you've ever been in a mall you've most definitely seen at least one of these stores (and probably walked through them as a shortcut around a corner). As of the time of posting this comment their share price on the NYSE is almost $100.
Imagine buying ear rings for less than a sandwich and then being insulted by being called cheap. No, Ratner wasn't wrong, he just wasn't supposed to say the quiet part out loud.
Imagine believing everything you see on UA-cam. That isn't what happened. The core business was not £1 earrings. That was a gimmick to get young girls in and then retain them as customers or upsell them. People are not morons if they sold £1 earrings they would understand it was a market stall situation. They offered interest-free credit and were the number one place for working-class people to buy engagement rings the price range was around $400+ in modern American money. People bought 18th birthday gifts for their kids etc The issue was that his speech mocked his customers and said he sold crap. Everything was suddenly seen as crap, the brand name was seen as crap. No girl wanted a $1000 engagement ring from Mr Crap. They used Zsa Zsa Gabor in their adverts and tried to sell working girls diamonds and get them to take credit. People were angry ay his smug attitude and everyone wanted him to fail for it.
Honestly the jokes were funny, but the delivery sounds like it came from a comedian making fun of a large corporation, not the CEO making fun of his own company 💀
I remember this, Although it was 1991. it still has the worst cringe of the 1980's about it. Alot of people bought gifts, guys for their girlfriends mainly. only to find this out later.
It was an 'admission' that he was fooling you. People don't like to feel fooled. Very low value items _can_ nevertheless be 'good for their price.' He implied they weren't even that..
So not a bad joker, but just brutally honest. He must be amazed that his jokes were so revealing to his customers. He must have thought that people must have known that for years. I’m sure he was just utterly surprised to find that some actually thought his jewellery was genuine.
Its all about perception. I expect most people bought it knowing that it was cheap and not genuine, but that's ok because the stuff mostly use to compliment the rest of their outfit (which probably wasn't expensive either, but good fun). But if the CEO confirms that it just crap... so you are wearing crap... what do expect?
My feeling is that he assumed no one outside of the businessmen he was addressing would have any interest in what he had to say and he was being "one of them" by being frank about his business model.
@@bryede - I mean, this is probably it. While TV was well established and news outlets were a thing, how likely do you think it'd be that you go to a business conference, tell a speech, and it becomes huge news? Probably also combined with the fact that he assumed even if customers did somehow hear about it, people must know he was cutting corners somehow to bring them jewelry that cheap. Main thing I notice is he's not directly putting anyone down for only being able to afford cheap jewelry, he's just blunt - yes it's cheap, no it's not as well made as the expensive pieces; what do you expect?
Ratner definitely understood something others obviously did not. That there are more poor people than rich ones, and they want to look fashionable too.
Same principle with budget airlines. The experience might be much worse than their luxury competitors, but they have access to a huge demographic that their high-end rivals can't tap into.
A little unfair - as a speech it was successful, you can hear that in the reaction from the audience. He was just foolish for not realising this wasn't just a private chat between himself and a group of his peers, it was being recorded.
i'd still argue that the speech was a failure. Sure his peers enjoyed it at the moment but I can't imagine any of them looking back at it weeks later and thinking the speech was a good idea. Not all speeches are memorable but I think what makes or breaks a speech is its lasting effects. Things EVENTUALLY worked out in the end but I'd still say the speech was bad overall. People to this day look at it as a thing not to do.
Ratner told the truth but his sin was being totally out of touch with his average customer and their whole reason for buying his products. He was already widely known for his many discount jewelry chains, it wasn't a secret. He made a lot of money selling cheap baubles to poor people, typically women, who wanted to feel they were buying something luxurious without actually spending 5-figures for fine jewelry. Same reason Walmart has a jewelry counter. It's not evil, it's just not high quality merchandise, and he assumed (very stupidly) that his customers were also savvy to this concept and accepted it. Truth is they hadn't: him joking about it ACTUALLY being crap (and not luxurious) immediately sent all these millions of housewives into a panic - their self-perception of themselves as "wealthy" for owning his products was broken by even the mere possibility that he was telling the truth. They couldn't possibly be seen with his stuff in front of their friends, now! It destroyed the fragile self-illusion that had underpinned his sales. Never shatter your customers' self-illusions, it upsets them.
Yep. This video has some straw men and a red herring. His joke landed fine. The cat merely got out of the bag. Good jokes... unremarkable speech... wrong post-venue. People's lack of order of reasoning is scary.
“Success?” Thats like saying, it didn’t suck because everyone there was a sociopath. Like, he was successful at being a monster, success becomes a very ugly word. It is more than fair to call it a failure. And the narrator said it was a success at the conference, so not sure what your point is.
@@ihatespam2 Umm. You're getting a little weird about the "success" thing. Take it easy. And, na... the 'narrator' made straw men, *and was poor at making distinctions about what occurred venue and post-venue.
I used to work for Zales jewellers, owned by Ratner in UK. He sold in three tiers, Ratners for the lower end of the market i.e the working class. Ernest Jones for the middle market i.e the middle class and Zales for the high end market. The same pieces would be in all 3 level of shops but for different prices. We were told to attempt to sell items together, if a customer wanted a certain pair of earrings there was always a matching necklace and bracelet. Our manager went to pick a ring up from the warehouse, it was £30 in the shop we would sell it for £300. This is how he made his fortune.
That's an interesting story, and I believe you 100%. I heard a similar tale from a bespoke tailor who visited a men's suit factory in China, where suits off the same assembly line were variously being finished with designer names like Hugo Boss or Zegna for some, while others from the same batch got various generic High Street affordable menswear labels sewn into them. So the same suit from the same factory in China might cost you $200 or over $1000 depending where you went!
How about rather, don't assume that your customers are self aware and are not deluding themselves into believing that they're buying treasures for pennies. Man, if the CEO of Walmart said this, Americans would nod their heads and say, "Yep, it's crap, but it's cheap!"
I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s a lot of thrifty shoppers that thrive on the idea that their cheap buys are just every bit as good as the name brands. Just ask any Aldi shopper, they’re proud to boast that their groceries are both tasty & cost less. Consumers want to feel smart for finding the good bargain. Ratners customers knew it wasn’t genuine, but they were proud to know they could get a product that functioned precisely the same while wisely saving money. It ain’t fun to get that feeling swiped away from you.
@@stephenboulden4074 "tasty" is the key difference. that's a positive adjective. if Aldi said "our food is crap" the result wouldn't be the same. that being said, I don't see the problem with acknowledging when something is crap. jewelry that is 1% the price of the competitor is likely crap. Because duh. this guy was simply roasting himself, the fact that people were offended is stupid (unless there were relevant jokes left out of the video). but... it's 100% believable
@@tesseract5569 And a place that sells baubles for less than a pound should be considered the same as Wal-Mart. If someone truly, honestly, legitimately believes they were getting the same *THING*... as opposed to the same *LOOKING* thing... as the "real" jewelers... they should be mad at themselves, not at the merchant being honest about his crap products. Sincere question: Did he advertise that he was selling stuff that was legitimately the same or "you'll never know the difference" type advertising?
Years ago, my first wife used to buy very cheap dress jewellery from a small shop. It was nice looking junk, however the shopkeeper didn't pretend it was anything but just that.
One good thing about Martha Stewart and her line of goods for K-Mart is she made a point to say that even the consumer who doesn't have much money deserves to have nice things. She treated her lower income customers with dignity, unlike this jerk.
It is remarkable to hit absolute rock bottom and then be able to get your stuff together and rise again, and even leverage your misadventure as a tool to help yourself and others at the same time. Respect
In his defense, jewelry doesn't need to be expensive. Jewlers just say it should be. If I am not mistaken, there is a story about diamonds that explains it.
Diamonds are not rare. Their scarcity is artificially generated by DeBeers, who cornered the market on them and keeps the price artificially high; especially since diamonds can now be created in labs.
I’ll be honest… I kinda like Ratner’s honesty here. Those consumers HAD to have known what they were buying. He didn’t really make jokes at the expense of the consumers, he was just being real about the quality of his product lmao which was reflected by the price, it seems.
He was clearly mocking them for buying his junk. If he were honest his store should have had signs that said buy our crap it won't last long. He manipulated them in store, then laughed at them on television in front of millions...thats why it folded so fast..based on your comment I see that have the same mindset as the ones in attendance at his speech. No doubt a uptight person who hhasn't struggled for anything 😅😂
There's a difference between buying something cheap but good looking, knowing you're getting something of questionable quality, making that choice with price in the equation and hearing that the person who sold it to you has said he's knowingly sold you junk and implying that you were too stupid to understand what you were buying. He made his customers the butt of a joke and nobody enjoys feeling like somebody is laughing at them - particularly when they've helped that somebody to a successful and very comfortable life.
discount stores need to promote their products as good value for money. Look at Aldi - most people would agree their stuff is of decent quality and yet is cheaper than the rivals, not necessarily because the products are poorly produced, but because they are produced efficiently. Telling everyone your product is actually just tat breaks the idea of them being good value for money
@@samfitzpatrick7891 yeah I can see this part. Even if you know you’re buying something cheap, I guess it’s still a little much for the guy who made it to really drive home how crappy the product is
@@jerrywhite8915 well I didn’t know about the manipulation in-store (i just listened to this so maybe there were some photos I missed), I thought he made it pretty clear that it was cheap glass goods, but I do see what others are saying about there being a point where a line has been crossed from honest to a little TOO honest to the point of disrespectful. I guess the joke would have landed better if this wasn’t in front of a bunch of other haughty business owners. You’re making a lot of assumptions about me based on one comment. I’m a socialist who grew up impoverished lol and I hate even moreso when grifters on the surface present a product as life-changing and innovative when it’s just cheap trash. Trust me, I hate throwing a rich guy a bone, but at least he admitted it in front of everyone 🤷♂️
The lesson here is that many people want cheap, tacky junk in a trashy environment, but very importantly they want to delude themselves into thinking they are buying expensive, quality items in a classy environment.
Well you'd have to talk to every western countries leaders & businesses who get ridiculous amounts of tax cuts & sold our livelihoods to China so they can all get rich off cheap crap
😂 that's a twist They didn't know why they paid to be there they just knew they was expecting one thing and something else actually ( a mistake a misfortune ) happened
Having never heard this story before, i feel pretty bad that this is how his speech turned out. Its a shame that people criticize this self depreciating honestly about their products and instead prefer charlatans who consistently over promise and under deliver. I'd rather a harsh but charming truth over a gilded self serving lie.
I love your channel. You hit just the right tone and have a real feel for your subject matter. I especially appreciate how you don't feel like you have to inflate 15 minutes of great storytelling into 30 minutes with pointless filler. Have you considered doing The Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, Ca.? Seems like the sort of story you are best equipped to tell.
@@Rage_Harder_Then_Relax I think they just rebranded, did not loose it. Pretty sure they are still trading successfully. VW Group killed many people with false emissions.... no one gives a fuck..... But don't call my $1 jewellery garbage..... WTF???
Customers think they're getting something better than total crap. The rubbish jewellery was no different the morning after. It was the customers perception that was changed overnight
Nice one mate. And just as an aside, thanks for hiring an illustrator and not doing the generic, tedious and horrible AI-generated imagery almost every other youtuber has gravitated towards.
> Sells gold earrings for less than a pound. That's cheaper than a prawn sandwich. At least it'll last longer than the earrings. I've never cringed so much for a joke.
If "Fascinating Failures" ever becomes a real series, I'd love to see an episode on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7! I know that story's been done to death at this point, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to hear your unique take on it!
Humility and self-deprecating humor is one thing. Being too honest about your shady business will have consequences. This is why McDonald's never joked about the cheap quality of their food. Even though we know it's true, as customers we want the dignity of purchasing a decent product. If you, the CEO, are telling customers that they're buying crap, they'll believe it.
I despise this fact of human psychology. Being "too honest" will almost always result in a negative result. When making a dating profile or an online sales ad, the less you put, the better the result (most of the time). Resumes, job interviews... Everywhere you look people are encouraged to embellish and "stretch the truth." All because people are fickle and generally lazy (read: they would rather write something off at the first sniff of uncertainty than look deeper or wait and see)
@Trenz0 I don't think this guy's painting the whole picture; Customers don't mind buying crap sometimes because life is often crappy, but if even the CEO is having a laugh at their expense over how bad of an illusion they are buying into is, ...then they get worried about what everyone else in the world might know about how dumb they are on top of that, and they cut off such a risky decision. He should have realized what his real product was; he wasn't selling look- a- likes, he was selling a lifestyle illusion, but then swiftly broke that illusion himself,... jarring people back to reality. A great salesman, who was able to sell more people than ever on the idea that his company was simply not worth it!
my mum and some of her friends genuinely went out and bought some ratners stuff when they hadn’t before after this speech bc they thought at least he was honest. they knew that the stuff they could afford wasn’t high quality and thought it was refreshing to hear people acknowledge it
What this is really telling us is that most people prefer BS to truth and really hate it when they find this is true about themselves. People complain that marketers never tell the truth. Well, that's their job. They are supposed to get you to buy something for as high a multiple of what it cost to make as possible. Truth doesn't enter into it. And we buy these things knowing this full well. They got angry because he made clear he'd BS'ed them into buying his crap.
Im confused, how did those people not know that they were buying junk? As stated in the video, a normal pair of earring would cost 300 pounds. Thats a massive difference from 1 pound. If the owner of dollar tree told me that the $1 toy i bought there was garbage id kinda be like, duh, tell me something i dont know. Thats why it only costed $1.
Because you can’t see the difference visually, and people who buy those fantasy jewelry was confident using those items. But when the owner says that you are wearing junk, you hurt the buyer self steam and they stop buying it.
Because people are stupid, that's why. Surely if someone buys "gold jewellery" at a price that is a miniscule fraction of the price of gold itself, and still think that the jewellery is genuine gold, there can be no other explanation.
My ex was a PR Director for - let’s just say “Company I”. She wrote a speech for the CEO to be delivered to an all-hands meeting informing them that the company was being sold to “Company B”. This was to affect everyone at this meeting. Most would lose their jobs. He essentially threw most of the speech out, and ended up explaining to all the employees that he, and the other company’s top man went out on a bender one night, and decided for “B” to buy out “I”. He laughed, saying “….whew, what a night…” You can imagine the response. Okay. Sell your company. But maybe be humane how you tell your employees? This man retired, lived a life of luxury, and left hundreds of families devastated.
So excited when I clicked this and heard your voice. I never miss a fascinating horror video and I’m excited to hear you tackle some different subject matter!
Being able to talk down about yourself in a joke is a goddam art form; you can't just throw some in and hope for the best. It's insane that nobody stopped him.
Electrolux vacuum makers decided and then spent millions and millions of pounds on a massive advertising campaign in America. Absolute disaster/ failure mistake by using the the words "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux." They didnt realise that sucks in America means bad.
This is among the greatest stories I've ever seen. It teaches so much in so little time, it's like wrapping up every success book in the world and delivering it in a ten minute account. For him that has ears, let him hear.
Excellent content all round. I hadn’t heard of this in Australia but it is quite an extraordinary misfire. I recall an Australian politician, Alexander Downer, who all but had his party’s leadership in the bag for a federal election and looked ready to be the next PM when he delivered speech on his party’s anti domestic violence campaign called ‘The things that matter’. He referred to it as something that probably should’ve been called, “the things that batter”. He never became PM, though he did become a successful minister in cabinet years later.
Makes me think of Clayton Williams, 1990 candidate for governor of Texas who was stupid and messed-up enough to not only tell a joke comparing bad weather to _rape_ , but to do so in an environment with many folks in attendance, reporters included. It tanked his candidacy because in addition to showing he was not a great guy, it demonstrated his poor judgment, not exactly a characteristic one seeks in a governor... or at least, back then my state wasn't looking for that. These days, it seems like too many Texas voters want a full-on sociopath in the governor's mansion: we've got a guy in there now who is essentially said that he'd be fine assassinating migrants at the border if only our pesky president didn't term that "murder" (because it is).
Lots of pi s in UA-cam videos are created in no time with AI. Why would a content creator waste time and money doing it the hard way that costs more and takes more time?
3:27 i must say i was wondering who he was going to turn out shaking the hand of and this... did not disappoint 😭a fun departure that's eerily similar to the disaster stories we're used to, I like this video !
I clicked on this because I was interested in the thumbnail. Upon watching this, I instantly recognized your distinctive voice. And, just like in Fascinating Horror, the video was extremely interesting. Thank you, and I will be watching these videos, too! New subscriber!
I love your story telling! This could easily be a FH story, in my opinion. As someone with a paralyzing fear of public speaking, I can't imagine anything worse with a speech than for it to go down in history as horrendous failure, such that people would be making videos about it 23 years later.
It was not the first time Ratner had given the 'crap' speech and each time it had been well received. His mistake was not the speech, but misjudging the journalists in the audience who chose to put a catchy headline spin on the 'crap' comment. The speech was aimed at the people in the room and it worked well, the problem was the wider audience that he had not accounted for and the negative presentation that journalists gave it.
This would not happen today. We have CEOs literally saying more or less the same thing. Bootlickers still cling to em. Rich people today will ALWAYS have fans with no self-respect no matter how horrible they are.
I've heard the advice about talking about your product in such a way but didn't know there was such a shining example of what happens when someone actually does it.
So as a joke, he said that his merchandise was crap, and that it wouldn't last as long as a sandwich. See, THIS is what the teachers in his school were talking about.
I was SO furious that someone had essentially "Chinese knock-off"ed your "Fascinating Horror" channel, I was ready to give you SUCH shit. Like, right down to the last DETAIL?!? Then the voice-over started. Never a better feeling, for me, than being wrong. 😆
*pound The value of 1 pound in the 90s floated around 1.5 dollars, so it'd be more like you buying jewellery for 70 cents and someone calling you out for buying turds
Oooh I love a bit of schadenfreude! I’ve been a long time subscriber to Fascinating Horror and was thrilled to see this video come up in my recommended. A whole new channel to binge on 🙌🏼 thank you, your videos really are fascinating :)
I mean.. I gotta give him props for pulling his shit together eventually and making something positive. I’m not sure I would have been able to recover if I had blundered so badly!
The US Marines used to have a recruiting slogan, "We're looking for a few good men." I worked for a company that was having a lot of trouble with customer service, and it occurred to me that our company catchphrase could be, "We're looking for a few good customers. The ones who will patiently put up with anything, no matter what!"
Nice! I didn’t know you had a second channel. Made it through you saying the date and had to pause to check the channel info because I was worried someone was ripping off your work and I’d somehow just missed this video. Yay, double the Fascination!
He's just lucky he had _some_ natural talent because after a "crash & burn" like that, I would think most humans would be unrecoverable. I would think that must be one of the _worst_ feelings possible...to have it _ALL_ one day and lose it all the next.
This was excellent. In addition to the fascinating cautionary tale, I like the narrator, who speaks with clarity and vocal timbre that is pleasing to listen to.
In this vein - would love to see this channel cover the story of the woman who wrote some comments on social media, boarded a 10-hour flight and by the time she'd landed, her post had gone viral, hit the mainstream media and she'd lost her job. Or something like that.
In Ratner's defense, not only do I think his jokes were rather funny, but more than that, they were honest. I can understand that his customers weren't laughing, but then again, did they REALLY think that the jewelry they spent an ENTIRE POUND on, was anything but crap? They bought it because they were cheapskates. And at least Ratner had the courage to admit as much.
I can't remember the context in which the remarks were made, but didn't Alan Sugar say some pretty bad things about his products and the people who bought them?
No one would have cared if it wasn't for the media spin. No one really thought they were getting amazing jewellery for such a low price, it's that the media told them that Ratner thought they were idiots.
Ratner was talking to a large but select audience, with which he was hoping to "fit in". Clearly, he did not expect what he said to get as widely disseminated as it was- hardly the first or only person THAT has ever happened to. I feel for the guy, because he didn't actually do anything wrong, just ill-advised. Respect for how he was able to start ANOTHER successful business eventually.
I mean. There are companies who have done worse, been called out, not even acknowledged it, and continued making a profit. So at least this guy tried! I appreciate you Mr. Ratner!
He got rich by undercutting snobs, and then lost it all trying to curry their favour. Very poetic.
That’s a good way of putting it!
That's a good read.
Well put 😊
EXACTLY!
The crazy thing is, the self-deprecating humor could have actually worked well...he was making fun of himself saying what all the others had been saying about him. If he had called his jewelry "total crap", but then followed up by saying something like "in reality though, we give our customers great value and a sense of style at an affordable price point; our customers know we're not the Tiffany's or Cartier, but they can FEEL like high end customers without taking out a 2nd mortgage", he could have really won over his customers. You can make fun of yourself and your brand, but you've got to follow it up with something positive. That was his failure
"People say, `'How can you sell this for such a low price?', I say, 'because it's total crap.'" - Temu's business model in a nutshell. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
bwahahaha
Anyone who buys anything off Temu deserves everything they get
Temu is also losing a ton of money. But@@christopherborum6551 is absolutely right, Temu customers deserve what they get, including all the Chinese spyware and viruses.
Is it low quality? Or is it just that they obtain clothes and sell them at a model that makes it really cheap. Takes a long time to ship, but as good as any other.
@bluest1524 Everything I've ever seen is schlocky, low-quality, dropship rubbish. But your experience may differ.
It's also pretty funny how the company went on to recover just as massively as it had fallen-US customers may recognize them as the owners of Zales, Jared (the Galleria of Jewelry!), and Kay Jewelers. If you've ever been in a mall you've most definitely seen at least one of these stores (and probably walked through them as a shortcut around a corner). As of the time of posting this comment their share price on the NYSE is almost $100.
Oh wow! Okay, I knew these stores had to have stores in America. I remember all these stores!
Ah yes, places I don’t shop because I love my wife.
Gross. Really. Sounds like this is revisionist.
OMG! This blew my mind!
Don’t those stores sell fine jewelry?
Imagine buying ear rings for less than a sandwich and then being insulted by being called cheap. No, Ratner wasn't wrong, he just wasn't supposed to say the quiet part out loud.
Cognitive dissonance is truly an amazing thing.
Imagine caring about imagining how people felt about buying affordable jewelry.
The problem was not so much being called cheap, it was suggesting his customers were easily fooled.
Imagine believing everything you see on UA-cam. That isn't what happened.
The core business was not £1 earrings. That was a gimmick to get young girls in and then retain them as customers or upsell them. People are not morons if they sold £1 earrings they would understand it was a market stall situation.
They offered interest-free credit and were the number one place for working-class people to buy engagement rings the price range was around $400+ in modern American money. People bought 18th birthday gifts for their kids etc
The issue was that his speech mocked his customers and said he sold crap. Everything was suddenly seen as crap, the brand name was seen as crap. No girl wanted a $1000 engagement ring from Mr Crap.
They used Zsa Zsa Gabor in their adverts and tried to sell working girls diamonds and get them to take credit.
People were angry ay his smug attitude and everyone wanted him to fail for it.
I'm terrible at making jokes but shouldn't the obvious punchline have been "why don't you try wearing a prawn sandwich in your ear then?"
Finally, I can listen to your voice without being scared of buildings
I don't understand😕
@@gothnerd887 watch Fascinating Horror
Or bridges, trains, airplanes, boats, walkways, stairs..
@@gothnerd887Go find @fascinatinghorror and you’ll understand. You’ll thank me. Or not.
@@gothnerd887On his other channel, fascinating horrors, he tells fascinating horrors like horrible accidents involving falling buildings.
Honestly the jokes were funny, but the delivery sounds like it came from a comedian making fun of a large corporation, not the CEO making fun of his own company 💀
Yup. He came across as a drunken best man at his (soon-to-be-former) best friend's wedding.
Jokes and delivery were solid. I was expecting way worse from this vid.
I understand how it could’ve insulted some people, but it was still funny regardless. People need to lighten up.
I remember this, Although it was 1991. it still has the worst cringe of the 1980's about it.
Alot of people bought gifts, guys for their girlfriends mainly. only to find this out later.
It was an 'admission' that he was fooling you.
People don't like to feel fooled.
Very low value items _can_ nevertheless be 'good for their price.'
He implied they weren't even that..
So not a bad joker, but just brutally honest. He must be amazed that his jokes were so revealing to his customers. He must have thought that people must have known that for years. I’m sure he was just utterly surprised to find that some actually thought his jewellery was genuine.
@@eedwardgrey2but the lower classes love tacky garbage. That’s just a fact.
Its all about perception. I expect most people bought it knowing that it was cheap and not genuine, but that's ok because the stuff mostly use to compliment the rest of their outfit (which probably wasn't expensive either, but good fun). But if the CEO confirms that it just crap... so you are wearing crap... what do expect?
My feeling is that he assumed no one outside of the businessmen he was addressing would have any interest in what he had to say and he was being "one of them" by being frank about his business model.
@@bryede - I mean, this is probably it. While TV was well established and news outlets were a thing, how likely do you think it'd be that you go to a business conference, tell a speech, and it becomes huge news? Probably also combined with the fact that he assumed even if customers did somehow hear about it, people must know he was cutting corners somehow to bring them jewelry that cheap. Main thing I notice is he's not directly putting anyone down for only being able to afford cheap jewelry, he's just blunt - yes it's cheap, no it's not as well made as the expensive pieces; what do you expect?
@@bryede 💯
Ratner definitely understood something others obviously did not. That there are more poor people than rich ones, and they want to look fashionable too.
2deep4u
Same principle with budget airlines. The experience might be much worse than their luxury competitors, but they have access to a huge demographic that their high-end rivals can't tap into.
But cheap jewelry is nonsensical. Unlike with other products, no one brags about wearing cheap ones compared to getting a cheap flight
Isn't the present world's richest person is a luxury brand owner? Same shit!!
I really like the idea of you doing "fascinating failures " I would love to see more of these. ❤
I second that.
I agree!
Yeah, there has to be many fascinating examples out there. I really enjoyed this video.
A little unfair - as a speech it was successful, you can hear that in the reaction from the audience. He was just foolish for not realising this wasn't just a private chat between himself and a group of his peers, it was being recorded.
i'd still argue that the speech was a failure. Sure his peers enjoyed it at the moment but I can't imagine any of them looking back at it weeks later and thinking the speech was a good idea. Not all speeches are memorable but I think what makes or breaks a speech is its lasting effects. Things EVENTUALLY worked out in the end but I'd still say the speech was bad overall. People to this day look at it as a thing not to do.
Ratner told the truth but his sin was being totally out of touch with his average customer and their whole reason for buying his products.
He was already widely known for his many discount jewelry chains, it wasn't a secret. He made a lot of money selling cheap baubles to poor people, typically women, who wanted to feel they were buying something luxurious without actually spending 5-figures for fine jewelry. Same reason Walmart has a jewelry counter. It's not evil, it's just not high quality merchandise, and he assumed (very stupidly) that his customers were also savvy to this concept and accepted it.
Truth is they hadn't: him joking about it ACTUALLY being crap (and not luxurious) immediately sent all these millions of housewives into a panic - their self-perception of themselves as "wealthy" for owning his products was broken by even the mere possibility that he was telling the truth. They couldn't possibly be seen with his stuff in front of their friends, now! It destroyed the fragile self-illusion that had underpinned his sales. Never shatter your customers' self-illusions, it upsets them.
Yep. This video has some straw men and a red herring.
His joke landed fine. The cat merely got out of the bag.
Good jokes... unremarkable speech... wrong post-venue.
People's lack of order of reasoning is scary.
“Success?” Thats like saying, it didn’t suck because everyone there was a sociopath.
Like, he was successful at being a monster, success becomes a very ugly word.
It is more than fair to call it a failure. And the narrator said it was a success at the conference, so not sure what your point is.
@@ihatespam2 Umm. You're getting a little weird about the "success" thing. Take it easy.
And, na... the 'narrator' made straw men, *and was poor at making distinctions about what occurred venue and post-venue.
I used to work for Zales jewellers, owned by Ratner in UK. He sold in three tiers, Ratners for the lower end of the market i.e the working class. Ernest Jones for the middle market i.e the middle class and Zales for the high end market. The same pieces would be in all 3 level of shops but for different prices. We were told to attempt to sell items together, if a customer wanted a certain pair of earrings there was always a matching necklace and bracelet.
Our manager went to pick a ring up from the warehouse, it was £30 in the shop we would sell it for £300. This is how he made his fortune.
Shylo*ks, jewelry, names that end with Z. They all go together. Interesting that UA-cam bans the word shy-lahk.
That's an interesting story, and I believe you 100%. I heard a similar tale from a bespoke tailor who visited a men's suit factory in China, where suits off the same assembly line were variously being finished with designer names like Hugo Boss or Zegna for some, while others from the same batch got various generic High Street affordable menswear labels sewn into them. So the same suit from the same factory in China might cost you $200 or over $1000 depending where you went!
Fleecer!
@@tomasviane3844 I don’t have any sheep 🤷♂️
@freebeerfordworkers and the same mango chunks that sell in Aldi for £1.80 are £3.50 in m and s.
How about rather, don't assume that your customers are self aware and are not deluding themselves into believing that they're buying treasures for pennies. Man, if the CEO of Walmart said this, Americans would nod their heads and say, "Yep, it's crap, but it's cheap!"
I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s a lot of thrifty shoppers that thrive on the idea that their cheap buys are just every bit as good as the name brands. Just ask any Aldi shopper, they’re proud to boast that their groceries are both tasty & cost less. Consumers want to feel smart for finding the good bargain. Ratners customers knew it wasn’t genuine, but they were proud to know they could get a product that functioned precisely the same while wisely saving money. It ain’t fun to get that feeling swiped away from you.
@@stephenboulden4074 "tasty" is the key difference.
that's a positive adjective.
if Aldi said "our food is crap" the result wouldn't be the same.
that being said, I don't see the problem with acknowledging when something is crap.
jewelry that is 1% the price of the competitor is likely crap. Because duh.
this guy was simply roasting himself, the fact that people were offended is stupid (unless there were relevant jokes left out of the video). but... it's 100% believable
That's the thing though, Walmart isn't supposed to be a luxury item shop
@@tesseract5569 And a place that sells baubles for less than a pound should be considered the same as Wal-Mart.
If someone truly, honestly, legitimately believes they were getting the same *THING*... as opposed to the same *LOOKING* thing... as the "real" jewelers... they should be mad at themselves, not at the merchant being honest about his crap products.
Sincere question: Did he advertise that he was selling stuff that was legitimately the same or "you'll never know the difference" type advertising?
Years ago, my first wife used to buy very cheap dress jewellery from a small shop. It was nice looking junk, however the shopkeeper didn't pretend it was anything but just that.
I bought my first girlfriend a gold necklace from Ratners. Not knowing the reputation they had, I had no idea why she split up with me shortly after.
Sounds like you missed a bullet there. Dont need a woman who will dump you over something as petty and shallow as a necklace
She obviously sold it and went to live in Barbados
Count your blessings
Just a coincidence?
I was the girl and I sold it for a gas station honeybun
Stories like this are so fascinating. They're "firsts." They're why we behave the way we do today. This is why "corporate speak" was invented.
OMG I bought these golden diamond earrings and now you're telling me they are crap!!!! I want my 95 pence back!!!!!
I bet they are collectable items now?
One good thing about Martha Stewart and her line of goods for K-Mart is she made a point to say that even the consumer who doesn't have much money deserves to have nice things. She treated her lower income customers with dignity, unlike this jerk.
That’s true. Sales isn’t something you do TO somebody, it’s something you do FOR somebody. If you forget that you’ll never really be successful.
At least this jerk didn't get charged for insider trading lol
The world.would be a better place if everyone was as honest as this guy. Department stores sell the worst quality things.
Why is this guy a jerk? Too honest maybe, but is that a crime?
@@parafitality2730fun fact: over 90% of politicians participate in insider trading but never get arrested for it.
It is remarkable to hit absolute rock bottom and then be able to get your stuff together and rise again, and even leverage your misadventure as a tool to help yourself and others at the same time. Respect
This is basically what I got out of it as well I don't know if it's genius but.. It's close to it
In his defense, jewelry doesn't need to be expensive. Jewlers just say it should be. If I am not mistaken, there is a story about diamonds that explains it.
Diamonds are a DeBeers' scam
It was an advertising agency that came up with an engagement ring should cost three months’ salary.
Diamonds are not rare. Their scarcity is artificially generated by DeBeers, who cornered the market on them and keeps the price artificially high; especially since diamonds can now be created in labs.
The diamond trade exists to bankroll private military companies and their (illegal) operations around the globe.
@BB-xx3dv Exactly. The people knew what they were buying, and at the same time, he was making fun of himself and his business.
I’ll be honest… I kinda like Ratner’s honesty here. Those consumers HAD to have known what they were buying. He didn’t really make jokes at the expense of the consumers, he was just being real about the quality of his product lmao which was reflected by the price, it seems.
He was clearly mocking them for buying his junk. If he were honest his store should have had signs that said buy our crap it won't last long. He manipulated them in store, then laughed at them on television in front of millions...thats why it folded so fast..based on your comment I see that have the same mindset as the ones in attendance at his speech. No doubt a uptight person who hhasn't struggled for anything 😅😂
There's a difference between buying something cheap but good looking, knowing you're getting something of questionable quality, making that choice with price in the equation and hearing that the person who sold it to you has said he's knowingly sold you junk and implying that you were too stupid to understand what you were buying. He made his customers the butt of a joke and nobody enjoys feeling like somebody is laughing at them - particularly when they've helped that somebody to a successful and very comfortable life.
discount stores need to promote their products as good value for money. Look at Aldi - most people would agree their stuff is of decent quality and yet is cheaper than the rivals, not necessarily because the products are poorly produced, but because they are produced efficiently. Telling everyone your product is actually just tat breaks the idea of them being good value for money
@@samfitzpatrick7891 yeah I can see this part. Even if you know you’re buying something cheap, I guess it’s still a little much for the guy who made it to really drive home how crappy the product is
@@jerrywhite8915 well I didn’t know about the manipulation in-store (i just listened to this so maybe there were some photos I missed), I thought he made it pretty clear that it was cheap glass goods, but I do see what others are saying about there being a point where a line has been crossed from honest to a little TOO honest to the point of disrespectful. I guess the joke would have landed better if this wasn’t in front of a bunch of other haughty business owners.
You’re making a lot of assumptions about me based on one comment. I’m a socialist who grew up impoverished lol and I hate even moreso when grifters on the surface present a product as life-changing and innovative when it’s just cheap trash. Trust me, I hate throwing a rich guy a bone, but at least he admitted it in front of everyone 🤷♂️
Loved it! I enjoy your Horrors very much--and this story could have been one if Gerald hadn't recovered and carried on!
The lesson here is that many people want cheap, tacky junk in a trashy environment, but very importantly they want to delude themselves into thinking they are buying expensive, quality items in a classy environment.
I admire his honesty, it's a shame all those who peddle total crap aren't more like him.
Honesty is probably not the right strategy when you're selling luxury goods (or cheap knockoffs of luxury goods).
@Olhado256 Yeah, customers were like, "Shoot! If even the owner is laughing at me for wearing these, what are people on the street saying about me??"
Well you'd have to talk to every western countries leaders & businesses who get ridiculous amounts of tax cuts & sold our livelihoods to China so they can all get rich off cheap crap
What? He wasn’t being honest he was being insulting with his greedy buddies and didn’t expect consumers to hear it. He is an arrogant punk.
People are gone so stupid that if wish or temus head man said something like this they wouldn't care.
In the end his speech taught the attendees a very valuable lesson, which is why they paid to be there.
😂 that's a twist They didn't know why they paid to be there they just knew they was expecting one thing and something else actually ( a mistake a misfortune ) happened
Having never heard this story before, i feel pretty bad that this is how his speech turned out. Its a shame that people criticize this self depreciating honestly about their products and instead prefer charlatans who consistently over promise and under deliver. I'd rather a harsh but charming truth over a gilded self serving lie.
If people preferred truth to falsehood priests would have no congregations and politicians no crowds.
I love your channel. You hit just the right tone and have a real feel for your subject matter. I especially appreciate how you don't feel like you have to inflate 15 minutes of great storytelling into 30 minutes with pointless filler. Have you considered doing The Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, Ca.? Seems like the sort of story you are best equipped to tell.
Fascinating failures is probably the best title I've heard all month.
Who would have thought the cheapest jewelry available would be crap? I couldn’t blame him, his customers were naive indeed.
Clearly he was naive because he lost the business !!@!!!
Yet people play the lottery week in, week out... People are gullible
As are all those who vote in the UK believing what either main party says it will do.
@@Rage_Harder_Then_Relax I think they just rebranded, did not loose it. Pretty sure they are still trading successfully. VW Group killed many people with false emissions.... no one gives a fuck..... But don't call my $1 jewellery garbage..... WTF???
Customers think they're getting something better than total crap. The rubbish jewellery was no different the morning after. It was the customers perception that was changed overnight
Nice one mate. And just as an aside, thanks for hiring an illustrator and not doing the generic, tedious and horrible AI-generated imagery almost every other youtuber has gravitated towards.
> Sells gold earrings for less than a pound. That's cheaper than a prawn sandwich. At least it'll last longer than the earrings.
I've never cringed so much for a joke.
The audience reaction tells you how business leaders all feel about you the consumer.
If "Fascinating Failures" ever becomes a real series, I'd love to see an episode on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7! I know that story's been done to death at this point, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to hear your unique take on it!
Humility and self-deprecating humor is one thing. Being too honest about your shady business will have consequences.
This is why McDonald's never joked about the cheap quality of their food. Even though we know it's true, as customers we want the dignity of purchasing a decent product.
If you, the CEO, are telling customers that they're buying crap, they'll believe it.
I despise this fact of human psychology. Being "too honest" will almost always result in a negative result. When making a dating profile or an online sales ad, the less you put, the better the result (most of the time). Resumes, job interviews... Everywhere you look people are encouraged to embellish and "stretch the truth." All because people are fickle and generally lazy (read: they would rather write something off at the first sniff of uncertainty than look deeper or wait and see)
My jewelry is the best in the world, believe you me!
I'm curious what is shady about it
@Trenz0 I don't think this guy's painting the whole picture; Customers don't mind buying crap sometimes because life is often crappy,
but if even the CEO is having a laugh at their expense over how bad of an illusion they are buying into is,
...then they get worried about what everyone else in the world might know about how dumb they are on top of that, and they cut off such a risky decision.
He should have realized what his real product was; he wasn't selling look- a- likes, he was selling a lifestyle illusion, but then swiftly broke that illusion himself,... jarring people back to reality.
A great salesman, who was able to sell more people than ever on the idea that his company was simply not worth it!
Exactly. How does a "businessman" not know the most basic thing about business? NEVER insult your customers!
my mum and some of her friends genuinely went out and bought some ratners stuff when they hadn’t before after this speech bc they thought at least he was honest. they knew that the stuff they could afford wasn’t high quality and thought it was refreshing to hear people acknowledge it
I love this! It’s a wonderful spin off the horror channel and I’m all for it
What this is really telling us is that most people prefer BS to truth and really hate it when they find this is true about themselves. People complain that marketers never tell the truth. Well, that's their job. They are supposed to get you to buy something for as high a multiple of what it cost to make as possible. Truth doesn't enter into it. And we buy these things knowing this full well. They got angry because he made clear he'd BS'ed them into buying his crap.
I can't understand why he didn't just hire someone to write the speech for him.
Well, his public speaking expert told him it was great. Why do a rewrite at that point?
Ego...😅
The public speaking expert was obviously not a salesman. @@jakepullman4914
Pro tip: Toastmasters is your friend!
Im confused, how did those people not know that they were buying junk? As stated in the video, a normal pair of earring would cost 300 pounds. Thats a massive difference from 1 pound. If the owner of dollar tree told me that the $1 toy i bought there was garbage id kinda be like, duh, tell me something i dont know. Thats why it only costed $1.
Because you can’t see the difference visually, and people who buy those fantasy jewelry was confident using those items. But when the owner says that you are wearing junk, you hurt the buyer self steam and they stop buying it.
Because people are stupid, that's why. Surely if someone buys "gold jewellery" at a price that is a miniscule fraction of the price of gold itself, and still think that the jewellery is genuine gold, there can be no other explanation.
Always delighted to see you post another video on here! Especially something so obscure. Great work!!
Obscure? I walked past a Ratners looking exactly like that every time I went to town as a kid. There was a Samuels half way down on the other side.
Great video! Enjoyed the corporate disaster history.
My ex was a PR Director for - let’s just say “Company I”. She wrote a speech for the CEO to be delivered to an all-hands meeting informing them that the company was being sold to “Company B”. This was to affect everyone at this meeting. Most would lose their jobs. He essentially threw most of the speech out, and ended up explaining to all the employees that he, and the other company’s top man went out on a bender one night, and decided for “B” to buy out “I”. He laughed, saying “….whew, what a night…” You can imagine the response. Okay. Sell your company. But maybe be humane how you tell your employees? This man retired, lived a life of luxury, and left hundreds of families devastated.
So excited when I clicked this and heard your voice. I never miss a fascinating horror video and I’m excited to hear you tackle some different subject matter!
Being able to talk down about yourself in a joke is a goddam art form; you can't just throw some in and hope for the best. It's insane that nobody stopped him.
Electrolux vacuum makers decided and then spent millions and millions of pounds on a massive advertising campaign in America. Absolute disaster/ failure mistake by using the the words "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux." They didnt realise that sucks in America means bad.
About 20-30 years ago I remember seeing an ad in an airport from some Asian tech company where their motto was “Out of our minds, into your hands”.
This is among the greatest stories I've ever seen. It teaches so much in so little time, it's like wrapping up every success book in the world and delivering it in a ten minute account. For him that has ears, let him hear.
Everybody is over looking the fact that he loafed around his house for 7 YEARS! before his wife got annoyed lol , wow did she have patience 😂
Great vid, hope to see some more Fascinating failures
Apparently Walmart was in attendance to learn from Mr. Ratner.
Excellent content all round. I hadn’t heard of this in Australia but it is quite an extraordinary misfire. I recall an Australian politician, Alexander Downer, who all but had his party’s leadership in the bag for a federal election and looked ready to be the next PM when he delivered speech on his party’s anti domestic violence campaign called ‘The things that matter’. He referred to it as something that probably should’ve been called, “the things that batter”. He never became PM, though he did become a successful minister in cabinet years later.
Makes me think of Clayton Williams, 1990 candidate for governor of Texas who was stupid and messed-up enough to not only tell a joke comparing bad weather to _rape_ , but to do so in an environment with many folks in attendance, reporters included. It tanked his candidacy because in addition to showing he was not a great guy, it demonstrated his poor judgment, not exactly a characteristic one seeks in a governor...
or at least, back then my state wasn't looking for that. These days, it seems like too many Texas voters want a full-on sociopath in the governor's mansion: we've got a guy in there now who is essentially said that he'd be fine assassinating migrants at the border if only our pesky president didn't term that "murder" (because it is).
He was having a downer that day!
@@anthonyszy7191 😂
As much as Ratner's jokes don't land, yours definitely do! It's nice to hear jokes from your voice after so much Fascinating Horror!
Well I am a qualified lesbian too
I have a lot of respect that you use illustrations made by an actual person.
2.30 is a stock photograph that’s not from Britain in the 80s! It’s a visual lie… Why do you respect liars? 🤣🤣🤣💩
Lots of pi s in UA-cam videos are created in no time with AI. Why would a content creator waste time and money doing it the hard way that costs more and takes more time?
@@sgg17003 They would do it because they have a shred of integrity.
@@NDHFilms You live in a fantasy world. Most UA-camrs don't make shit for money and have actual jobs, families, lives, etc.
3:27 i must say i was wondering who he was going to turn out shaking the hand of and this... did not disappoint 😭a fun departure that's eerily similar to the disaster stories we're used to, I like this video !
Ratner: yeah, the things we're selling are totally worthless lol
The product: *becomes worthless*
Ratner: pikachusurprisedface.jpg
I clicked on this because I was interested in the thumbnail. Upon watching this, I instantly recognized your distinctive voice. And, just like in Fascinating Horror, the video was extremely interesting. Thank you, and I will be watching these videos, too! New subscriber!
I'd love to see a feature film with this speech as the climax. It could be like the opposite of The King's Speech.
I love your story telling!
This could easily be a FH story, in my opinion. As someone with a paralyzing fear of public speaking, I can't imagine anything worse with a speech than for it to go down in history as horrendous failure, such that people would be making videos about it 23 years later.
I was thinking the same thing. It's like a much more personal and common form of horror compared to his usual disaster content
That's a corporate Darwin Award if I ever saw one.
I love the illustrations! I appreciate how they're not AI and actually very well done. Kudos to Emma.
You know what? He failed, but eventually rose again. I really respect that.
It was not the first time Ratner had given the 'crap' speech and each time it had been well received. His mistake was not the speech, but misjudging the journalists in the audience who chose to put a catchy headline spin on the 'crap' comment. The speech was aimed at the people in the room and it worked well, the problem was the wider audience that he had not accounted for and the negative presentation that journalists gave it.
This would not happen today. We have CEOs literally saying more or less the same thing. Bootlickers still cling to em. Rich people today will ALWAYS have fans with no self-respect no matter how horrible they are.
Within the past month, the richest human to ever stand on this planet literally told his advertisers, on stage and on TV, to F off.
For some reason my notifications weren't enabled on this channel. Glad you posted this on the original. Great content as always.
I've heard the advice about talking about your product in such a way but didn't know there was such a shining example of what happens when someone actually does it.
“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.”
Very interesting! I would definitely be interested in more videos like this.
Lol, a meeting of corporate royalty laughing at the peons. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?!?!
So as a joke, he said that his merchandise was crap, and that it wouldn't last as long as a sandwich. See, THIS is what the teachers in his school were talking about.
Those weren't the even bad jokes, they just broke the illusion that's all
I was SO furious that someone had essentially "Chinese knock-off"ed your "Fascinating Horror" channel, I was ready to give you SUCH shit. Like, right down to the last DETAIL?!?
Then the voice-over started. Never a better feeling, for me, than being wrong. 😆
I almost did the same, but checked the channel page first...then smiled when I saw it was the real deal.
Ryanair keeps doing this on a daily basis, and they get away with it.
Not to forget Temu.
Good morning and thanks for this interesting topic
😂😂
I enjoyed this one quite a bit!
He's not "doing good". He was selling crap. His mistake was telling the truth. His advice is to maintain the lie.
“It’s not a lie if you believe it “ George Costanza
Love this newer channel! You have mad skills, my friend.
Who wants to support the one that makes you feel like a stooge, duped, betrayed?
A lot of people. Aunt has millions because of it.
80 million Biden voters.......
@@PS-hv7on ...saved America
Elections aren't real @@PS-hv7on
@@sergeybrin6701Cringe, both of you
This was a great change up in the type of video! I would love to see more videos about these sort of topics. Maybe the next would be about Crazy Eddie
To be fair, if you buy jewelry for a dollar and someone calls you out for buying turds, your only recourse is to say, yeah, that's a fair assessment.
*pound
The value of 1 pound in the 90s floated around 1.5 dollars, so it'd be more like you buying jewellery for 70 cents and someone calling you out for buying turds
Oooh I love a bit of schadenfreude! I’ve been a long time subscriber to Fascinating Horror and was thrilled to see this video come up in my recommended. A whole new channel to binge on 🙌🏼 thank you, your videos really are fascinating :)
Worst speech in history? This sounds interesting, if not confusing or hilarious. Thank you Kristian Crow, for another unique upload on here. 😊
Yes, I think it would work better to call it the worst speech in business history.
@@tejaswoman That makes more sense. The worst speech in history is such a huge title to try to prove.
love your style of storytelling!! a more lighthearted story but done just as wonderfully!!
I mean.. I gotta give him props for pulling his shit together eventually and making something positive. I’m not sure I would have been able to recover if I had blundered so badly!
Video came up in my recommended. Very interesting! Would love to see more.
I feel like it should probably be Business 101 to not insult your customers.
The US Marines used to have a recruiting slogan, "We're looking for a few good men." I worked for a company that was having a lot of trouble with customer service, and it occurred to me that our company catchphrase could be, "We're looking for a few good customers. The ones who will patiently put up with anything, no matter what!"
Nice! I didn’t know you had a second channel. Made it through you saying the date and had to pause to check the channel info because I was worried someone was ripping off your work and I’d somehow just missed this video. Yay, double the Fascination!
He's just lucky he had _some_ natural talent because after a "crash & burn" like that, I would think most humans would be unrecoverable. I would think that must be one of the _worst_ feelings possible...to have it _ALL_ one day and lose it all the next.
The speeches about "Iraq has a chemicals weapons" were much much worse...
This was excellent. In addition to the fascinating cautionary tale, I like the narrator, who speaks with clarity and vocal timbre that is pleasing to listen to.
In this vein - would love to see this channel cover the story of the woman who wrote some comments on social media, boarded a 10-hour flight and by the time she'd landed, her post had gone viral, hit the mainstream media and she'd lost her job. Or something like that.
He sounds like Alex Ball
I’m so happy I found this channel. One of my fav UA-camrs
I have a book called "History's Worst Decisions, and the People Who Made Them." Chapter 44: 'Gerald Ratner's "Crap."'
So being cancelled was a thing back in the day too!
I remember this. Fecking hilarious. We ended up studying it in PSE at school 😂😂
In Ratner's defense, not only do I think his jokes were rather funny, but more than that, they were honest.
I can understand that his customers weren't laughing, but then again, did they REALLY think that the jewelry they spent an ENTIRE POUND on,
was anything but crap? They bought it because they were cheapskates. And at least Ratner had the courage to admit as much.
he’s like an adam sandler movie villain
I can't remember the context in which the remarks were made, but didn't Alan Sugar say some pretty bad things about his products and the people who bought them?
If you can find more of these stories, I hope this turns into another series
Oh hey, I didn't know you had a second channel! Subbed. I wanna hear more stuff like this!
I’m surprised the customers reacted that way. Maybe it’s a British thing? They certainly knew they were buying crap….
Yes, we all knew it was crap. The objection was hearing the CEO turning it into a joke, like he was insulting everyone
No one would have cared if it wasn't for the media spin. No one really thought they were getting amazing jewellery for such a low price, it's that the media told them that Ratner thought they were idiots.
Ratner was talking to a large but select audience, with which he was hoping to "fit in". Clearly, he did not expect what he said to get as widely disseminated as it was- hardly the first or only person THAT has ever happened to.
I feel for the guy, because he didn't actually do anything wrong, just ill-advised. Respect for how he was able to start ANOTHER successful business eventually.
Needs a voice balloon saying "balls".
😂
The Plainly Difficult staple. Yes, something like that could go far.
Excellent video - wish I'd found you sooner. Looking forward to your next piece of content.
I mean. There are companies who have done worse, been called out, not even acknowledged it, and continued making a profit. So at least this guy tried! I appreciate you Mr. Ratner!
Saying the quiet part out loud is generally a bad call, except today it seems to be the norm