Whatever we end up calling this recession/depression, I think we can safely name one small part of it: The Great Giveback.
There seems to be a rebate fever among firms trying hard to keep their customers happy, or keep their customers at all. JetBlue just announced it will give full ticket refunds to customers who lose their jobs. A few weeks back, Hyundai started letting buyers walk away from their purchases if certain “adverse life events” (including layoffs) intervened. (And it seems to be working.) And the Spanish firm Banco Santander has decided to compensate private clients whose money Santander invested with Bernard L. Madoff.
Discounts are one thing; every consumer these days has come to expect a discount. But a rebate: well, that’s a way to radically distinguish yourself from the competition and grab market share when brand loyalty is shaky, at best.
I would be very interested to hear from readers other examples of rebates being offered — and/or rebates that should be offered.
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I heard of a homebuilder in PA offering their clients the opportunity to live free for a year…
Healthcare should do it — enough bloat there, don’t you think?
@frank
I hope not. Many B.A.s are what people want to learn about (Literature, Music, General Studies, etc), not what the market needs (Engineering, Science, Accounting, etc.). The market is just trying to tell you this – as it has for years.
If you get a degree in something that is not worth while, you should be willing to live with your choice.
Botox injections (for the temporary treatment of wrinkles, of course) are sold by Allergan, Inc, who started a $50 rebate program a few weeks ago (per procedure). see link below. Allergan’s main concern is that patients have expanded the time between treatments from about four or five months to about seven or eight months. This is a big loss in revenue. But perhaps they are also concerned with competition, as a company named Medicis will in a few months have FDA approval for a competitive botox product called Reloxin. Hey, there are many reasons why the wrinkle business could in theory do well in our current economy (as stress causes more wrinkles; as we try to look good for interviews), but will rebates really help this very discretionary purchase?? I, for one, doubt it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123379823032450397.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Sounds like a great plan for those companies that can afford it… but I wonder if this can be seen as a form of deflation (assuming they’re not able to recoup the costs via higher prices).
So Hyundai will take back my car if I lose my job? Nice of them….Then I’ll have no job and no transportation to get to another one.
Hyundai started letting buyers walk away from their purchases if certain “adverse life events”
This still amazes me. I have always been told that buying a new car is the worst investment you can make because the second you sign and drive it off the lot the car takes a huge loss in value.
Seems like Hyundai is willing to accept the drop in value and therefore willing to make poor investments now.
Mike @6: Once upon a time, a BA (in just about anything) meant something. My grandfather (BC ’38) had a BA in philosophy. It meant he could think critically, analyze a situation logically, make decisions and argue cogently for them, and recognize when someone else had a better argument.
What better qualification could there be for a manager? An MBA? Someone with a true liberal education can pick up job-specific information during a probationary period. No, he wasn’t going to be an engineer with that degree, but he could do just about any business job with a little bit of specific training.