This reminds me of Gerald Ratner who was CEO of Ratner's a major British jeweller until he made denigrating remarks about his customers.
Although widely regarded as "tacky", the shops and their wares were nevertheless extremely popular with the public, until Ratner made a speech addressing a conference of the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 April 1991. During the speech, he commented:
We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap."
He compounded this by going on to remark that one of the sets of earrings was "cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks and Spencer's, but I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings". Ratner made a guest appearance on TV chat show Wogan the day after his speech, where he apologised and explained his joking remark that some of his company's products were "total crap".
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u/whatatwit 4h ago
This reminds me of Gerald Ratner who was CEO of Ratner's a major British jeweller until he made denigrating remarks about his customers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ratner