FAKE DISCOUNTS AND ANGRY SHOPPERS
A MASSIVE BLACK FRIDAY LAWSUIT
Shoppers flock to retailers every Black Friday in hopes of securing the best deals
Duping your customers is a bad business practice, but what makes it illegal? Well, California law requires that retailers post a retail price no higher than what the product was sold at within three months prior to the ad. “Families today … are striving to get the very most they can get from an extremely hard-earned holiday shopping dollar,” said LA City Attorney Mike Feuer. “They deserve to make an informed decision.” After the suit was brought against them, the retailers all quickly moved to settle, promising to never engage in false reference pricing again. Most retailers offer discounts around the holidays to encourage shoppers to come into their stores or visit their websites. Promotions and sales are great tools in any business’s arsenal, provided they aren’t out to mislead customers. Big-box stores may try to manipulate innocent people, and it’s up to aggrieved customers to hold those corporations accountable. Nearly every year, you’ll read about a class-action lawsuit that develops in response to the shady tactics of businesses eager to secure those holiday shopping dollars. Are there great bargains to be had on Black Friday? Of course. But if something sounds too good to be true, it very well might be. Keep your eyes peeled and don’t let retailers trick you into a purchase you wouldn’t make otherwise.
This December marks the anniversary of not just an amazing moment for Philadelphia sports but a truly astonishing milestone for the NHL as a whole. That’s right, Flyers fans, we’re talking about Ron Hextall’s historic 1987 goal against the Bruins. Regardless of what you think of Hextall’s later years as a general manager, nothing will take away the fact that he was the first goalie in the history of the league to intentionally score. On Dec. 8, at the old Spectrum stadium, Boston was feeling the heat. After picking up a 2–1 lead in the second period, the Bruins found themselves down by 2 in the final minutes of the game. Desperation set in, and the team pulled Reggie Lemelin from the goal line in favor of adding an extra attacker. What they failed to anticipate was that they were facing one of the strongest, most aggressive goaltenders in the league. Sports analysts at the time had predicted that, given the opportunity, Hextall would be the first to make the coveted goal-line to goal-line shot. Thanks to his willingness to play the puck and his ability to accurately make outlet passes, Hextall was thought of as a third defender. In an era when most goalies avoided playing the puck at all costs, Hextall made waves even in his AHL days. But this moment in the 1987–1988 season solidified him as a true hockey legend and changed the game forever. on the year’s hottest products. There are many nasty aspects of Black Friday — the long lines, the overzealous shoppers, the limited stock of items — but phony pricing and fake sales shouldn’t be among them. But that’s exactly what happened to folks in Los Angeles during the 2016 holiday season, leading to the biggest Black Friday lawsuit in history. In December of 2016, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office sued J.C. Penney, Sears, Macy’s, and Kohl’s for a practice called “false reference pricing,” a nefarious tactic whereby retailers lie about the original price of an item to make a discount appear bigger than it actually is. For example, Sears sold a Kenmore washing machine at a “sale price” of $999.99, compared to a “regular price” of $1,179.99. The problem was the so-called sale price was actually the price that product was offered at every day. Therefore, it wasn’t actually on sale. HEXTALL’S MOONSHOT
THIS MONTH IN PHILLY SPORTS HISTORY
The stars aligned on that Dec. 8 night. Having recovered the puck during Boston’s blitz, Hextall took a second to aim before slapping a 178-foot beamer straight into the vacated net. The NHL had been in existence for 70 years at this point, and in that entire history, not a single goalie had been able to pull off this feat. But Hextall wasn’t done.
Just two years later, at the Stanley Cup playoffs, Hextall would again make another
remarkable, unassisted goal against the Capitals — at their own stadium, no less. To this day, only five other NHL goaltenders have managed to sink unassisted shots on goal, and Hextall remains the only one to have managed it twice. While taking a shot on goal remains a high-risk moonshot, Hextall’s overall play style drastically changed the way goalies were viewed in the NHL. He paved the way for active outlet passers who have become a mainstay in the sport today.
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