Public Relations Emergency: Shaw’S Supermarkets

Public Relations Emergency: Shaw’s Supermarkets

Assignment A

• Civil Disorders:

o Fighting in the store

o Massive looting and shoplifting

• Labor Unrest:

o Union strike (Supermarket Worker’s Union)

• Crime:

o Any criminal action taken against the company

 Arson

 Theft

• Government Actions:

o Raising cost of food prices

o Tariffs on foreign foods

• System or Product Failure:

o Contaminated foods or products

o Outdated foods

o Sub-par foods

• Acts of God:

o Shaw’s depends on many different country’s food products

o Storms could ruin farmers crops

o A severe winter could hinder produce production

o Flooding could close stores

• Political Disorder:

o When dealing with Central American countries that are amid political unrest, we must be prepared

 A governmental overthrow could change how we get our products

 It could also affect the cost of our suppliers

• Technological catastrophes:

o Stolen wireless information

o Stolen credit card numbers and social security numbers

• Lawsuits and Financial:

o Slip and fall lawsuits

o Food poisoning lawsuits

o Workers getting injured

o Workers compensation

o Bankruptcy

Shaw’s is the second largest Supermarket chain in New England, and because of this, they depend greatly on the quality of other companies products. Since Shaw’s is selling others’ products in their stores, their vulnerability is amplified. This also includes importing food from other countries, which may have political unrest or poor production/farming condition. Shaw’s is at the mercy of all its vendors.

The most realistic crisis that Shaw’s will inevitable have to deal with and overcome, is the rising prices of food, especially dairy, produce, and meat prices. Shaw’s must continue to search all their resources to find the cheapest and highest quality products possible.

Shaw’s considers themselves part of the community. They cater to anyone and everyone. If a crisis occurs, everyone in that community, and therefore the community itself is affected by this emergency. Shaw’s may be the only place for a certain area to get their food, and if there is a crisis, like a product failure, the populous may have no other options. The major question that the external and internal publics will ask is why? They may be able to see that a certain event occurred, but they want to know what transpired to make this event happen.

Assignment B

As the world moves towards more technologically advanced business for efficiency and effectiveness, managers and I.T. professionals are posed with several difficult challenges. If a technological catastrophe were to occur at Shaw’s, like the emergency that occurred at Hannaford’s Supermarket, Shaw’s would have to deal with this problem swiftly and effectively.

CRISIS:

Shaw’s has recently moved all their databases and terminals to wireless technology, for efficiency and cost effectiveness reasons. The new technology works great, and the owner along with the associates, are thrilled with its results.

Shaw’s collects certain information from every customer with a Shaw’s CardÐ'®. This information includes your name, address, email addresses, social security number, and checking account number (so you can write checks at all Shaw’s locations). They store this information on a centralized database, with every other customer’s information from the entire corporation.

Although Shaw’s has gone wireless, in order to implement this technology in all their stores, they could not afford the most cutting edge equipment. This means that there very few, if any, protection or security measures for the system. The data is not encrypted, and the firewall is more like a hurdle for experienced hackers.

One day, two hackers park directly outside a Shaw’s store location, and hack into Shaw’s corporate database, and steal 4.3 million credit card and social security numbers. They then proceed to hide their tracks and escape unnoticed.

If this event were to happen to Shaw’s, like it did to Hannaford’s, Shaw’s would have a daunting task ahead of them. The supermarket must have a plan of attack prior to this incidence:

1. Contact internal publics, and explain what has happened

2. Immediately contact every Shaw’s customer through E-mail about the emergency (timeliness is important)

a. Run story in newspapers

b. Run story on website

3. Schedule a conference-(Have designated associate (CEO) lead press conference)

a. Release only verified information

b. Escort the press everywhere on the site

c. Show