As consumers, we frequently worry about being cheated through dishonest business practices. So, a good counter balance would be: How honest are we?
In summer 2013, Honest Tea, a unit of Coca-Cola Co., “put consumers’ honesty to the test with experiments in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Overall, its National Honesty Index found that Americans were 92 percent honest, with Alabama and Hawaii tying for the most honest state. From July 8-18, the company set up unmanned kiosks stocked with its beverages and offered them for $1 on the honor system in 61 different locations. Data was collected on how many people paid for the beverages and also on participants’ characteristics, including gender, hair color, hair length, facial hair, and whether or not they were wearing hats or sunglasses.”
Take the honesty challenge yourself and let us know how you fare: http://thenationalhonestyindex.com
I think this article/video is interesting because when people consider honesty in a consumer–producer relationship, they almost always think about a business being deceitful towards a customer. However, consumers can definitely be dishonest to a business. Whether they steal an item or go against return policies, consumers can be dishonest. I also found it interesting that on the chart, 8/10 people thought NY and LA consumers would be more dishonest than honest, than they actually were. People are very quick to make assumptions based on their own personal opinions. You’ll never really know whose being honest or dishonest until they are put to the test.
I used to work for OfficeMax and customers were very dishonest when it came to promotions. We had a coupon that said you could get 3 notebooks for 3 pennies per family. Obviously, the goal of this promotion was to get customers into the store so they could make profit off of them purchasing other items. The problem was people would leave the store then come back in and try to purchase another batch of 3 notebooks. I remember when a women came in with her children, and I told her that the coupon was one per family. She continued saying that she picked up the neighborhoods kids, but it was very obvious that she was lying because I saw her hand out the money to her kids. I asked for identification which really angered her probably because she was lying. I had to get my manager involved and he allowed her to cheat the system. I’ll never forget her because as soon as my manager left she proceeded to tell me how bad of a person I was. But at least I am honest.