The Butt Ugly Weblog

The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Business 2.0 has collected the most stupid (albeit very US-centric) mistakes of the year 2002. Some of these are quite fun:

http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,47750,00.html

Here's an excerpt:

Panic in the heartland, part 1: The crisis begins.

Outside a Wal-Mart (WMT) in the small town of Geneseo, Ill., a 73-year-old woman buys a newspaper and suddenly finds herself trapped when the door of the news rack slips closed and catches her coat. Unable to wriggle out, she solicits a bystander to enter the Wal-Mart and ask for help. A Wal-Mart employee comes out to explain that she can't assist, citing a policy against tampering with the news rack.

Panic in the heartland, part 2: The tense negotiation.

After going back inside for a moment, the Wal-Mart employee comes out and tells the trapped woman that she'll call the newspaper and have a representative come to release her. The woman suggests an alternative solution: Somebody could simply put two quarters in the machine and open the damn door. The Wal-Mart employee rejects this out of hand, explaining that the store can't pay refunds for the news rack.