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• System or Product Failure: o Contaminated foods or products o Outdated foods o Sub-par foods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 Card®. 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 human emotion towards the events that transpired
d. Quickly tell the press of relief and recovery operations
e. Explain that we have no evidence that these credit cards have be used
f. Tell all external publics to cancel all credit cards, which have been used at Shaw’s stores.
4. Plan for relief
a. Call insurance agent, see what type of coverage you can receive
b. Offer complete reimbursement for those who do loose money
c. Make sure associates know that their jobs are safe
d. Invest in better wireless protection and security measures
5. Research why and how this crisis happened
6. Fix any problems that could lead to another, similar crisis

The spokesperson for Shaw’s should have one rule that is above all others, this is to be truthful. By being truthful your publics will have a reduced sense of uncertainty. To help with this uncertainty, the spokesperson can also tell the publics about future plans, and how the company is going to deal with this
issue.
When addressing the media for the first time, the morale of the community will be in a state of panic.
The spokesperson must first change this, by offering advice and explaining exactly what happened and how to fix it. Once the people understand what happened and how it affects them, they will be more controllable. By showing your own human emotion, the community will have more understanding for you.
To improve efficiency, many different median of media must be reached. This includes the company’s website, newspapers, e-mails, television, and even phone calls to the affect individuals if necessary. By acting fast and swiftly, efficiency can be increased, and your losses will be slashed.
Like previously stated, the external and internal publics first want to understand what happened. To educate and inform the publics of the emergency is the first job of the company spokesperson. This is why a press conference must be scheduled almost as soon as the event happens.
Although many customers may be furious about the emergency, it is the spokespersons job to redirect the interests of the publics and the company. To show that the company is dedicated to public safety, and to show how important customer loyalty is to your company, you must show the publics what you are doing to combat this crisis, and show the scarifies your company is
making.
To build credibility Shaw’s needs to emphasis its importance in New England communities for over 100 years. Shaw’s should show that it is a respectable business, and has been this way for a long time. Shaw’s has a very strong image of quality. The spokesperson must mitigate the damages of this crisis, so that Shaw’s image will remain picture perfect. Shaw’s must prove to their public that they will act how they always have acted; by using their mission statement, they will provide a quality solution to this emergency.
To establish a sympathetic audience, Shaw’s must bring this crisis to a personal level. Showing how it affects their associates, corporate, and stakeholders. This can best be done by their spokesperson. By giving the external public a reason to come back to Shaw’s, like coupons or other incentives, the community may forgive the Supermarket for its crisis.
To stand alone amid a crisis could be fatal for your company. This is why it is imperative for Shaw’s to create allies. These allies can come from neutral group, those people that don’t use Shaw’s all the time, or are impartial to which supermarket they shop at, or it could be from Shaw’s own loyal customers. The trick to being a successful spokesperson is to sway these groups into your favor. A crisis can be a trying time for any organization, but the way in which a corporation deals with these issues could be the difference between success and failure. Understanding emergency public relations can help to aid your company out of a crisis situation.