Retail Diary: Boxpark draws a line in the sand and Britain's greatest fraudster

Sheikh down

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Although London’s Boxpark does not subscribe to that adage and has picked a fight with a powerful enemy.

The pop-up mall in Shoreditch is taking action against what it believes is a “copycat scheme” in Dubai launched by Meraas Holding, a company reportedly owned by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammad.

Lawyers from Boxpark have written to Meraas demanding it immediately ceases and desists its use of the Boxpark name in relation to its proposed container retail development in Dubai. Consider this a line drawn in the sand.

Tag team

Launching a new loss-prevention tag? It seems only sensible to get a criminal to test out its limits, even if you might risk them running off with half your stock in the process.

So Agon called in reformed fraudster Tony Sales to test its new Concept Tag, which he said could be an effective loss-prevention tool.

But in testing the product, the man once dubbed “Britain’s Greatest Fraudster” had to come face to face with his former rival Tim Edwards, the director of loss protection at JD Sports.

“Sure people know that Tim and I have not always seen eye to eye,” said Sales. “I think a lot of that was because for many years we were on different sides of the law.”

It is a classic case of poacher turns gamekeeper and worthy of a ‘Catch Me If You Can’ style movie. Any suggestions for who would play Edwards would be very welcome.

The customer is always right

DIY retailer B&Q appeared to go the extra mile to ensure staff were able to serve their customers’ needs. With the release of the hotly anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey movie B&Q sent a memo to staff warning them to prepare for an increased demand of rope, cable ties and tape.

The memo reads: “When the book was released in 2012 DIY stores reported increased demand of certain products and queries from customers as they tried to recreate their own Fifty Shades experience. We need to be prepared for the same effect when the film is released this month.”

It even said B&Q would be delivering copies of the erotic bestseller to their stores to be lent to staff on “a one-week basis” so they could “familiarise themselves” with the story.

Unfortunately it all turned out too good to be true as it emerged the whole thing was an elaborate PR hoax that had managed to fool the nation’s media.