I stumbled across what appeared to be a news story on the Mail Online website but a close look clarified just what it was I was looking at: what we in the business call a beat up.
The Daily Mail, that online bastion of … er, crappy gossip stories and other trashy journalism that does absolutely nothing to aid the credibility of the profession has taken to the whole internet thing like the proverbial duck to water and while I am the first to admit the web has paved the way for all manner of crap to masquerade as “something to read” (this very blog you are reading right now, for example), you’d think you might get proper news stories on a proper news website.
But no, that isn’t the case.
Although, the story that got my “I want to Taser someone” urges piqued wasn’t about some tacky celebutante flashing their bits while leaving a nightclub. This time it was about the scam being foisted upon an unsuspecting public by those evil money-grubbing pawn shop proprietors, Cash Converters.
“The great pawnbroker rip-off: How Cash Converters buys second hand goods at rock bottom prices and adds huge mark-ups before selling them on” screamed the headline.
According to the story, it would appear these businesses are buying goods at a fraction of their original value from people who need money and then selling them in their stores with huge mark-ups.
Who’d have thunk it: a second-hand shop selling stuff at prices higher than they paid? Um, isn’t that what they are meant to do? If not, they’d go out of business pretty damn quick.