"Companies wake up to blogs' barking," The Guardian, 9/19/2006 The world's largest retailer has attracted WakeUpWalMart, Wal-MartWatch and a raft of others dutifully listing its alleged atrocities against employees. Then there is McChronicles, which offers detailed accounts of visits to branches of McDonalds - recently describing a fly infestation and missing lavatory doorknob at the Clinton, New York, outlet of the fast-food chain. Mostly, the contents of such sites are anecdotal. But they can become a significant rallying point for a company's critics. The business world is all too aware of the salutary lesson learned by Kryptonite bicycle locks - presumably named in the hope that they would be strong enough to defeat Superman. A blogger in 2004 posted a clip demonstrating that, in fact, one of Kryptonite's designs was unable to withstand an attack from a biro. Kryptonite's fortunes took a sharp downward turn.
The world's largest retailer has attracted WakeUpWalMart, Wal-MartWatch and a raft of others dutifully listing its alleged atrocities against employees. Then there is McChronicles, which offers detailed accounts of visits to branches of McDonalds - recently describing a fly infestation and missing lavatory doorknob at the Clinton, New York, outlet of the fast-food chain.
Mostly, the contents of such sites are anecdotal. But they can become a significant rallying point for a company's critics. The business world is all too aware of the salutary lesson learned by Kryptonite bicycle locks - presumably named in the hope that they would be strong enough to defeat Superman. A blogger in 2004 posted a clip demonstrating that, in fact, one of Kryptonite's designs was unable to withstand an attack from a biro. Kryptonite's fortunes took a sharp downward turn.
