"We're not going to pick a one-star [rating]," to feature in any outgoing holiday email or catalog, says Steve August, operational vice president of consumer marketing at Brookstone.I don't really know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I really like wine reviews by employees at Whole Foods and Central Market--and they only attach reviews to the wines they like. Since I rarely have any idea what wine to buy, it helps me sort through the zillions of bottles on the shelves. I like to think those folks know what they're talking about--since of course--wine is their profession.
On the other hand, customer reviews feel like a very different thing. When gathered from a wealth of both positive and negative feedback, only choosing the positive feels dishonest in some way. While I know that's what companies have done forever and ever (think book reviews or customer testimonials), the very fact that these reviews selected from a community feels wrong. If the store is providing customer feedback with the intent of helping their end customers make a good decision, not allowing them to see all the feedback is doing their customers a true disservice. But if their end goal is just to sell more stuff, whether it's good stuff or not, well then, I guess they are doing the right thing for the store (but not the customers).
Ah, it all comes back to the ethics question. In this case, it's intent. Is the intent to provide decision-making information? Or is the intent to sell more stuff. I'd be interested to know if they make a point of placing those positive reviews on high margin items.
