Sushiro’s “Another Misleading Ad” Raises Concerns about Corporate Structure

Sushiro has discovered that some of its stores had posted notices for the following campaign, which will be held from today (July 13), on the store shelves before the campaign started, when they should have been posted from the campaign start date. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused to our customers.

Sushiro (operated by Akindo Sushiro), a major conveyor-belt sushi chain, has announced that it has begun a campaign to offer

Apology and Notice Concerning the “Half-Price Draft Beer Mug” Campaign, No Matter How Many Drinks You Have

(operated by Akindo Sushiro), a major conveyor-belt sushi chain, apologized again for the advertisement on its website.

The story began with a Twitter post by a person who said he went to Sushiro on January 12.

I was not originally planning to drink alcohol, but I ordered it, and when I checked the bill, I was told that this was just a notice and that the fair was not being held at the moment. The start of the fair was not stated. If the date of the fair is not written on the poster, it is normal to think that it is being held now, right?

With this comment, he posted a picture of what looked like a poster for the campaign. The contents of the poster read, “Half off a mug of draft beer no matter how many you drink,” and the price was 240 yen (excluding tax) instead of 480 yen.

Next to the offer, it says “until Thursday, July 28,” but does not indicate when the fair will begin.

If the date of the fair is not stated, and there is a large poster in the store, it is natural to assume that a campaign is underway. A tweet complaining about the fair quickly became a hot topic on the Internet, recording 250,000 “likes. Seeing the flames, Sushiro quickly apologized on its website.

On June 9, Sushiro received an order from the Consumer Affairs Agency for violation of the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations (bait advertising) for running campaign advertisements and pretending to customers who visited its stores that sushi was sold out, even though more than 90% of its stores had no sushi in stock.

On July 8, an investigation report compiled by the audit committee was released. On July 8, the company released an investigation report compiled by the auditor, which reported that three executives had been punished by having their compensation cut, among other measures.

The company’s director, Mr. Kato, said, “It is appalling that they would publish such an advertisement again after having just recently received an administrative sanction for publishing a misleading advertisement. The company announced that it would take measures to pay the difference to customers who made the wrong purchase if they brought their receipts, but this is not something that can be solved by refunding the money and will be seen as a problem with the company’s corporate structure” (TV station news reporter).

A comment on Twitter reads.

“The fact that they don’t state when the problem started is quite problematic…” (TV station reporter)
I think it would be better to ask the Consumer Affairs Agency for an objective opinion.

Many people questioned Sushiro’s corporate structure.

In the case of the recent incident, the company explained that the campaign was posted in some stores prior to the start of the campaign, as if it were a mistake on the spot, but when we opened the door, we found that it was posted in 31 stores. If this had been done at so many stores, it would be beyond the scope of “careless mistake. It will be necessary to raise awareness not only at the management level but also at the shop floor level,” said a management consultant.

Sushiro caused another uproar with its misleading “advertisement. Even if the executives cut their compensation, it will mean nothing if the company fails to prevent a recurrence…