There was an ambush at ShopKo Monday morning.
John Paul DeJoria, chairman and chief executive officer of John Paul Mitchell Systems, led about 75 Provo hairstyling students into the store, discovering what he says he has found in retail stores across the country: The store sells his company's hair care products legally but without permission.Tracking some of the company's products outside authorized distribution chains is difficult because product I.D. codes have been tampered with, he said.
DeJoria wants his products to be available only through licensed salons and hopes Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, will help.
"It's not just shampoo, it's baby products, too," DeJoria said. "It's about consumer health."
Product I.D. codes are not the same as UPC symbols, which most consumers recognize as the bars that get scanned at the checkout stand. Rather, product I.D. codes are combinations of letters and other symbols that allow manufacturers to "fingerprint" each product. The codes are used to track shipments and are vital in the event of a recall.
DeJoria contends that product I.D. tampering endangers consumers' health because they may not know if a product, like baby food, for example, has passed its expiration date. After meeting with DeJoria at a fund-raiser last month, Hatch promised to introduce legislation in the Senate next year making it a crime to tamper with the codes.
In October, DeJoria testified at a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on HR2100, the "Antitampering Act of 1999." One of the sponsors of that bill was Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
"Manufacturers have limited weapons to prevent unscrupulous distributors from removing the coding to divert products to unauthorized retailers or place fake codes on counterfeit products," Goodlatte said when he introduced the bill in June.
But stores like ShopKo contend they benefit consumers by giving them the chance to buy products such as those made by John Paul Mitchell Systems at a lower price than at professional salons.
"We sell the same product for less," said Terry McDonald, senior vice president for marketing at ShopKo's corporate headquarters. "(DeJoria's) issue is price control. He's masking that by talking about tampering with codes."
DeJoria orchestrated the raid on ShopKo after a short motivational speech to students at Provo's Von Curtis Academy of Hair Design.
Confronted by DeJoria in the hair-care product aisle, store manager Wendi Seiber said she was unaware the John Paul Mitchell Systems products had been altered. She told DeJoria she would check with those responsible for ordering her store's inventory to see what should be done.
DeJoria, whose television appearances justify his headquarters in Beverly Hills, Calif., gained the admiration of Von Curtis hairstyling students. His visit was the closest thing Provo has seen to a celebrity sighting in some time.
"He's so inspirational," one student said.
"Awesome. Wonderful," swooned another.
He nearly caused one ShopKo shopper to faint when he offered to purchase the items in her cart. As head of a company whose retail sales top $600 million annually, he probably figured it was worth the laughs.
DeJoria contends the anti-tampering legislation isn't about his company's bottom line. He says it's about what's right and what's safe.
"Unscrupulous business people remove manufacturers' codes on not just shampoo, but on baby food, over-the-counter medicines and other consumer products, thus placing a trusting consumer at risk," he told members of Congress in October. "We cannot permit dangerous, unsafe or substandard products in the marketplace."