Catchword: third shift

Filed under: English, Business

Part of speech: n.

Quotation: The simplest and most dramatic form of the problem is something that Asia-based investigators jocularly refer to as the “third shift,” the “midnight shift,” or the “ghost shift. Say a U.S. company orders 20,000 dresses from an overseas factory. The contractor fills the order during its two day shifts but then runs off 10,000 extra at night, possibly using inferior materials. Those he sells out the back door, so to speak, trademark and all.…In addition to literal night-shift activity, the “third shift” is an umbrella term for any form of unauthorized production by otherwise authorized contractors. A common variant arises when a brand owner tells an overseas contractor to stop producing a line of product, and the contractor doesn’t.

Article or document title:
“Not exactly counterfeit” (URL)

Author:
Roger Parloff

Article, document, publication, web site:
Fortune

Date of publication:
May 1, 2006

This cite belongs to a full entry for third shift.