What a difference a "p" makes

For the life of me, I had no idea what he was talking about when an analyst called today asking where we got the statistic that 80% of tax rebate checks had been spent. He saw that number, with us cited, in an article today in a prominent newspaper about how sales were going to be down since everyone had already spent their check. (No, I'm not divulging which paper.)

I had never seen that statistic and had no idea where it came from. I checked with our other spokespeople, in the event that there was someone else here who speculated on this. My question was met with a blank stare.

I checked our data--and there is a lot of it. Nowhere could it be contrived that we said that 80% of checks had been spent. It didn't make any sense and was, in fact, completely inconsistent from a lot of other things we'd been saying.

Then I heard from the reporter himself. He got his statistic from another reporter at their publication based on a conversation that the reporter had with someone here in early July. (That's nothing new--happens a lot.)

But then I figured it out. Talk about miscommunication.

We did not say that 80% of rebate checks had been spent. We said that 80% of checks had been sent (aka: distributed, disbursed, mailed, etc.). In fact, we have no idea what value of those checks have been spent (aka: used to buy things) and are still trying to figure out that data internally.

I'm always amazed how one little letter can completely change the meaning of a comment.