I knew it, I knew it, I KNEW IT.

I hate to say "I told you so" (and that's not directed at anyone in particular), but I remember thinking all along that this was a baaaaad idea:

In today's Journal:

GM Official Regrets
Employee Discounting

General Motors Corp.'s top North American sales and marketing executive, Mark LaNeve, said he now regrets launching the employee-discount program that drove GM sales to record levels last summer, and doesn't plan to repeat such promotions this year.

Mr. LaNeve said the employee-discount promotion, which GM began last June, was very efficient in moving vehicles. But after the program ended three months later, sales dipped and hit a low in October, when sales fell by 26%. The employee-discount program also caused the Detroit auto maker to focus its advertising messages on the sales promotion, instead of highlighting product attributes and its effort to reduce base prices on certain models.

"Hindsight being 20/20, I probably wouldn't have done it," Mr. LaNeve said.