New Kit Arrival

[Born green]

Just been up the shop to get carey on sons new shirt,only to find out they closed at 1pm.
Typical argyle..... just had new shirts delivered and they never thought about extending opening hours on a busy Saturday, I wasn't the only one up there aswell.
Another marketing own goal I'm afraid

 

[X Isle]

Fair grumble that.

As well as large numbers of preordered shirts waiting to be collected there is an underlying general peak of interest with a new shirt in stock. Trade on the first weekend would not unreasonably be strong anyway. But putting out an update that "limited numbers" of non preordered shirts are available for general sale is bound to generate folk to get up there sooner rather than later.

I know it's not like they closed early, that's the out of season Saturday time to close (correct?). But would it hurt to pay a couple of staff for a couple or three more hours to meet that entirely predictable extra demand? ...to put what's easier for the customers first?

If you put out a "come and get them" message, you should really be there for 'them' to be 'got'. At the very least, having successfully created a raised interest, perhaps put a timely reminder at the end of the message that the shop closes at 1pm.

 

[Alan Turing]

Are the club going to make any more money from opening longer hours? No - it will cost the club money in staff costs, lighting, etc.

People that want to buy a shirt will buy one regardless of what the opening hours are - by the way, 1pm is always the closing time when we're not at home on a Saturday, this isn't new.

I'm all for criticising the club when it's warranted but on this occasion, it isn't.

 

[Born green]

Well I arrived at 1.40.
Staff were still working inside and the lights were on!

 

[X Isle]

Probably not on a pure financial level, but...

Could the club gain goodwill from opening longer hours?

Would it hurt to shift a larger bulk of the pre-orders for collection over the weekend, freeing up staff time next week for getting the membership packages out?

Would it hurt to inform those who may not be privvy to the opening hours in the same Baggo article that seeks to whip up interest with the "limited numbers" angle not to make the trip on Saturday afternoon, a not unreasonable shopping window in the normal retail business world?

It's clearly caught a few out, and that was just the very short window that Born was up there, how many others over the course of the afternoon?

It's not all about money in the customer satisfaction world. Those folk, whether it was their 'ignorance' of the opening times or not, have gone away disappointed. Argyle should be able to have anticipated that and done everything possible to prevent it, either open a bit longer having created the added interest or make it clear the shop closes at 1pm....one or the other.

I'm not saying it is a capital offence AT, just observing a lack of joined up thinking that will have left many fans disappointed this afternoon, disappointment that was preventable.

 

[Pogleswoody]

Phone call Yesteday to say my Pre Ordered Home Shirt is ready :thumbs:
My invoice is in the car glovebox so it wil be right there when I go to collect! :thumbs:

Car's in the garage, won't get it back till middle of next week! :facepalm: :sad:

 

[X Isle]

Well I arrived at 1.40.
Staff were still working inside and the lights were on!

Well that just makes it even worse :facepalm:

 

[Born green]

So the shop is open till 5pm weekdays when most people are working?
Good job I'm not a businessman eh

 

[GreenArmy1984]

Road trip To Home Park On Tuesday to get our home shirts

Excited :thumbs:

 

[GreenLDN]

Probably not on a pure financial level, but...

Could the club gain goodwill from opening longer hours?

Would it hurt to shift a larger bulk of the pre-orders for collection over the weekend, freeing up staff time next week for getting the membership packages out?

Would it hurt to inform those who may not be privvy to the opening hours in the same Baggo article that seeks to whip up interest with the "limited numbers" angle not to make the trip on Saturday afternoon, a not unreasonable shopping window in the normal retail business world?

It's clearly caught a few out, and that was just the very short window that Born was up there, how many others over the course of the afternoon?

It's not all about money in the customer satisfaction world. Those folk, whether it was their 'ignorance' of the opening times or not, have gone away disappointed. Argyle should be able to have anticipated that and done everything possible to prevent it, either open a bit longer having created the added interest or make it clear the shop closes at 1pm....one or the other.

I'm not saying it is a capital offence AT, just observing a lack of joined up thinking that will have left many fans disappointed this afternoon, disappointment that was preventable.

It may have caught a few out - but it's their standard hours when we're not at home. It has been that way for a long, long time.

You wouldn't grumble if you turned up at Currys or Tesco 40 minutes after closing time and not get in, would you?

 

[X Isle]

There's a fair degree of point missing going on here. Having taken the time to articulate the precise focus of my point it is disappointing that folk have just skimmed through and not got it.

It isn't the NORMAL opening hours at issue here, they seem perfectly reasonable for a NORMAL out of season/non matchday Saturday.

However this weekend saw masses of people needing to collect their orders, staff needing to be freed up this week to get membership packages out and the website putting out a "limited availability" message about non pre-ordered shirts. That all made this weekend ANYTHING BUT NORMAL.

It represented an ideal opportunity to clear the backlog of orders from the shop at a time more convenient to the customers (but also convenient for Argyle as with those orders gone the staff can concentrate on the ST's today onwards). They also should have forseen that by putting out there that stocks are low for non orders a HIGHER THAN NORMALfootfall was going to occur...and the quicker you sell out the quicker you can start a preordering list for the next batch. More sales equals more profit.

But having created greater demand they neither created any greater availability for sales nor reminded anyone of the store opening times. THAT is my point.

To use the Currys analogy, I wouldn't expect Currys to close at lunchtime on Black Friday. Book/phone shops/cinemas have NORMAL opening hours but upon the release of anticipated mass demand products they open at midnight on the release day to maximise revenue. UNUSUAL demand dictates UNUSUAL opening hours.

Apologies for 'shouting' so often in this post but as the point has been missed already, it emphasises it..

PS - Nothing contained above addresses the other issue, the sheer numbskullery of locking out customers while the staff are still working inside. If they're there anyway then use them to take money and shift orders for collection too.

 

[Born green]

There's a fair degree of point missing going on here. Having taken the time to articulate the precise focus of my point it is disappointing that folk have just skimmed through and not got it.

It isn't the NORMAL opening hours at issue here, they seem perfectly reasonable for a NORMAL out of season/non matchday Saturday.

However this weekend saw masses of people needing to collect their orders, staff needing to be freed up this week to get membership packages out and the website putting out a "limited availability" message about non pre-ordered shirts. That all made this weekend ANYTHING BUT NORMAL.

It represented an ideal opportunity to clear the backlog of orders from the shop at a time more convenient to the customers (but also convenient for Argyle as with those orders gone the staff can concentrate on the ST's today onwards). They also should have forseen that by putting out there that stocks are low for non orders a HIGHER THAN NORMALfootfall was going to occur...and the quicker you sell out the quicker you can start a preordering list for the next batch. More sales equals more profit.

But having created greater demand they neither created any greater availability for sales nor reminded anyone of the store opening times. THAT is my point.

To use the Currys analogy, I wouldn't expect Currys to close at lunchtime on Black Friday. Book/phone shops/cinemas have NORMAL opening hours but upon the release of anticipated mass demand products they open at midnight on the release day to maximise revenue. UNUSUAL demand dictates UNUSUAL opening hours.

Apologies for 'shouting' so often in this post but as the point has been missed already, it emphasises it..

PS - Nothing contained above addresses the other issue, the sheer numbskullery of locking out customers while the staff are still working inside. If they're there anyway then use them to take money and shift orders for collection too.

Good post X Isle.
Exactly the point I was trying to put across but without the time to write a long reply.

But then again it's jannerland and most don't like change....

 

[Born green]

My wife has just been up to the shop to get name and number printed on our sons shirt....

they have run out of numbers......

 

[davie nine]

1 and 0?

 

[pearces greens]

Road trip To Home Park On Tuesday to get our home shirts

Excited :thumbs:

They made a mistake and forgot to order yours !! :twisted: