Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Jon Morton, 02-Nov-2006, 11:00am
I have wondered for a while about bulk buying of some parts to order to keep prices low.
For example a member would post a suggestion for a hard to get or custom part, once there are enough people interested to make it viable/practical gather deposits or full cash and place a big order, reducing price and the need to hold a lot of stock in the club shop.
I understand this could be a nightmare to manage, but as long as emails were gathered checking the interest is still there for a long standing product request, would be relatively easy to maintain with a bit of web wizardry.
Jon
For example a member would post a suggestion for a hard to get or custom part, once there are enough people interested to make it viable/practical gather deposits or full cash and place a big order, reducing price and the need to hold a lot of stock in the club shop.
I understand this could be a nightmare to manage, but as long as emails were gathered checking the interest is still there for a long standing product request, would be relatively easy to maintain with a bit of web wizardry.
Jon
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Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Steve Cureton, 03-Nov-2006, 11:18am
I have to admit I don't use the shop very much for spares etc as the prices are not very competitive, but I do like the fact that there a range of goods you simply can't really expect to get elsewhere, such as Triumph memorabilia, books, magazines etc. Maybe I'm not very imaginative but I can't think of anything you could add to the range for the average Triumph driver.
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Michael Charlton, 03-Nov-2006, 01:26pm
GENTS
The only concern I have expressed previously is on the cost of regalia, promotional good etc
To enable a better deal for club members , has competition been approached to obtain goods at more attractive prices?
There is a vast amount and wealth of knowledge within the members throughout the land that could offer advice on such commodities.
I for one was a buyer for a large international company and purchased clothing and promotional goods for worldwide sales.
Hence I have a good knowledge of where and how to buy such items.
With great respect , the prices that are advertised in the club shop are more than most people would be prepared to pay and are able to source similar garments , at a lower cost, elsewhere.
There are opportunities within this particular area that could then benefit and subsidise other commodities in the shop.
Making cost reductions in some goods then assists in other goods costs.
By re sourcing or re negotiating promotional goods costs would benefit the club and its members.
You will have noticed that some areas have started to purchase their own clothing , embroidered to suit, at a lower cost than the club shop. Surely if an area can purchase at lower cost then HQ could do the same , with greater quantities.
For example South Yorks SELL Baseball caps at &163;4.00 polos at &194;&163;7.00 , inc vat and embroidered . These being from a local company who serve UK wide .THIS IS GOOD QUALITY.
There is plenty of scope in this area , which icludes every thing from a pen and keyring to the heavy clothing, to help finance the purchase of mechanical goods and therefore benefit every ones desires.
ONLY A POINT OF INTEREST
Mike Charlton
AO South Yorks
The only concern I have expressed previously is on the cost of regalia, promotional good etc
To enable a better deal for club members , has competition been approached to obtain goods at more attractive prices?
There is a vast amount and wealth of knowledge within the members throughout the land that could offer advice on such commodities.
I for one was a buyer for a large international company and purchased clothing and promotional goods for worldwide sales.
Hence I have a good knowledge of where and how to buy such items.
With great respect , the prices that are advertised in the club shop are more than most people would be prepared to pay and are able to source similar garments , at a lower cost, elsewhere.
There are opportunities within this particular area that could then benefit and subsidise other commodities in the shop.
Making cost reductions in some goods then assists in other goods costs.
By re sourcing or re negotiating promotional goods costs would benefit the club and its members.
You will have noticed that some areas have started to purchase their own clothing , embroidered to suit, at a lower cost than the club shop. Surely if an area can purchase at lower cost then HQ could do the same , with greater quantities.
For example South Yorks SELL Baseball caps at &163;4.00 polos at &194;&163;7.00 , inc vat and embroidered . These being from a local company who serve UK wide .THIS IS GOOD QUALITY.
There is plenty of scope in this area , which icludes every thing from a pen and keyring to the heavy clothing, to help finance the purchase of mechanical goods and therefore benefit every ones desires.
ONLY A POINT OF INTEREST
Mike Charlton
AO South Yorks
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Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Mike Crewes, 03-Nov-2006, 03:48pm
Mike
Strangley enough, I have had conversations with Nigel in the shop, both at NEC last weekend and today at the office on exactly those points. We are looking to do something new with regalia, so watch this space.
Regards
Mike-
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Jason Chinn, 03-Nov-2006, 09:05pm
I was recently surprised to find that the shop was one of the cheapest suppliers for something I wanted (Magnecor leads) and had stock - I was happy to buy from the shop and, as ever, the service was excellent. I did find the leads a few quid cheaper elsewhere but not much.
My main concern about the shop is the pricing structure - the stuff that isn't bespoke to the TSSC has always been quite a lot more expensive from the shop than you can easily find elsewhere and that I think is wrong. I would like to support the shop and in the early days of running a Triumph as an everyday car I did but I soon found out that I was paying over the odds for stuff. It shoudl be the other way round.
I appreciat that things have changed and are still changing - I think some work needs to be done to illustarte that to members. It would be really good to get some stuff for sale that is only available through the club - low volume stuff. I like the idea of asking the membership what they want and it would be excellent is there was some way of collating these wish lists even liasiing with the trade to ensure we don't all remake Vitesse lever arm drop links only to find that there's now 10,000 units in the market for only 1000 cars! (number and example plucked from the ether!)-
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Leon Guyot, 03-Nov-2006, 10:30pm
Glad you like the Magncor High Tension Leads, (known hereabouts as Spark Plug Wires), since it was me that introduced John Muggleton to them, years ago, as a good product for TSSC to stock. (Magnecor have a good website btw), and like Dr.Good's magic cure-all potion, just about everyone seems to make leads and claim that their's are better because of low resistance, whereas I believe conductivity is a more accurate measure of the effectiveness of leads.
I am developing a list of other worthwhile, high-quality kit that TSSC offers could do well to stock, and will let Nigel know idc.
Regards
L&195;&169;on-
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Jason Chinn, 04-Nov-2006, 07:05am
You've reminded me that there are loads of products available in the US at prices way below those in the UK - take for instance the Aldon Ignitor AKA Pertronix - buy online, pay by credit card and get it the next day (from a warehouse in Camberley!) for a lot less than a UK retailler - I've been buying a lot from the US recently. This is all legal and above board. Is there some way the TSSC can bring us the benefits of the strong pound? Just an idea.-
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Chris Mills, 04-Nov-2006, 01:29pm
Hi Jason
Thanks for the comments, the difficulty sometimes is that if the company has a trading partner in the UK, they may not allow us to buy from the US, We will look at all options
We'd also need to be careful of the warranty situation, I'm in the Tool business and users import tools from the States, and UK companies even full warranty agents are not allowed to repair the product within warranty, they could have their agency removed or worse their account closed. These companies tell from the serial numbers on the items when a claim is made.
Some manufacturers insist the tools go back to the country where purchased.
I'm not suggesting this is always the case, but I'm aware of examples.
Cheers
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Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Jason Chinn, 04-Nov-2006, 05:48pm
Just a thought, especially as some of the prices are shocking - Iridium spark plugs, about a third of the UK price, ARP fastenings about half the UK price, etc-
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Chris Mills, 05-Nov-2006, 12:50pm
Thanks Jason
We'll look at those two in particular
Cheers
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Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : James Fotheringham, 05-Nov-2006, 08:10pm
My two pence:
There are a lot of products out there aimed at 'improving' your Triumph over its standard configuration.
Some of the them are very worthwhile products eg. Ignitors, Superflex bushes, free flow exhausts - all of which the club sells
But equally many are no more than marketing puff! For example Spax shock absorbers, which the club does sell, have an awful reputation, and I feel that by the club selling these it is some how endorsing them. Perhaps some research into these would reveal a more suitable replacement (I have heard excellent things about Konis - last years as well!)
I feel I must also mention the clothing range, now I know it isn't Haute Couture stuff, but it all is terribly dated. Perhaps are range more in keeping with the dynamism the club may wish to portray would be better?
Anyhow thats just my opinion
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Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Leon Guyot, 05-Nov-2006, 08:15pm
Good Comments there, I agree SPAX always have been appaling, I will never let them near one of my cars again. Konis are initially more expensive, but they last for years and years. I have had nothing but complete satisfaction from mine.
Regards
L&195;&169;on-
Club Shop Review - Comments invited
Posted By : Leon Guyot, 05-Nov-2006, 08:37pm
Now to a really great product.
These have impressed me no end and they make our cars safer day and night.
But first, a short story...
There is a company here in the States, St.Louis, Missouri to be exact, called superbrightleds.com, they have been making LED light clusters to replace the 1157 incandescent.
tail/brake light bulbs, these are pretty good, as they don't get hot, are vibration resistant and last for a very long time, however they are probably about 85% as bright as the originals
They also make a similar cluster LED flasher bulb (1156 I think), but these don't work with our thermal type flasher units, nor, for some reason do they work with the company's own electronic flasher unit in our cars - I suspect there is a resistance problem in Triumph wiring.
Now to the new product. Recently superbrightleds have introduced their new LUXEON 3 Watt LEDS which are almost blindingly bright, and worth every penny of the 24.95 USD each. They are about twice as bright as the original incandescent bulbs and are a direct substitution.
Ours cars are fairly small and have much smaller rear light assemblies than many modern vehicles, so such a big improvement in this area MUST be a good thing.
Unlike the cluster LEDs. the Luxeons light comes from one source point, so looks more like the original bulbs than the clusters behind our lenses.
I believe superbrightleds part number is 1157RLX3 or similar. You must order red ones to go behind the red brake lamp lens.
The LUXEON LED is made exclusively by Lumiled - a division of Phillips and are the brightest LEDs in the world.
I am extremely impressed by this product and have also managed to upgrade my Maglite with a Maglite upgrade Luxeon LED, awesome!
I have NFI in this product, but do have a desire for our club members and their Triumphs to be as safe as possible out on the roads.
Best Regards
L&195;&169;on
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