Posted By : Chris
Taylor, 01-Jun-2007, 11:48pm
An interesting observation Tim. I suppose it is possible that the club shop sent you an ex display item because the manufacturer
could not meet a reasonable delivery date, but I usually expect some sort of discount from the advertised price if offered a
display item in a shop. But a straight story about exactly what is happening to your order is just basic customer service. I
believe the club sales are operated by paid employees, so you ARE entitled to a decent standard of servcie, and to complain if you
do not get that. (Other roles within the club, like register secretaries, are volunteers, with full time jobs and other
commitments, so perhaps more we should be more tolerant if we do not always get what we want, when we want, from these splendid
individuals).
As regards pricing and the club's purchasing power, there could be a chicken and egg situation here. A manufacturer will consider
supplying at a discount IF they perceive they will get a certain amount of sales through that outlet. If the club shop, despite the
size of the memebership, doesn't actually have a large enough sales turnover, then manufacturers will not be offering much of a
discount. But if the club cannot offer better deals than available elsewhere, members will not buy from the club! And a low
turnover in certain items does not help the club financially justify keeping stocks of them. Add to that an apparent unwillingness
to compete head-on with those traders who make it possible to maintain, repair and rebuild our 40 year olds cars, and you quickly
end if with a situation where the role of the club shop and its market niche are a little unclear.
-
Posted By : Andrew
Szczecinski, 02-Jun-2007, 06:33am
For what its worth, i have only ever bought small, inexpensive items from the club shop.
However, the reason i don't purchase anything of reasonably high value is due to the pricing. I find it rather uncompetitive
compared to shopping around on the web.
Apologies for my ignorance, but is the shop run on a non profit basis?
If it is then the argument about being able to compete and turn a profit when competing with traders with little in the way of
overheads is pretty weak. Maybe the shop just doesn't have enough buying power?
Any comment from the management team on why the pricing is slightly off the mark?
Andy