Have a word with whoever agreed the club shop opening hours, 10-4 is as much use to working people as a tanning shop in the Sahara desert.
Open until 7 one night a week, new kit launch soon, will there be more than 1 till open this year, maybe a cold drink to purchase while 107th in the queue?

Do you want a stick with you moon?

I actually agree with you but not sure posting it on here or addressing it to the media gadgie is the most effective way. Maybe call or email the club directly?

Monkeybutt has a good point. Can’t a bit of common sense be applied before these events? It saves all the problems later.

As ever though a fair point but put over in totally the wrong way on the wrong platform, how about an e Mail?

Last year they launched the kit at an open day didn’t they and sold loads, a commercial success. I am sure having done that once they can do it again but better addressing a few issues that arose last year.

I agree the club shop opening times need looking at, they are more office hours than what it is, a retail outlet.

To be fair an email to the club is a complete waste of time.

I sent several last season. Got read receipts for all of them and never received a single reply.

And to be fair to Mr Butt, he has made that very point on here on several occasions - he's sent emails and received no reply - so, well done Mr Butt for making this point in a public forum - which might garner some reaction from the club - and let's ignore the PJ-Butt kicking!

Mark Simpson is the media manager, he does an excellent job for me at that.

Is it fair that the thread is directed at him? It’s like complaining to Hignett about the website.

Mark reads this forum and may get a word in , if you want to sell stuff to people then you need to make it easy, not damn difficult!

Maybe the Trust could organise a rota among their members to voluntarily man the shop in an evening or two.
OR
Give the evening work to the Juniors. In that way the fans would get to interact with the stars of tomorrow. Or a mixture of both.

I get that but we are a fairly small operation with limited resources in terms of staff so if you have an occasion were you shift a thousand shirts then it is going to be stretched, plus last year was the first time they have done it so you’d imagine they will to do things better this time around.

Oh I get that PJ, it is the 10-4 shop opening, somebody on Facebook summed it up, you need a job to afford the merchandise but on the Universal credit to collect it or go in.
What is their target market opening those hours?

What about a pop up shop or stall in the town centre with a player in attendance some of the time say until the first match. Maybe Saturday and Sunday with selected lines available on display to buy or order.

Cant you just order them online?

People do like to see touch and feel products before purchasing and this would visually raise the profile of the club.

Yep and collect between 10-4 Or delivery which will end up with a trip to post office in town when you out when delivered.

You mean like ordering anything online these days?

Put the delivery address down as a relative or friend who’ll be in, tick the box ‘include cold drink’ and you can’t possibly have anything to twist about.

As for the shop in the Town Centre, they have tried that before I think years ago maybe it was just at Christmas but who actually goes in Middleton Grange Shopping Centre apart from the people you mentioned who don’t work? It is fairly desperate these days plus it’s about half a mile from the club shop.

The foot fall in the shopping centre is decent, virtually all are Hartlepool residents. The club shop is a bit of a hike to anyone without a car and has no visual impact tucked up Clarence road round a corner.

Sales haven’t really been an issue though have they? Like I said I heard they shifted loads at the kit launch last season. It was more stock and sizing issues with the old supplier as they had sold out of lots of sizes, I tried to get the kids kits at one point last season with no luck.

Any idea what the club makes out of each shirt? the more sales the merrier.
Let's hope they have got a good stock level in to satisfy demand.

PJ is like a blunt dart, yes they had fantastic sales on the open day and hopefully learnt the lesson from only having 1 pay point but I wont hold my breath, as of last week they still had 1 pay point.
Look at the bigger picture, if you want people to buy stuff and especially if they need to try it on, giving the shite sizing issue, you need to try stuff on, who apart from continental shift workers and the jobless are available 10-4?
I get you're bored with the housework but you start an argument in an empty room, it needs changing to suit customers and not staff.

Why cant you go on the night they stay open late?

Monkeybutt in gets personal shocker. Every single time.

Read that post again, I don’t think I am trying to start an argument I think I have made some reasoned points in a discussion.

People who still do archaic things like going to shops need shooting to be honest.

HTH

How about getting Carole Kirkwood to model the shirts?

If you always do what you always did you'll always get what you always got!

Remember 75% of fuck all is exactly that!

How do we get them works into an xl top?

Ah yes maybe a job for an engineer.

That red dress was fully stacked this morning, I reckon the view when she is on top is a joy to behold.

The open day last year was brilliant, maybe for this one how about keeping everything on the same side of the ground, they had bouncy castles and things for the kids behind the Millhouse stand but it meant dragging everyone over there, they could also sell shirts and other merchandise from the catering outlets behind the CK Stand as well as the club shop which would keep queues down (tills etc already in place). Like i said it was a great event but for me it just seemed like everything was a bit too spread out.
I would also intergrate the ticket office into the new club shop for run of the mill match tickets and if the need arises when demand is high sell them from reception instead so there aren't loads of people queuing inside around the stock.
Not a critiscm just a couple of suggestions.

An offer was made to assist but it takes two to have a conversation!

Mr Butt - what was it that you emailed the club about? Was it the catering or did you make other suggestions about the wider retail experience? I remember you posting about the open day last July - with both positive and negative comments.

Did you do this in a personal capacity?

Did no one from the club reply? I thought that Simmo was pretty reactive.

When we had initial and what transpired as the only meeting with MM, we made several suggestions and offered help in areas.