Because I wanted to get a shirt to support my club like everybody else and I don't have time to bob in to the shop every few days so I took a chance.
Hey, just think, now you can wear your shirt on top of your coat now it's too big! Showing your colours all year 'round!
Good to know there's still a bit of a corner-shop mentality pervading the club. Makes me warm with nostalgia.
Interesting post this one. Was at the shop yesterday to collect season tickets and stunned by what was going off in there. Commercial management take from this what you will.... When I arrived there was only a couple of people in front of us, 15 mins later I get to the front after watching some 'on the job' training and a guy ticked off that there was no stock of kit left for his lad to be mascot. Reminded me of last time I went recently when they were out of certain letters for the shirts, but that's another epic fail story. So, while waiting for our tickets I looked around the shop and saw a queue of over a dozen folk to the back of the shop, all wanting to part with cash and hardly any key stock to sell.....until September. Then my lad pipes up can I buy a phone case (£12)? I say okay, he looks at the queue and says na forget it, we'll be ages. It was that amateur it's embarrassing, whoever is responsible for managing that operation wants a good re-think about it all. Can we actually afford as a club to throw this sort of revenue down the drain? No reflection on the staff who were in there btw trying to battle through but my God it was a poor show. My suggestion would be to sub out the shop to a local business owner who has a proven successful record of running a profitable commercial outfit like this, either sports or clothing rather than open the doors, stand someone behind a counter and make it up as you go along. Really really poor.
Had a similar experience before the start of last season with my lad. Didn't pre-order him a replica kit prior to it being launched and we had to wait until October before they had his size (8 year old) in stock. Seems like a regular problem and a wasted opportunity to generate some additional income.
Just had a look on the website: Short sleeved adult home shirt: only Small and Medium in stock (5 sizes unavailable) Long sleeved adult home shirt: only Small in stock Junior short sleeved home shirt: no 24"-26" but all other sizes in stock (1 size unavailable) Junior long sleeved home shirt: both sizes in stock Infant home kit: only 4-6 and 9-12 months in stock (3 sizes unavailable) Short sleeved adult away shirt: only Small, Medium and Large in stock (4 sizes unavailable) Long sleeved adult away shirt: only Small in stock (2 sizes unavailable) Junior short sleeved away shirt: all sizes in stock Junior long sleeved away shirt: both sizes in stock Infant away kit: only 9-12 and 24-30 months in stock (2 sizes unavailable) http://www.barnsleyfcdirect.co.uk/ Across both home and away shirts there are 17 categories sold out.
Update: There are now no adult short sleeved home or away shirts left at all and only small in both long sleeved adult replica tops. I get that it must be difficult to predict numbers but to not have a single home or away shirt left before we've even kicked off is absolute incompetence. The worst bit isn't even that they won't be available until September but that the website doesn't even offer a preorder option, so they have no idea how many people are still waiting to buy them. Are they going to run out again immediately or are they going to have loads left over? They haven't got a clue.
Ar lass was going to get me one for my birthday, but seeing as they don't have any until into Sept I said not to bother and get me something else instead
your point being? bet most people have experienced shortages at sometime and are just frustrated at our lack of commercial sense and planning, its all losrt revenue.
That's exactly it for me. How the club can say that they need to up ticket prices in order to scrape in a bit more cash but then show complete lack of caring in this regard and throw money down the drain in lost shirt sales is extremely annoying.
Actually, 2 of the sizes for adults and all of the juniors in pink are sold out with a further two adults sizes having 'low stock'. Two junior sizes in the yellow are out of stock with the rest being 'low stock' and two adults yellow sizes are 'low stock' too.
It's not even rocket science. I'm sure even Joey Essex wouldn't have made such an hash of it. We will know how many of each size we sell by each month year on year. So for the start of the season get in stock the amount we sell without fail every year by say christmas time. Always better to have too much stock than zero of it. Folks that before would have bought them for summer holidays, feel good factor of promotion, summer weather ect many now won't bother. What's the point when by the time more come in it will be getting colder and darker so be hidden under coats not to be seen. Taking pre orders should be the least they do.