Bank Balance

[Scotty]

At the moment there's nowhere to store and display additional stock.

no disrespect Alex, but that is a piss poor excuse. The shop premises (but certainly not its staff) have been a joke for a number of years and in my opinion the club are missing out hugely because of this.

Personally, I would take a three pronged approach.

1: The club should have a 'proper' shop located within the stadium building which is big enough to allow customers to browse and for the staff to merchandise and display the stock effectively. When you go to any other normal retailer, you dont see all their stock on their shop floor - they display it, have some available and the rest in their warehouse. The club should take a similar approach. You will be able to store far more stock in a storeroom than you will ever be able to do if it is fighting for space in the actual shop itself. Part of the reason for having so much stock is also to do with minimum orders and extended lead times from Errea which is another thing that needs to be addressed.

2: The club should have its own town centre or Eastgate retail outlet. If charity shops can afford this then there is no reason that the club cannot.

3: The online shop is open for the whole wide world 24/7, is severely under-utilised and doesnt encourage overseas sales especially for the smaller  items. If items 1 and 2 cannot be resolved then why not beef up the online shop so that ICT fans the length and breadth of the country as well as overseas fans can browse it. You dont need any space other than cyberspace to display anything in that one and your whole product line can be shown in glorious detail.

Unfortunately however, the online shop only has a few items for sale and as i mentioned above, the terms offered actively discourage me from shopping. If I have a big order, then fair enough I might absorb the default delivery costs or they may even have to be higher depending on parcel size or weight, but if I want to order a few things they make huge markups on such as a mug, pennant, maybe this year's calendar and such like its going to sting me an additional 14 quid for postage and that makes it useless to me. I have actually had people go down to the shop on my behalf and post the stuff I mentioned to me at a cost of 3 or 4 pounds which kinda defeats the purpose.

[Alex MacLeod]

I agree with what your saying Scotty but the facts are whats there at the minute. Alimac made a comparrison with the Arabs shop. Theirs is a seperate building across from the stadium and floor space is massive.

Going back to harry's first post, just remembered one player not included. Barry Wilson was sold to Ferranti for ?100k.

[Guest Spectre]

I think we got ?20k from Grotna for Bingham too.

"If charity shops can afford this then there is no reason that the club cannot."

Actually Charity shops get a much better deal than 'real' businesses.  Often they don't pay rates, are staffed by unpaid or lowly paid volunteers, don't pay VAT and don't pay tax on their 'profits'.  That's why lots of high streets are jammed full of them whilst 'proper' businesses close down.

[CaleyD]

Our Community Development Dept is a registered Charity, why not exploit that fact to benefit from the same tax breaks that other charity shops do  :004:

[Scotty]

Actually Charity shops get a much better deal than 'real' businesses.  Often they don't pay rates, are staffed by unpaid or lowly paid volunteers, don't pay VAT and don't pay tax on their 'profits'.  That's why lots of high streets are jammed full of them whilst 'proper' businesses close down.

Rates: Given that the town centre is becoming a ghost town I am sure reasonable rates could be negotiated. I believe we pay a commission to Debenhams for sales and I know we pay a commission to PremiumTV for all website sales so maybe the charges for our own place would be similar to the cost of doing business in these other methods.....

Volunteers: ICT has always had a slew of people willing to volunteer to help in various ways. unfortunately, it seems most of these offers are either ignored or turned down.

I agree with what your saying Scotty but the facts are whats there at the minute. Alimac made a comparrison with the Arabs shop. Theirs is a seperate building across from the stadium and floor space is massive.

Alex - not trying to get into an argument, just frustrated that the club are not maximising their earning potential as I am sure you and many others are as well.

If we put aside the comparisons between purpose built buildings compared to portakabins or the pitfalls or hidden costs of town centre shops for a minute, that leaves the discussion about online presence and there can be no excuse not to have every single piece of merchandise you have available on your shop website. It costs nothing to put on there, it costs nothing to merchandise, and all it takes is the time to take a few photos and upload them.

I know from having provided a basic online shop to the club for a few years that all the cheap stuff sells - even online - as people will order a top or jacket etc, then top the order up with bookmarks, pens, badges and all the other high margin low cost items .....  if these are not available online, or the postage for them is excessive then you simply lose the opportunity. I am sure you can appreciate that when dealing with people hundreds or even thousands of miles away, there is no fall-back of a "walk-in" sale.

Of the total of 44 items available on the club shop site (a lot less than the number of SKUs available in the shop itself) only 15 of them (including things like jackets, home/away tops etc) are over the value of £14 which is the flat rate charge for overseas postage. I am not sure of the UK national postage rate charged in the online shop but I can tell you that this charge stopped me dead in my tracks from ordering things like Calendars, keyrings, mouse mats and other small stuff that I was going to give to friends over here as "joke" gifts. I ended up getting someone to go in and get me a calendar, didnt bother with the other stuff, and then got them to post the calendar out to me at a cost of a couple of quid..............

The girls in the shop do a great job with the tools they have available to them, but I think the club "could do better" in terms of assisting them to increase/maximise the profitability. (and lets not even go there with Errea deliveries  :029:)

[SMEE]

there can be no excuse not to have every single piece of merchandise you have available on your shop website.

I actually thought that the online shop was ALL the ICT merchandise that was available (and i thought it was a p1ss poor range). If that is not the case, then there are only two excuses for this....sloppy management and laziness!

[MissICT]

we should buy something like a score board with the money

I was sitting next to this guy and he was like this stadium really needs a score board!!

so we can keep track of the score!!

Any one  think it's  a good idea??

[Scotty]

we should buy something like a score board with the money. I was sitting next to this guy and he was like this stadium really needs a score board!!

so we can keep track of the score!!

Any one  think it's  a good idea??

you need a scoreboard to keep track of the score ???

A scoreboard is the last thing we need ..... costs a fortune, consumes electricity that would make Al Gore blush, and would go where exactly ? would rather we spent any excess money we have on enhancing existing player contracts, making our stands permanent and generally improving whats already there.

[CaleyD]

Forget the scoreboards and hire a couple of Dolly Birds to parade up and down in front of each stand holding up numbers with the score on.

Creates employment, adds to the viewing pleasure and eh....eh....oh yeah....would be cheaper than electronic scoreboards.

[Scotty]

Forget the scoreboards and hire a couple of Dolly Birds to parade up and down in front of each stand holding up numbers with the score on.

Creates employment, adds to the viewing pleasure and eh....eh....oh yeah....would be cheaper than electronic scoreboards.

and if we accepted the McGregor bid, we would get them for free  :015: :015: :015:

... meanwhile, back in the real world ...

[CaleyD]

It was his plans to stick a roof on the stadium I objected to, not the half time entertainment  :015:

[Guest sophia]

Scotty, you are correct, there are plenty willing to volunteer.

I think I?ve just had an idea.

If I could just find somebody else, Mee perhaps, this could be a goer.

[Guest Bob the dog]

I think the Directors of ICT should invest in a decent PA system. at half time those in the North Stand have a problem hearing the PA system. The Club seriously needs to look at doing more to make the experience for their supporters more enjoyable. eg fill in all the potholes in the carpark. Make leaving the home carpark less of an endurance marathon. I now park in the away carpark, as I can exit in under 5 mins. Last time in the home carpark 35mins!! to exit. The announcer should do more to try and enthuse the home fans (as the announcer at Falkirk does for their home support) Our club portacabin/shop is not fit for purpose and is an embarresment. Supporters put up with a lot, and the Club should not take our support for granted.

[TheKarl]

I only wish Caley didn;t have that sh*itty deal with Deb's or whatever it is, I work in JJB - unfortunatly - however, day to day we get countless amounts of locals, polish and tourists hunting down Caley tops and merchandise of allsorts, thats not during christmas or the summer either.

If they were able to get a hold of some shop space downtown, from the numbers we get in, It would be a huge hit.

[johnnykipper]

I only wish Caley didn;t have that sh*itty deal with Deb's or whatever it is, I work in JJB - unfortunatly - however, day to day we get countless amounts of locals, polish and tourists hunting down Caley tops and merchandise of allsorts, thats not during christmas or the summer either.

If they were able to get a hold of some shop space downtown, from the numbers we get in, It would be a huge hit.

Well if you tell them they will be able to buy it in Debenhams I don't see what the problem is :029:

[TheKarl]

We do, but, half the time they have nothing in store, or people can't be bothered going up or to the stadium.

Also, the fact that debenhams Isn't a sports shop, so, people wouldn't really tend to look in there for ICT stuff. If you take that, along with the people/tourists that don't venture into JJB.. then ICT are losing out.

[Alex MacLeod]

Is it not the case that JJB's contract with the OF is such that they can't sell other Scottish teams gear?

[TheKarl]

That is the case, and as of right now, we dont even sell alot of it, Tourists and local people are in looking for Caley stuff, alongside other SPL and even Premiership clubs, and were always having to turn them away, thats why I wish JJB had the rights to seel the stuff, theyde make a heftier profit out of it because alot more people, I guearentee come looking for footy tops in a sports shop, than.. well Debenhams.