Boro Mini Kits Stock

I visited the shop last week, armed with a birthday gift voucher. I don’t do replica shirts (which was good as there were none) but otherwise, there were virtually no items of clothing that I could spend it on. Next to nothing in stock for ‘popular‘ sizes. Size S would fit a 12yr old, I’m normally a M but nowhere near large enough, couldn’t find a single polo or T shirt in the place in Large.
Pretty poor show IMHO.
 
YouAreMyBoro said:
And it's also criminal in my opinion that they think it's a triumph that there's nowt to put on sale at the end of the season. There will be many people bought sale stuff as they can't afford full price.
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100% Honestly think Gibson has been a millionaire too long. Completely forgotten his roots and completely out of touch.

At times it comes across as if he resents fans for not wanting to pay daft prices for tickets or kits etc (because after all he's pumping millions in).

There can't be many clubs (of any sport) in the country where you can't walk into the club shop and pick up a shirt during the season. And certainly not in the run up to Christmas.

If it was incompetence that'd be one thing, but from what Rob's been told its apparently by design and they're pleased with themselves about it.
 
festa5 said:
100% Honestly think Gibson has been a millionaire too long. Completely forgotten his roots and completely out of touch.

At times it comes across as if he resents fans for not wanting to pay daft prices for tickets or kits etc (because after all he's pumping millions in).

There can't be many clubs (of any sport) in the country where you can't walk into the club shop and pick up a shirt during the season. And certainly not in the run up to Christmas.

If it was incompetence that'd be one thing, but from what Rob's been told its apparently by design and they're pleased with themselves about it.
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Are you available for consultancy work? You could advise Gibbo on maximising business profits
 
AytonMews said:
Are you available for consultancy work? You could advise Gibbo on maximising business profits
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Given the number of people who have raised the same point over the last few years and the fact that it has been going on for years, it is clearly not just one person with a gripe.

People providing feedback on their customer experience is valuable for a business, a business ignoring it is foolish.

Are you saying the club can do no wrong and that people shouldn't give feedback on their experiences?
 
Primus84 said:
Given the number of people who have raised the same point over the last few years and the fact that it has been going on for years, it is clearly not just one person with a gripe.

People providing feedback on their customer experience is valuable for a business, a business ignoring it is foolish.

Are you saying the club can do no wrong and that people shouldn't give feedback on their experiences?
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No but I am saying to you - do not call people liars.
The use of that word stopped me in my tracks just as when someone had a go at me on the same thread. It made me think twice about making an approach to ask some questions.
 
I managed to get hold of a kids away top and shorts after the match a few weeks back, when they had stocks behind the till in cardboard boxes. However, even then there were no kids sized socks and it doesn't sound like there are likely to be now either. I realise that shorts and socks in adult sizes don't sell in very great numbers, but surely in the case of kids it's likely that people will want to buy whole kits, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to even up the numbers a bit more? As it is, I'm now on the lookout for some generic navy socks to try to put a full kit together.
 
fmttmadmin said:
No but I am saying to you - do not call people liars.
The use of that word stopped me in my tracks just as when someone had a go at me on the same thread. It made me think twice about making an approach to ask some questions.
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I said they were either deluded or lying - which they are - they either truly believe customers are happy or they know they're not and they're lying - it's one or the other I didn't say which.

Given the posts on here and the lack of stock (not the first year this has happened by any means) there is clearly a major issue and the club are missing out on ££££ from fans which is ridiculous.

Honestly Rob that's ridiculous - people are unhappy and rightly telling you, but because I've said they're either deluded or lying you're now having second thoughts about speaking to the club?!

We saw the "communications mixup" where the club said you'd been consultated over the move to digital season tickets when you hadn't - some people might say the club were lying, others that the club were mistaken/deluded - people can clearly make up their own minds on that.
 
Primus84 said:
I said they were either deluded or lying - which they are - they either truly believe customers are happy or they know they're not and they're lying - it's one or the other I didn't say which.

Given the posts on here and the lack of stock (not the first year this has happened by any means) there is clearly a major issue and the club are missing out on ££££ from fans which is ridiculous.

Honestly Rob that's ridiculous - people are unhappy and rightly telling you, but because I've said they're either deluded or lying you're now having second thoughts about speaking to the club?!

We saw the "communications mixup" where the club said you'd been consultated over the move to digital season tickets when you hadn't - some people might say the club were lying, others that the club were mistaken/deluded - people can clearly make up their own minds on that.
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I became uncomfortable asking questions to someone that potentially had read your words and others also. I think you need to consider this in future. This is public domain.
 
fmttmadmin said:
I became uncomfortable asking questions to someone that potentially had read your words and others also. I think you need to consider this in future. This is public domain.
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It isn't - I believe people sometimes need to step back and look at their words before they post them.
 
fmttmadmin said:
It isn't - I believe people sometimes need to step back and look at their words before they post them.
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So people cannot criticise the club or take issue with what the club say - it's all gospel and cannot be challenged?

The club are publicly saying (through their response to you) that everything is ok, we've never had it so good and there are no issues - this is patently not the case. Therefore the person speaking on behalf of MFC is either deluded (defn. believing something that is not true) or they are lying.

Were the club correct when they said publicly there had been a consultation over digital ticketing - had you, in fact, actually been consulted on this before it going live and them telling everyone a consultation had happened? Or was this another example of the club being deluded/lying?
 
If the person is on here and potentially read then words then .... good ! They might decide to actually do something about it.

While we are at it can we also find out why the mini kit socks are generic errea socks and not the actual same for this seasons kit? They used the same socks last season also
 
AytonMews said:
Are you available for consultancy work? You could advise Gibbo on maximising business profits
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I don't think Gibson cares about maximising profits. He cares about minimising losses so a retail outlet that sells all its stock is seen as a success. He might be a great businessman in the domain of hauling bulk but he's definitely not a retailing guru.

I find it baffling that anyone would ever assume the club knows best and they have superior knowledge to anyone passing comment. Away from the footballing side of things the football club is actually a tiny business, and it pays peanuts, so the chances they have the best procurement, stock modelling or data analysis is slim. The chances that there is someone on here that knows more about retail than Gibson and his retail team is pretty high. There are lots of people with experience of working in senior positions in companies that know how things work, there are even more people that have been in shops a million times in their life and understand that a model based around 2 products that are never in stock isn't being run as efficiently as it could be.

I don't think there is any point asking the club anything. They don't care. I can't imagine Gibson is particularly flexible and if he's happy with being told that the stock is all sold, at full price, and there have been very few returns then it's probably not worth risking his wrath by telling him that there are better ways to do things.
 
Nano said:
I don't think Gibson cares about maximising profits. He cares about minimising losses so a retail outlet that sells all its stock is seen as a success. He might be a great businessman in the domain of hauling bulk but he's definitely not a retailing guru.

I find it baffling that anyone would ever assume the club knows best and they have superior knowledge to anyone passing comment. Away from the footballing side of things the football club is actually a tiny business, and it pays peanuts, so the chances they have the best procurement, stock modelling or data analysis is slim. The chances that there is someone on here that knows more about retail than Gibson and his retail team is pretty high. There are lots of people with experience of working in senior positions in companies that know how things work, there are even more people that have been in shops a million times in their life and understand that a model based around 2 products that are never in stock isn't being run as efficiently as it could be.

I don't think there is any point asking the club anything. They don't care. I can't imagine Gibson is particularly flexible and if he's happy with being told that the stock is all sold, at full price, and there have been very few returns then it's probably not worth risking his wrath by telling him that there are better ways to do things.
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Of course they care. Am sure of that. The club is run for the fans. I firmly believe that.
And of course people can challenge and disagree and come up with alternative approaches etc but not be insulting to individuals, please.
 
People are clearly frustrated and rightly so, they just want to be able to purchase the kits, be it for themselves or their kids.
I know 2 friends of mine both season ticket holders, and they have purchased kits from one of these Chinese sites for their lads after being unable to get them from the club. Personally I don’t agree with it, but they did try the right channel first. Now they’ve done that, they probably won’t bother trying the shop again in future.

Any fan in their right mind appreciates the funds that Gibson has, and continues to put into the club to keep it going…but…surely they need to be maximising all revenue streams across the board?? And in this instance it sounds like the club are missing out. I don’t agree with the mentality of being happy the shop is turning over £2million so everything must be going well. What if it could be turning over £3-4million?? That’s just a strange logic.

Maybe we need to get a better understanding of numbers for the first run of kits, could this be linked to season ticket renewals and even a possible discount for pre-ordering with a renewal. This might go some way to mitigating excess stock levels later in the year. And just on that, some families out there depend on those excess kits going into the sales later in the year. Without that some kids might never get their hands on a boro top, so why I get they don’t want a ton of kits to sell off, it’s not always about the money.
 
fmttmadmin said:
Of course they care. Am sure of that. The club is run for the fans. I firmly believe that.
And of course people can challenge and disagree and come up with alternative approaches etc but not be insulting to individuals, please.
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Rob - me saying people working for the club are either deluded or lying is hardly insulting - you’re making a mountain out of a molehill here.
 
I went in before the last home game and was stunned at the quality of the stuff they were selling. It was so bad. Much worse than I can ever recall. I saw a bloke and his son wanting to buy a scarf each but the only ones they had were gay pride / rainbow ones. Surely having ample scarfs in stock on a match day is the basics, especially in November?!
 
I'm no expert when it comes to retail, but not having any stock of your 4-5 most popular items going into your 2nd busiest trading period feels like a pretty big balls up to me. I'd expect serious questions to be asked, but it sounds like they're all high fiving each other on a job well done.

I had a look on the online stores of other clubs at this level - Sunderland, Bristol City, Coventry, West Brom and some of them do have the odd kids shirt size out of stock but nothing like the vast swathes of nothing when it comes to our replica and training merchandise.

The responses on this thread alone should tell them it isn't just a social media perception that the quality of merchandise is poor and the 1% return rate is not proof that people are happy with their product.

The club seem to have finally got the on-pitch approach correct, but the off-pitch side is still run like a tuck shop. It just reminds me of that ticketing guy who they brought in, he spent many months collecting data to try and push for a fresh approach to ticketing. From what we're led to believe he presented it to the higher ups who told him they weren't for changing, so he left to go somewhere he could actually influence things.
 
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