As you say getting an additional 5% off for early arrival is an improvement as far as merchandise sales are concerned, I'm not overly interested in the position on food and drink as in my case its chicken feed so won't affect my behaviour in that respect as I suspect is probably the case for the majority of supporters. So what will now happen with merchandise is that when I need to purchase something I will arrive early to ensure my previous 10% so that I can keep it in budget & if I'm lucky I'll get the bonus of the extra 5% if I get served in time. As I don't live in Brighton and it already takes me an hour to get to the p&r on a good day & anything up to 45 minutes for the p&r to get to the stadium this means I will now have to leave home at around 11am to allow for this & give me time for queuing for the shop etc. I will then get in the shop as quickly as I can, grab precisely what I went in for & queue or ages due to demand exceeding staff. I will then ask to have a name put on the shirt & most likely be told it can't be done match days & I'm not going to drive down that far just to get it done so this will irritate me & the club will lose that additional money. it will take 10 minutes at the till while the system messes about trying to get the e cash sorted (happens every time I go in there on a match day but not on non match days, no idea why). All of this while the kids are moaning that they want to go & with me trying to hide what I'm buying from them as it is a present - I will leave the shop hot, with a headache & rightly or not very irritated. I will go to the concourse to get food as I won't have had lunch only to find stupidly long queues while people sort out cash or card. When I get served they will have a) run out of what I want b) give me the wrong thing c) try & overcharge me d) have to be told 3 steak pies 6 times & then go & collect them 1 by 1 rather than just grab 3 (this has happened more than once) .. Delete the relevant option on a game by game basis. When we've been through all this frustration & time wasting I will either not receive cashback or I get a lower amount. It's probably about £1 so in financial terms it won't be a big deal but by this point I will resent it. And now instead of being a customer who was generally a fairly happy & content visitor with a few irritations but not enough to complain about I am now pissed off, irritated by the club & feeling very under appreciated & taken for granted. I now feel like a number which wadnt the case before & that is where this damages the club.
Compare this with the situation now. Shopping on match days is a pain in the backside so when I need to get something for one of the kids birthdays I go down on a weekend when we aren't playing or if I get a chance during the week. I don't have to worry about hiding stuff from the kids. I can look round easily without hassle & usually end up buying more than planned because I see something I like. On other occasions I will take the boys with me to get them out the house for a bit & they enjoy going. On those days I ALWAYS spend more than I intended as I'm a total sucker with them & i also pick up ideas of things they see that they like to pass on to relatives as birthday & Xmas present ideas. No real queue to pay. If the till should mess up I don't get stressed as I'm relaxed & not rushing & the staff serving are a lot less stressed too so friendlier. Overall its a much more pleasant experience & gives a better impression of the club. I will then pop up to Dick's bar for a coffee & possibly some lunch - if the kids are with me that's probably 3 or 4 meals & drinks they wouldn't sell otherwise.
So my point is that I'm not overly worried about the few quid a year difference on food & drink on match days, I understand that some of the changes being made may not be liked but are necessary for us to compete, I totally get that the extra money will go to player budget etc, some things about Barber I dislike but I recognise that he's doing the job he has been brought in to do & a lot of what he gets blamed for is unfair. I even understand they are trying to spread out the transport as its a bit of a problem & that isn't going to be easy to do.
But what I don't get is how removing the non match day benefit achieves any of that whatsoever. I have a budget of £500 a year to spend on presents for family members. That budget will not change irrespective of where it gets spent. With the discount I've enjoyed until now a lot of it has been spent in the club shop as it has put items into budget & it helps me to encourage the kids to keep supporting us. And the more kids wearing the shirts the more other kids start asking about the club & wanting to see what the fuss is about which helps build the fanbase for the future - some of their friends have come with us in the past & ended up buying stuff too or coming back for matches etc. It's pretty much free advertising in the same way that Hollister & A&F have their brand name so visible for a reason. If it becomes too much of a pain in the arse or too expensive to spend that budget in the shop then rightly or wrongly I will spend it elsewhere because its simply not worth the hassle - and that's a real loss of income to the club.
If the budget does still get spent there it will mean me only going in on match days. When I won't browse and buy things I didn't intend to. It may be due to my female status, I don't know, but I do shop with my eyes rather than my head quite a bit & if I'm not browsing I'm not impulse shopping. Again, rightly or wrongly that's a real loss of income to the club.
And finally by making such a total & utter balls up of the way I which this was announced & the timing with which it is being implemented means that they've pissed me off & alienated me when it was actually totally unnecessary to do so. They've also made me sit down & look at what I actually spent on my e cash last season which I wouldn't have done otherwise & now its made me consider whether I really needed to buy those impulse purchases which has put it in my head that I may want to think twice next time as they add up more than you realise. And yet again that is potentially a real loss of income to the club.
So no this isn't about whether I think the club are treating me as a customer or a supporter or a fan or whether I don't like Paul Barber or I'm alienated & all the other stuff. The reason I think the removal of the 10% on non match days is so totally & utterly stupid is that it WILL lose the club money. Tiering on match days & leaving it at 10% on non match days would achieve the same aims without taking that risk & it leaves me with concerns about the decisions being made & whether they could ultimately cause more damage than its worth.
End of very long rant (sorry)
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secondly the system has changed on the card reader/till which now does not show the total on your card after a transaction so you won't know if its gone on at point of sale, and the cashback doesn't show up on the till receipt either.
