how to make more money at the amex and please the fans

[Davey Boy Smith]

I'd like a shoe shine how about that?

Me too

 

[Titus]

Why don't people buy their pies when they arrive and keep them until half time? That's what I do.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

It would have been far far simpler had they have done what they did at the Spurs game and have dedicated queues at each kiosk for Cash, Smartcards and Debit/Credit Cards - This costs very little to implement and would reduce queuing times for considerably - providing the staff had been trained correctly, which they clearly were not last night!

Rant over!

Quite right. I have gone on about this before, but I cannot understand why so many people who are Season Ticket Holders queue up and pay by cash, when Hebberd and Perry banged on constantly about using your season ticket. I can only assume that such people never heard about it, especially when you get 10% off. Mind you, I don't know where the top-up terminals in the concourses are. I got my top-up off the website.

 

[hola gus]

Why don't people buy their pies when they arrive and keep them until half time? That's what I do.

Er cos it might go cold?!

 

[Weststander]

Punters sneaking off (or sending a mate) to join the queue, seems to be getting earlier and earlier in WSU. Plenty leaving seats with 10 or 15 minutes to go to half time.

If somehow, there was more or faster service, the club would generate more cash. We'd like to spend more at H/T, but don't bother.

Same at the end with the getting earlier bit. Leaving half way through extra time, used to guarantee being on first park n ride. Now tons doing the same, meaning packed outside when game still playing.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

if i give him a quid will he get me one. 10 of them equals a little profit for the lad as well.

A little profit AFTER I've deducted my 17.5% agents fee! ;-)

 

[NMH]

The profit stated in this thread is bollocks, as it's been pointed out by others that people are just waiting longer to buy pies and beer that they would still buy, and it's not such an issue about people keeping money in their pockets.

The Americans sell stuff during events, from mobile vendors. That doesn't seem such a bad idea, except the distraction during a match for a pie getting passed.
The solution 'might' be to have a faster method of exchange for pies and beer.
So, how about a special voucher or chip that can be purchased en masse at the ticket office, and has the value of 1 pie or 1 beer?
Then have a queue for those using cash, and a shorter, faster-turning counter for those with the voucher or chip.

 

[kip]

If you want a pint at half time and not miss any of the game do what I do. Walk to the front of the queue and offer some random person £7 to buy you a pint. Works every time and I get to enjoy my pint without having to drink it in 30 seconds flat.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

There is a fundamental business problem with maximising profits from half time sales.

Demand will always exceed the clubs ability to satisfy it. In order to sell quickly to everyone who wants to buy you would need far more staff than would physically fit into the areas available. Therefore you would have to invest to make those areas bigger and more efficient.

For what? For a 15 minute high demand period. And everyone ideally wants serving in the first 5 minutes of that period so they have time to consume what they buy and get back to the game.

This would mean you would need to over-engineer your facilities just to satisfy a short peak of demand rather than making the best of facilities that are adequate for 90% of the time they are operational.

Unless you can persuade staff to work for say just 30 minutes this would mean paying people to stand around for a large part of their shift.

A business that is geared up to cope perfectly with a level of demand only seen for a very small part of their operation is going to go bust. The cost of being ready to perfectly satisfy a demand that doesn't exist for most of the time the business is open will be too much for that business to cope with.

The best any business can do is to ensure it can meet normal demand and cope as best it can in a sudden peak. But the peak will always be a problem time.

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

Why can't we have portable pie sellers, simular to the ice cream sellers at the cinema.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

There is a fundamental business problem with maximising profits from half time sales.

Demand will always exceed the clubs ability to satisfy it. In order to sell quickly to everyone who wants to buy you would need far more staff than would physically fit into the areas available. Therefore you would have to invest to make those areas bigger and more efficient.

For what? For a 15 minute high demand period. And everyone ideally wants serving in the first 5 minutes of that period so they have time to consume what they buy and get back to the game.

This would mean you would need to over-engineer your facilities just to satisfy a short peak of demand rather than making the best of facilities that are adequate for 90% of the time they are operational.

Unless you can persuade staff to work for say just 30 minutes this would mean paying people to stand around for a large part of their shift.

A business that is geared up to cope perfectly with a level of demand only seen for a very small part of their operation is going to go bust. The cost of being ready to perfectly satisfy a demand that doesn't exist for most of the time the business is open will be too much for that business to cope with.

The best any business can do is to ensure it can meet normal demand and cope as best it can in a sudden peak. But the peak will always be a problem time.

This post needs to be copied on to the threads that are proposing more trains and more buses in the half hour after the end of the game.

 

[Notters]

Maybe the answer is for the club/Azure to hire a dedicated queue-buster that gets paid a stonking great bonus based on results i.e. increased catering revenue. Maybe somebody with experience of catering in a major US sports franchise. It shouldn't really have to come to this, but there is clearly hefty sums of money being lost due to the stadium not being able to match supply with demand.

They don't have problems in american sports because they have far more breaks in play, they have people wandering round the stands and they're allowed to take beers to the stands. We certainly don't want the first two of these in football.

It would have been far far simpler had they have done what they did at the Spurs game and have dedicated queues at each kiosk for Cash, Smartcards and Debit/Credit Cards - This costs very little to implement and would reduce queuing times for considerably - providing the staff had been trained correctly, which they clearly were not last night!

Pretty sure the smartcards weren't activated until well after the spurs game.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

This post needs to be copied on to the threads that are proposing more trains and more buses in the half hour after the end of the game.

Thank you for your support.

We grey bearded old farts know everything, we should take over the world!

 

[les dynam]

There is a fundamental business problem with maximising profits from half time sales.

Demand will always exceed the clubs ability to satisfy it. In order to sell quickly to everyone who wants to buy you would need far more staff than would physically fit into the areas available. Therefore you would have to invest to make those areas bigger and more efficient.

For what? For a 15 minute high demand period. And everyone ideally wants serving in the first 5 minutes of that period so they have time to consume what they buy and get back to the game.

This would mean you would need to over-engineer your facilities just to satisfy a short peak of demand rather than making the best of facilities that are adequate for 90% of the time they are operational.

Unless you can persuade staff to work for say just 30 minutes this would mean paying people to stand around for a large part of their shift.

A business that is geared up to cope perfectly with a level of demand only seen for a very small part of their operation is going to go bust. The cost of being ready to perfectly satisfy a demand that doesn't exist for most of the time the business is open will be too much for that business to cope with.

The best any business can do is to ensure it can meet normal demand and cope as best it can in a sudden peak. But the peak will always be a problem time.

not sure i agree with this fully mr cadiz. i take your point, but as loads of people have pointed out the kiosks are plenty big enough to house a till person AND a grabber (i.e. somebody sorts payments whilst the other grabs the pies and pints etc). It's frustrating when you do eventually get served to be met by somebody who has to perform a two person job on his own.

Is this just Azure penny pinching and not employing the right number of people? If so, what can we do to influence this.

 

[Notters]

The profit stated in this thread is bollocks, as it's been pointed out by others that people are just waiting longer to buy pies and beer that they would still buy, and it's not such an issue about people keeping money in their pockets.

But that's guff. I've only had one half time pint, but I would've had more if it was possible to get one without missing any of the match. To me, though, the match is the priority and I'd rather go without than mis even 20 seconds of the game.

I think the solution to stopping people leaving early would be to ensure that we only score goals in added on time in both halves, people would soon stop wandering off then.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

There was a grabber in the North Stand kiosk (closest to the entrance) in the match vs Barnsley. That seemed to work well.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

A business that is geared up to cope perfectly with a level of demand only seen for a very small part of their operation is going to go bust.

Maybe not, this is the premium half-time service which many folk seem to be expecting...and for which they will have to pay accordingly.

 

[portlock seagull]

There is a fundamental business problem with maximising profits from half time sales.

Demand will always exceed the clubs ability to satisfy it. In order to sell quickly to everyone who wants to buy you would need far more staff than would physically fit into the areas available. Therefore you would have to invest to make those areas bigger and more efficient.

For what? For a 15 minute high demand period. And everyone ideally wants serving in the first 5 minutes of that period so they have time to consume what they buy and get back to the game.

This would mean you would need to over-engineer your facilities just to satisfy a short peak of demand rather than making the best of facilities that are adequate for 90% of the time they are operational.

Unless you can persuade staff to work for say just 30 minutes this would mean paying people to stand around for a large part of their shift.

A business that is geared up to cope perfectly with a level of demand only seen for a very small part of their operation is going to go bust. The cost of being ready to perfectly satisfy a demand that doesn't exist for most of the time the business is open will be too much for that business to cope with.

The best any business can do is to ensure it can meet normal demand and cope as best it can in a sudden peak. But the peak will always be a problem time.

Sell 2 additonal pies and you've paid for 1 hr of the additional staff. Sell 4 and you've got them for 2hrs and so on.

I reckon the additional staff would cover themselves. Just a hunch. In fact, just being better organised would mean you wouldn't need to be employe additional staff. Wouldn't cost much to put up a sign saying sold out of pies etc and prevent a hundred people joining a pointless queue. And then those that just wanted a drink would be able to get served quicker...until the beer sold out sign goes up

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Sell 2 additonal pies and you've paid for 1 hr of the additional staff. Sell 4 and you've got them for 2hrs and so on.

How do you work that out? i can't remember offhand but what's the price of a pie? 4 quid? What´s the net profit? less than a quid, I'll bet. Where are you going to get someone to work for less than 2 quid an hour?

But as someone else said selling someone a pie at half time doesn't necessarily mean that's an extra pie sold. If I want something to eat at the game like a pie, and I know there's going to be a mad crush at half time then I'll probably have my pie before or after the game, So the total number of pies sold by the club to me stays the same - unless I'm a guts and have one before the game as well as half time.

 

[Nibble]

The simple fact is, when you have that amount of people with such a short window of time in which to serve them you are going to get long queues. It happens at any venue that size. People don't moan so much at music venues because you are likely to go to a music gig less often than a match. To sum up: There's lots of people all wanting the same thing, there is going to be a queue.