Goorin Brothers -Yaletown

Shop Needs & Wants Priority Tour 2013!

Prioritized and Categorized!

General

1. Matt needs a phone line. His job role requires him to be on the phone for long periods of time conducting one on one’s with his shop managers, as well as home office partners. In addition, we have a national call, weekly district calls, and leadership calls being conducted in our shop all on one phone line. Customers have expressed frustration trying to reach us, and we cannot reach them if a hat they’ve requested has arrived in shipment or any other reason.

General

Windows need to have anti-glare. It doesn’t seem to be the case that they do, as if it is sunny out in the day you can’t see in, nor can you see out…and once the sun goes down, no one can see out or in due to all of the interior lighting bouncing against the window.

1. Exterior SignageThis is how customers view our shop from the sidewalk heading south on Hamilton St. The awning is barely visible from the side. I realize there are city restrictions but we should really look into it as this impacts our business hugely every day.

The chalkboard can be seen 20-30 ft away, but no one can read that or our Goorin Brothers Hat Shop sandwich board until they’re about 10ft away, which gives them give or take 15 seconds to decide whether or not they want to check it out. Most often, customers who take notice of the board signage as they pass it stop for a fraction of a second and continue walking, or do not stop at all.

1. Exterior Signage

…However, turn away from our shop and head North down Hamilton St., and all of our business-friends have signs hanging from their awnings so that people can see there is a business there, and what kind of business it is from further away, and have a longer time period to mull over checking it out.

The picture doesn’t show it, but those are signs for Bernstein & Gold (a boutique) and The Flying Pig (restaurant), that are clearly visible from over 30-40 ft away.

2. Lighting

Here at Goorin Brothers Vancouver –we have a little lighting problem. Now, forgive me, but I’m not an electrician or a lighting professional in any sense of the title, but here’s what we’ve gathered from our staff and our customers:

It’s too yellow. Customers frequently have to take hats outside to see the true colour. By Comparison, the lighting in Pike Place is just as antique-feeling, but does not obstruct from a customer’s understanding of the product.

It’s blinding in areas. The cash wrap in particular. The windows. Light is just bouncing all around in there. This may also have to do with our windows not having an anti-glare finish. If you’re outside you have to be up against the window to see in. If you’re inside you can’t see out. Let’s check it out:

2. Lighting

Note: I wish we could blame this on my camera-phone. That’s actually what it looks like.

2. Lighting

The cash-wrap area is especially confusing, with light bouncing off the mirrored-back shelving unit that also reflects all the way out to the street.

2. Lighting

This is how customers see the product on our shelves in our more dimly lit areas.

2. Lighting

Pot lighting at the front door that has never worked. The same situation occurs outside with two pot lights lighting the entryway-only one of which is operational.

3. Fixtures

*Pictured above: The worst tables to ever be tables

As a company, our varied lines of product have outgrown our fixtures in Yaletown. Most non-shelving surfaces are too small to house any particular collection, but as seen in these photos, are not great candidates for featuring just a few styles as the shelf is too low, and only one hat can be stored on top—for how much space these tables occupy they are able to display little.

3. Fixtures

I included this photo because it shows that our ‘feature table’-home to what should be our highest impact merchandising, is dwarfed by the room. I am in favor of installing ‘bar’-style benches in the store to grant further surface room to display hats on and thus kill two birds with one stone, as another one of our shop issues is that the monotony of the shelving gives the customer no where to rest their eye. They can’t see anything because they’re seeing everything at once. Photos on next slide.

3. Fixtures

3. Fixtures

The shelving runs at the same heights and distances apart all along the perimeter of the room. Breaking up the visual monotony of this by using some cubicle shelving light at North Beach or a set-in wall unit like Pike Place could smartly break up all the shelving and allow people to see the separate collections.

3. Fixtures

This problem would be hugely alleviated by being able to display more items in the middle of the shop. A bar like Pike Place would be a great addition to run along the back of our couch. It may be an option to have an “L” shape bar run along the back of the couch and then curve into the middle.

Photos of our uppers reveal that there is a good 3 feet of space between the shelf and the ceiling. It is difficult to occupy this space effectively with little propping. I’m wondering if there isn’t a way to install cabinetry that we could store stock in on the floor. This is also a win win as our back room now houses a District Manager, a Manager, and the poor soul who’s trying to eat lunch on the stock room floor. If we could take out some shelving and have another desk surface that would be great, but only doable if we store stock on the floor. It would still look nice and help the customer’s eye travel back down to the shop level instead of carrying on the distance from floor to ceiling (so I did learn something at Fashion school!)

4. Decoration

Cardboard vintage Goorin art on the walls near the window should be replaced by framed photographs or framed vintage Goorin art. These are not going to be salvageable however as they’re glued to the wall. When I redecorated for our Cut & Sew corner I had to take a few of these down that were on the other side and they peeled and flaked off the wall and were not usable afterward.

4. Decoration

This is our store’s ‘Family Photo Album’. Please send help.

4. DecorationPaint: Our store could use a paint job. It features some interesting paint such as the purple wall painted with raindrops (hard to store anything here that doesn’t scream ‘rain hats’) and then is unpainted-looking in most areas.

Other Photos/Misc.

The mirror-back cash wrap shelving. Very difficult to display hats or props, minimize cash desk clutter as everything is reflected and doubled, light bounces off the mirrors and clouds cash wrap

Other Photos/Misc.

A lot of seating. We like the couch and customers make use of it often to set down bags, seat their children, other family members and themselves at events, but all of the arm chairs take up space and I can’t display hats on them.

Other Photos/Misc.

This water-damaged hole was left in our ceiling by the plumbing company the building manager hired to look after a leak originating in a suite above us. It’s a months-old hole that has been left there and whenever I ask the building maintenance manager he tells me to ask the building manager but if you call him he tells you to call the first guy. The maintenance man once told me it will be there for a long time because it’s a big deal to fix the leak upstairs for good.

Conclusion

Please give our store a makeover!

Love,Yaletown