Painful Mistake #4 - Going to the Club Store
Let's face it -- we all love going to Sam's, Costco, BJ's and the Wal-mart superstore for personal purchases as well as for some hotel supplies from time-to-time. Products stacked a mile high and new and interesting products make going to the Club Store a real adventure -- a treasure hunt, even.
However, utilizing the Club Store to purchase wholesale products for your market, pantry or gift shop is a mistake for 4 primary reasons:
- Prices seem to be low, in some cases by a good margin. But buying low is often false economics. If the Club Store doesn't have the right product in the right size that your guests want (and the Club Store can't help with that), you will end up with backstock and out-of-code products. For example, at least one Club Store sells King Sized Candy Bars (the most popular with guests, by the way) only in a large variety pack. When you sell through the most popular item, you need to return to the Club Store and buy another variety pack, adding inventory of the items that are not selling as well.
- Add to that the fact that Club Stores don't deliver to most areas -- so you or your staff will need to take time off property, utilize your own car or the guest shuttle (!) and drive to and from the store. Not only does that increase the real cost, but there are serious liability risks that need to be considered. For this reason most, if not all, prudent hotel owner/operators discourage and even prohibit this practice.
- It is nearly impossible to get the right products and very difficult to find them, even if they are available. At Tradavo, we are aware of, and working with the hotel brands on their planograms, based on our intimate knowledge of what sells in each brand and geography. We recently took the brand standard list to a local Club Store and were able to locate only 20% of the required items.
- The Club Store won't help with retailing. Successful retailing is more than just about buying low -- otherwise, the small independent convenience store that buys diverted product, from a door-to-door sales person selling out of a trunk and from the Club Store would outperform the 7-11s and Circle Ks. And swap meet clothing sellers would outperform TJ Max. The 360 degree retailer needs intimate knowledge of consumers, planograms, visual merchandising and pricing -- none of these are provided by Club Stores.
At the end of the day, it's about results. We at Tradavo work with hundreds of hotels that were previously purchasing from Club Stores. Without exception, they have experienced eye-opening improvements in guest satisfaction, SPOR and profitability. We are happy to share this information with hotel owner/operators and general managers that want to improve performance.
Let us help you take the risk and the guess work out of buying wholesale for your market, pantry and gift shop. We look forward to working with you and watching your key performance indicators skyrocket.
Bobby Martyna
President and CEO
Tradavo, Inc
bmartyna@tradavo.com
@bmartyna