It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I fully appreciate the need for appointments currently. But I do hope that if and when a level of normality returns the appointment system is ditched and normal service is resumed.
Please don’t fuck this up like last time.
Love,
The modmins.
On the other hand, I work right next to Denmark Street and massively value (and recently miss) being able to pop into the stores there on a whim at lunch time. Have actually bought 2 guitars on impulse thanks to the relationship built up with the guys at the stores there, a TV Yellow Heritage H-137 and a gold Fernandez strat (which turned out to be "the one" - who'd have thought?)
If they were appointment only there I'd have never happened upon those guitars.
Quite often I’ve passed through without buying anything, occasionally I’ve emerged with more than I bargained for, sometimes I’ve emerged with something radically different to what I went in for, quite often I’ve just been popping in for a pre-gig emergency purchase of a lead or two or a couple sets of strings. Both of my children became regular customers too. I’m not convinced that an appointment only policy lends itself to building up that kind of relationship, and it’s something I’d miss....
It could well be that the benefits in terms of long-distance, big ticket customers outweigh that, in which case, well, it’s a business decision, and it would be daft to argue with the numbers. But I’d miss being able to drop in...
As far as the appointments thing goes I think on the whole it's a good idea; it certainly wouldn't put me off using Peach in the future - although I would feel a little sheepish if I spent an hour in the shop & then ended up not buying anything after trying out a load of gear...
I have to say that I was speaking with Connor on Saturday afternoon and he was fantastic. The fact that you take the time to inspect your guitars, and have a tech check them over before they are sent out, is a huge plus for me and a major reason as to why I will now be dealing with you again in the future.
More important, in my opinion, is service - every guitar should be set up by someone who knows what they're doing before being shipped, pretty much regardless of cost (cheap guitars benefit greatly from a quick set up, expensive ones probably need a lot less attention so that's where the cost is covered perhaps?).
Online buyers will continue unaffected. Long distance visitors would probably welcome appointments as long as they are reassured that their visit would not be in vain (e.g. item sold) and that there would be some flexibility in what they are allowed to see and try out. Local drop-in buyers would probably not appreciate being asked to make appointments so may well go elsewhere (good news for Mann's).
So perhaps it comes down to what proportion of Peach customers falls into each of those three groups as to what policy decisions are taken?
Of course, it's not all about Covid, I can see many plus sides for a Business that wants to operate appointment only. I don't think I could warm to it though.
I stood outside Primark in the rain waiting for my wife the other week rather than go in there...
But I doubt that I’m really a statistical representation of your business numbers
however, I don’t buy strings and plectrums and guitar straps and sheet music off the web - I buy them from one of the various guitar shops I frequent as it seems better to give them my money than a website. And you know I’ve then seen and then bought guitars and amps from those shops in the past as a result, even if I did go back and visit several times to do so.
id suggest one day in the week and one day at the weekend when you do “open shop” even if only for half the day, and change the days each week, might be a nice compromise and “win:win”
I think appointments, as an option, are a good idea even if things return completely to "normal".
When I was younger and less confident - not that I'm very confident now - I quite often took long train journeys to guitar shops to check out something I'd seen online (or more likely in a magazine ad, in those days). Sometimes I'd arrive, find all the cool staff chatting to their cool mates, and completely bottle it.... and off I'd go, all the way home again. Having an appointment solves that problem and establishes you as a proper customer.