Shop system new

Records, publishing, shop etc.
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lucky
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Shop system new

Post by lucky » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:09 pm

The shop is flawed.

I don't have time to post on here when things are sold and run the kitchen at the same time. Night managers don't know anything about it most of the time.

Solution - only Kitchen Managers have keys to the Shop and we keep a book in a drawer. The Shop is open between 10am-6:30pm. In the book we write the date, item sold, how many and who the money goes to.

Any objections? It's in place as of tomorrow unless anyone objects furiously.

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beev
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Post by beev » Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:52 pm

Yes, but NMs should be trained to do this as well.

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lucky
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Post by lucky » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:38 pm

Well, I'm thinking of not having to make NMs responsible for this as there is already quite a bit of stuff they have to do, take in, deal with. If just KMs have keys then we can DEFINATELY say what has been sold, and DEFINATELY know that no-one has taken the spare key (which won't exist in this new world) to take stuff out, not recorded it, stole it etc.

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lucky
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Post by lucky » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:30 pm

Shop system now in gear.

This is the poster I have done for now. Do better if you can. Please.

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Shannon
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Post by Shannon » Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:41 am

For what it's worth, I think deciding to put things in place unless someone objects within 24 hours is a bad operating procedure, in general. On the otherhand, this has obviously taken more than the 24 hours you stipulated, so what do I know?

Is missing out on sales worth having an exact count of what is sold? If people come in at night and want to buy, they will not always come back the next day. Sometimes they cannot come back because they are leaving town, etc.

My feeling is that we should let night managers know about the system, but not worry too much if they forget or can't figure out a sale some night. If they remember the key, they will remember the book. But why assume none of them will remember and therefore restrict the hours? Most of the people who read the bb are night managers, and I think they are all capable of handling a sale after the KMs leave.

The book is a good idea, but there is no reason not to let a NM do a sale if they remember how to. To my knowledge we haven't had any problems with that particular key going missing, or anything going missing from the locked cabinet. Implement the book, put the key with the book, and we'll add the details onto the NM letter.

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lucky
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Post by lucky » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:28 pm

I said to count how much stock people put in, then count how much is left in the end and get money for the difference i.e. amount sold. Some people thought this was flawed, though the shop is the most untouched thing around here.

Solution - one of the silver drawers beneath the till. Label SHOP, book and key go in it with basic instructions on the front.

?

As some threads/questions lay unanswered for eternity, I think it's good reason to go ahead with things. There is my reasoning, but things can always be changed.

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Susana
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Post by Susana » Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:21 am

Regarding who should be allowed to do sales: I had put my stuff in the glass cabinet in the second week of December. Two weeks later I checked and noticed that 3 of my items seemed to have being sold. To my knowledge there was no record of it. I also noticed that another two of my things had been damaged which could be that they were testing them and they split, which comes to tell me that my stuff is a bit crap... or that someone was playing with them. As someone who is trying to sell something through this shop I would prefer that only the day managers could deal with this. Although it is indeed a pity to miss out on the potential buyers of the evening...

On another level someone pointed out to me that the position of the cabinet itself may not be the best as it is just next to the Free Shop. And that in fact it should be more rather in the Kunst Gallery or by the window, or both. I couldn't agree more. Having a free space where you can sell your things is fantastic but you would want it to capture as many people as possible. I have a vision of the cabinet being by the window and us having to make the cabinet much bigger to cope with all the people that want to sell things through it.... Surely there must be dozens of artists/craftistas (new word for you...) out there who would kill for such type of space! And we can offer it!

One more suggestion: wouldn't those selling books and cds want to write some blurb on the content (style, subject, etc). People cannot browse through them so some explanation could help.
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Shannon
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Post by Shannon » Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:09 pm

Part of the problem here seems to be that no working group really takes any responsibility for the shop. Technically it is part of behind the scenes, but I don't think we've ever talked about it at a meeting. It really shouldn't be a KM job to try and sort all of this out. And moving the cabinet would probably be a good idea too...

Alas, the book for writing purchases is a good start. If we are taking in items from outside artists, it's pretty imperative that know when things are sold. As far as I know, there isn't really a system set up regarding payment or risk or anything else. Ie: if non-Forest stock goes missing or isn't written up in the sold book, does the artist get reimbursed? We haven't really had much non-Forest stock in the cabinet up to this point, so it really hasn't been much of a problem.

Susana: I'm surprised that your stuff got damaged if it was in the cabinet. To my knowledge the cabinet is very rarely opened, and definitely not for people to fiddle!

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Post by ravanwin » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:02 pm

my only feeling is that only forest goods should be sold as we are willing to take the risks inherent in the flawed system. if others want to take that risk with us, on our terms, this is fine but I never recomend that anyone should sell anything via the shop in the current state.

my feeling is i want the books and cds and lps to get out there and am happy to assume any missing have been sold / stolen as we've already paid for the goods already. i am more reluctant o pay for presumably sold items which there is no account of and would discourage use of the shop untill a motivated WG is in place.

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beev
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Post by beev » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:47 pm

Unless it is squeezed through the narrow gap in the glass, I don't see how anything can get stolen from the shop under the current system. Anything that's gone, we can assume it is sold and the money gone in the till. This is fine as long as access to the key is limited to responsible peoples.

Artists can be reimbursed for sales, not for damage (as Susana says, it suggests poor quality as there is not much scope for tampering).

It is good that various folks can make use of it. The more different stuff in there the better it looks. Those who are making use of it should try to improve it, as Susana has done with the lighting.

The location of the shop could be better, but it's hard to get a free spot as many other things have higher priority. It could also be bigger and without the gaps, but we would need someone with some good skills to offer to make one.

A handbook explaining how it works (for NMs etc) might be helpful, but any system of logging sales has proven in the past to be kinda useless because people forget to record stuff and the information is rendered useless. (eg It is unfair to refuse to pay an artist for something that was sold just because our volunteer forgot to write it down and we had to assume it was stolen)

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