Town centre shop

I think we need to have a shop in the town again. Surely with so many empty shops available one could be rented fairly cheaply on a short lease to see how it goes. People passing might make an impromptu visit, browse and buy something they normally wouldn’t. It is a faff to get to Bescot if you haven’t got transport to just buy a mug or something so having it where you shop anyway is more convenient. We do however need to increase our range of products and leisure wear, especially for women, as the range is poor. We might sell more tickets if people can pop in anytime to buy one. This also would cut down on match day queues at the ground. Talking of tickets, couldn’t the club have a digital system where you buy a ticket on-line then it is sent to your phone (like an argos type thing) and you show this to turnstile operator. All of these things would make it easier for supporters to connect with the club. I really think we need to move with the times as we operate as though still in the 80s.

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Why do you think those shops are empty and available so cheaply? I haven’t been to Walsall town centre for many a year, barring to visit a location for work. What I saw was a town on its arse, and that will only have been exacerbated by COVID.

They would be better off spending money on expanding and brightening the stadium shop to make it more attractive and welcoming, as well as sorting the online shopping experience.

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Tend to agree with that , why not commit to refurbish the saddlers club give incentives to capable supporters to help with the work , free season tickets , free use of hospitality for participating businesses etc .
Make it the hub for all the youth teams and parents , get it running as a real supporters club with no barriers like there were before .
There would be plenty of scope to have a decent club shop / outlet in there as well .
Just needs the club to put it out there and see the response

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It does seem such a waste…With every day that passes the cost of getting the saddlers club back up and running is rising .
First steps of just having a discussion about getting it open again need to take place now if it is ever to happen .

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This issue with the supporters club has dragged on and on for years now.

Either get it up and running again or knock the thing down and make for more car parking or at least do something .

I can see your point but we do potentially miss passing trade. Could there be an outlet in a supermarket? I do think however we do it, we need to modernise our ticketing and merchandising side of things.

That might work if we could get with one of the larger stores , ie asda tesco sainsburys or maybe even Morrisons on the old ground.

We definitely need to do something Cats , because the club are missing out on so many opportunities , even get someone in who knows how to design our club shop website and get them to drag that upto date kicking and screaming .

Plus get someone to design new and better merchandise

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If we opened a shop in the town we would be going back to the 80s who buys things in shops in 2021 it’s all online . If Aston Villa close their club shops in Birmingham due to lack of trade I don’t think Walsall are in any place to open one up , The staff wage’s would be more than the takings :joy:

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We can’t manage to run the shop we’ve got,why would we need another one? It would just be a case of “unfortunately we haven’t got the staff to open the town centre shop,so try the lottery that is our stadium shop”.

The place would be a money black hole. What sense is there on spending £2-300,000 on a place that would only be used once a fortnight for 9 months of the year? Who would go there for a drink when there isn’t a match on? There’s pubs closing all over the place due to lack of custom.

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The staff at the shop at the ground are doing more than one job. Over recent years I have had to ask someone to open the shop up, and another time I have been sent to the club shop to purchase match tickets.

Personally, I think they should just focus on running what we have got better as a starter at least, including the online shop.

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In relation to the Saddlers club, i think the problem is it’s location, great for matchdays but trying to get people around the area to use it midweek would be a huge task, unless it wasn’t just about selling alcohol, there would have to be enormous interest and justification if the £250,000 reported repair bills are to be believed.
I think a pop up bar on match days would bring in extra income and interest.

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When I went to a Southend match a few seasons ago I was suprised to see a Spurs club shop on the main High Street leading to the seafront.

I’m not sure how well a Dingle club shop would go down on Park Street!

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If you go down the ground any night there are many many people there parents grandparents etc with their kids , massive untapped custom

I’ve seen a guy selling Dingle scarves from a little stand on Park Street in the past. :thinking::rofl:

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Don’t think we necessarily need a club shop in town, but we need something to remind the folk of Walsall that the town does have a football club. There’s nothing.

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Given the proximity to the motorway, would it work as a mini-services? Food, shop etc? Plenty of parking spaces during the week.

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yes, or something that would benefit the whole community, because it is quite diverse round that area.

Ahem… :flushed:

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Perhaps on reflection, the town centre shop might not be the way to go but as Red and White said we are missing out on opportunities to increase revenue. Those pop up bars create a great atmosphere which is what we need to do as our place is dead walking from the green car park to the stadium. You wouldn’t know there was a match on.

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