Backcountry.com..=LAME with TILT goodness!

[Dirty Hoar]

Sorry I'm a little late to the party but I run the retail store here at BC.com. The decision to suspend this option was not mine to make but it's been made and I feel it will ultimately benefit the local community who uses our store as a resource and not just a pickup window.

I think this board deserves a little bit more of an explanation than may have been contained in the email you received. The volume of pickup orders has increased exponentially with the re-launch of Tramdock and most of our pickup orders were coming from the ODAT sites (SAC, WM, etc). Those sites are run so thin just trying to get gear into your hands at rock bottom prices that the added costs of manually picking orders for customer pickup just plain doesn't work with the model. The problem was not people waiting too long to pick up their orders, but instead not waiting long enough. We had a semi-automated way to fulfill pickup orders but it required waiting until a confirmation email stated your order had "shipped". This meant it was waiting on the pickup shelf. If customers came in before their order had been picked we wouldn't turn them away, but instead would send an employee into the warehouse to retrieve it. Picking orders on demand was not at all scalable to the increasing volume of pickup orders we are seeing. The demands these orders were putting on our system began to take away from the level of service we could provide our in-store customers.

That said, you can ALWAYS come down to our store (2607 S 3200 W, M-F 8-8, Sat/Sun 9-4) place your order and walk away with product in hand and no shipping charge. If you've had to wait a while in the store in the past expect those waits to be much shorter now.

Looking forward I'd like the store to be a great resource for the local community. If there is support from the community (voice it here!), I'd like to start doing some special events for our locals. Nothing is set in stone yet but it would be great to get all the mags together armed with a discount code (and perhaps BYOB) on a Saturday night when the store is closed for a private shopping, bullshitting, pre-season stoke time. Mormon house cleaners and sticker posing GFs are also invited.

Something else to think about...This year BC made the mistake of giving me the company credit card and set me loose to make sure our employees could demo all the niche skis we carry. A couple months and $20k later we're stocked with Comi Kaze swallowtails, S7s, Motherships, Huge Troubles, Megawatts, EHPs and pretty much anything else worth skiing that we sell. I've got to check the liability on this one but I'd love to try and get a day or two where I haul the whole fleet up to a mountain and set you guys loose to ride them, write reviews on the site for them, and maybe even sell a few pairs.

If you've got an opinion on the pickup change please go to the "contact us" link on BC.com and send an email. If you're into any of the ideas I threw out here, post here and say so! The TGR voice resonates with the powers that be here at BC and I want to use this change in pickup policy to strengthen our local community, not alienate it.

Thanks,

Justin

I don't buy it. Backcountry.com could easily just add a "pick up" option to the ordering process. Then the picker wouldn't have to wait for this "email" to pick the order. The picker could pick the order just like any other order but place the order in a cage near the retail store area. Then when the customer comes in to pick up their order the upfront customer service reps could simply walk to the cage and grab the order.

In my opinion, here's the real reason. Like you said... it goes against the business model for the ODAT sites. Onsite customers aren't likely going to be ordering from steepandcheap, tramdock, etc. for obvious reasons. Onsite customers are likely to order higher margin items from backcountry.com. So sure, they'll pick those orders on the spot. I'm assuming part of the ODAT business model is profiting off of shipping charges. I'm 100% positive bc.com gets a very good discount from UPS and the likes based on the huge amount of shipping they do with these companies. So, as expected, bc.com charges retail shipping rates and pockets the difference. Conclusion... they are losing out on that money and are no longer willing to.

That said, I don't have any problem with you or bc.com and I think they are a great company. But Justin, either you just knowingly fed us a bunch of bullshit or you are naive.

[BigJay]

I don't buy it. Backcountry.com could easily just add a "pick up" option to the ordering process. Then the picker wouldn't have to wait for this "email" to pick the order. The picker could pick the order just like any other order but place the order in a cage near the retail store area. Then when the customer comes in to pick up their order the upfront customer service reps could simply walk to the cage and grab the order.

In my opinion, here's the real reason. Like you said... it goes against the business model for the ODAT sites. Onsite customers aren't likely going to be ordering from steepandcheap, tramdock, etc. for obvious reasons. Onsite customers are likely to order higher margin items from backcountry.com. So sure, they'll pick those orders on the spot. I'm assuming part of the ODAT business model is profiting off of shipping charges. I'm 100% positive bc.com gets a very good discount from UPS and the likes based on the huge amount of shipping they do with these companies. So, as expected, bc.com charges retail shipping rates and pockets the difference. Conclusion... they are losing out on that money and are no longer willing to.

That said, I don't have any problem with you or bc.com and I think they are a great company. But Justin, either you just knowingly fed us a bunch of bullshit or you are naive.

Dude you get free shipping on orders over 50 dollars. That means they are LOSING money on shipping charges and that includes orders on ODAT sites. Do you really think that when they do business in the millions of dollars on some days that they care about a thousand dollars they lost in shipping charges for pickup orders?

MonkeyMan you are naive to think that bc.com's warehouse is small enough that someone picks out the orders and carries them to the loading dock or the retail store. That place is almost totally automated for the shipping of items. When people don't give the system enough time to have the item picked and "shipped" to the retail store, then they (bc.com) are wasting people's time, and their own man hours by manually picking items and bringing them to the retail floor. There are obviously people on here who still work there who might want to/might not want to comment further. Also, not only is the warehouse floor absolutely immense (think a football field plus of gear), but it is also has different floors.

I don't think you realize how stupid the average bc.com/dogfunk.com (mostly dogfunkers) customer is. You would have people choosing the option to pick up who lived in New York City. They would buy a North Face jacket and try to go pick it up at their local North Face store.

If they added a pick up option it would be a complete disaster for the CS department.

Now, just so you know, I did use the pick up option before and after I worked there and I am sad it is gone. I do know where they are coming from though.

[skiguide]

I don't think you realize how stupid the average bc.com/dogfunk.com (mostly dogfunkers) customer is. You would have people choosing the option to pick up who lived in New York City. They would buy a North Face jacket and try to go pick it up at their local North Face store.
.

I agree with you the avg. consumer is that dumb. BUT - this could be done just for VIPs/Locals-only accounts very easily, and only shown to those with a local UT address when they login. Changing this for those who fly in frequently to ski would be done on a case by case basis.

[Sutter]

For anyone that doesn't live in Salt Lake, and hasn't used the warehouse pick-up option, I can see you thinking that this isn't a big change. For me, I drive past the warehouse everyday on my way home, so it's not like I'm going out of my way changing orders to a pick-up. I can safely say this will reduce my business with BC. Last night I grabbed bar tape off Chainlove for $11...the cheapest shipping option was $6. Because it was last night, I was able to change the order to a pick-up. At $11 it was a deal...at $17 I wouldn't have bothered. While this likely doesn't add up to much on a per order basis...how many others will take that same approach? I know of one friend that's thinking the exact same thing...and he orders WAY more stuff than I do off of SAC/WM/CL/TD.

I get it, not the biggest thing in the world, plenty of other things to complain about that are more important...but it's a change that directly impacts me, so I'll complain.

This seems like more or a loss to you than to BC.....Sandy.

[altachic]

I haven't really chimed in here as I wish this option was still available, simple and sweet. We welcome all of your comments and feel free to keep letting us know how you feel on the site and here.

But, BigJay brings up a lot of good points and most people really have no idea how massive our warehouse (s) are and just how much product is coming in and going out, this place is insane. I have a whole new respect for our warehouse employees everytime I go work out there during Christmas (this is my 5th xmas season here) . It's a complete madhouse that is running totally smooth and seamless, even w/ the chaos.

And I'd think twice or three times before you call Altmanator naive. Really. There are reasons for this and maybe it will come back, maybe it won't, but don't call out our retail manager because he did not have the last say in this.

Just sayin'

[BigJay]

I agree with you the avg. consumer is that dumb. BUT - this could be done just for VIPs/Locals-only accounts very easily, and only shown to those with a local UT address when they login. Changing this for those who fly in frequently to ski would be done on a case by case basis.

Agreed. I don't know crap about computer programming but I do like the idea of a locals only button.

[skifishbum]

NICE CALLOUT
CUBE BOY

[Jaded Loc]

I just drove by the warehouse and I am pretty sure I saw a guy that looked like Skidog with his mini tail and murdered out Passat making out with some other dude.