1. Goorin Brothers -
Yaletown
Shop Needs & Wants Priority Tour 2013!
Prioritized and Categorized!
2. General
1. Matt needs a phone line. His job role requires him to
be on the phone for long periods of time conducting
one on one‘s with his shop managers, as well as home
office partners. In addition, we have a national call,
weekly district calls, and leadership calls being
conducted in our shop all on one phone line.
Customers have expressed frustration trying to reach
us, and we cannot reach them if a hat they‘ve
requested has arrived in shipment or any other reason.
3. General
Windows need to have anti-glare. It doesn‘t seem to be
the case that they do, as if it is sunny out in the day
you can‘t see in, nor can you see out…and once the
sun goes down, no one can see out or in due to all of
the interior lighting bouncing against the window.
4. 1. Exterior Signage
This is how customers view our shop
from the sidewalk heading south on
Hamilton St. The awning is barely
visible from the side. I realize there
are city restrictions but we should
really look into it as this impacts our
business hugely every day.
The chalkboard can be seen 20-30 ft
away, but no one can read that or our
Goorin Brothers Hat Shop sandwich
board until they‘re about 10ft away,
which gives them give or take 15
seconds to decide whether or not they
want to check it out. Most often,
customers who take notice of the
board signage as they pass it stop for a
fraction of a second and continue
walking, or do not stop at all.
5. 1. Exterior Signage
…However, turn away from our shop
and head North down Hamilton St.,
and all of our business-friends have
signs hanging from their awnings so
that people can see there is a business
there, and what kind of business it is
from further away, and have a longer
time period to mull over checking it
out.
The picture doesn‘t show it, but those
are signs for Bernstein & Gold (a
boutique) and The Flying Pig
(restaurant), that are clearly visible
from over 30-40 ft away.
6. 2. Lighting
Here at Goorin Brothers Vancouver –we have a little
lighting problem. Now, forgive me, but I‘m not an
electrician or a lighting professional in any sense of the title,
but here‘s what we‘ve gathered from our staff and our
customers:
It‘s too yellow. Customers frequently have to take hats
outside to see the true colour. By Comparison, the lighting
in Pike Place is just as antique-feeling, but does not obstruct
from a customer‘s understanding of the product.
It‘s blinding in areas. The cash wrap in particular. The
windows. Light is just bouncing all around in there. This
may also have to do with our windows not having an anti-
glare finish. If you‘re outside you have to be up against the
window to see in. If you‘re inside you can‘t see out. Let‘s
check it out:
7. 2. Lighting
Note: I wish we could blame this on my camera-phone. That‘s actually what it looks like.
8. 2. Lighting
The cash-wrap area is especially confusing, with light bouncing off the
mirrored-back shelving unit that also reflects all the way out to the street.
9. 2. Lighting
This is how customers see the product on our shelves in our more dimly lit areas.
10. 2. Lighting
Pot lighting at the front door that
has never worked. The same
situation occurs outside with two
pot lights lighting the entryway-only
one of which is operational.
11. 3. Fixtures
As a company, our
varied lines of product
have outgrown our
fixtures in Yaletown.
Most non-shelving
surfaces are too small to
house any particular
collection, but as seen in
these photos, are not
great candidates for
featuring just a few
styles as the shelf is too
low, and only one hat
can be stored on top—
for how much space
these tables occupy they
are able to display little. *Pictured above: The worst tables to ever be
tables
12. 3. Fixtures
I included this photo because it shows that our ‗feature table‘-home to
what should be our highest impact merchandising, is dwarfed by the
room. I am in favor of installing ‗bar‘-style benches in the store to grant
further surface room to display hats on and thus kill two birds with one
stone, as another one of our shop issues is that the monotony of the
shelving gives the customer no where to rest their eye. They can‘t see
anything because they‘re seeing everything at once. Photos on next slide.
14. 3. Fixtures
The shelving runs at the
same heights and distances
apart all along the perimeter
of the room. Breaking up the
visual monotony of this by
using some cubicle shelving
light at North Beach or a set-
in wall unit like Pike Place
could smartly break up all the
shelving and allow people to
see the separate collections.
15. 3. Fixtures
This problem would be hugely alleviated by being able to display
more items in the middle of the shop. A bar like Pike Place would
be a great addition to run along the back of our couch. It may be
an option to have an ―L‖ shape bar run along the back of the
couch and then curve into the middle.
Photos of our uppers reveal that there is a good 3 feet of space
between the shelf and the ceiling. It is difficult to occupy this
space effectively with little propping. I‘m wondering if there isn‘t a
way to install cabinetry that we could store stock in on the floor.
This is also a win win as our back room now houses a District
Manager, a Manager, and the poor soul who‘s trying to eat lunch
on the stock room floor. If we could take out some shelving and
have another desk surface that would be great, but only doable if
we store stock on the floor. It would still look nice and help the
customer‘s eye travel back down to the shop level instead of
carrying on the distance from floor to ceiling (so I did learn
something at Fashion school!)
16. 4. Decoration
Cardboard vintage Goorin art
on the walls near the window
should be replaced by framed
photographs or framed vintage
Goorin art. These are not going
to be salvageable however as
they‘re glued to the wall. When
I redecorated for our Cut & Sew
corner I had to take a few of
these down that were on the
other side and they peeled and
flaked off the wall and were not
usable afterward.
18. Paint: 4. Decoration
Our store could use a paint job. It
features some interesting paint
such as the purple wall painted
with raindrops (hard to store
anything here that doesn‘t scream
‗rain hats‘) and then is unpainted-
looking in most areas.
19. Other Photos/Misc.
The mirror-back cash wrap shelving. Very difficult to display hats or props,
minimize cash desk clutter as everything is reflected and doubled, light
bounces off the mirrors and clouds cash wrap
20. Other Photos/Misc.
A lot of seating. We like the couch and customers make use of
it often to set down bags, seat their children, other family
members and themselves at events, but all of the arm chairs take
up space and I can‘t display hats on them.
21. Other Photos/Misc.
This water-damaged hole was
left in our ceiling by the
plumbing company the building
manager hired to look after a
leak originating in a suite above
us. It‘s a months-old hole that
has been left there and whenever
I ask the building maintenance
manager he tells me to ask the
building manager but if you call
him he tells you to call the first
guy. The maintenance man once
told me it will be there for a long
time because it‘s a big deal to fix
the leak upstairs for good.
