Articles
Some
of the perils of selling School Uniform
Article published
in Childrenswear Buyer Magazine October 2004
Written by Steve Optix
Schoolwear
is a very catch twenty two business these days. All the schools,
Infant, Junior and Secondary seem to have custom made, personalised,
logo’d items, and the trend doesn’t look set to revert
to the old style of plain colours and patterns with possibly
a school badge, any time soon.
The big predicament
for a specialist schoolwear retailer is dealing with and maintaining
diplomacy with the customer.
Fifty percent
of the customers feel aggrieved at having to come to us, and
us only, to purchase a specific item for their child’s
school uniform.
Twenty five
percent of our customers do not mind coming to us for their schoolwear
as they know that we do not capitalise pricewise on their having
to come to us, and can expect good prices, quality garments and
friendly service.
The last twenty
five percent are the parents that know we sell quality un-personalised
items i.e shirts, trousers, polo shirts etc and come to us for
these items, and it’s with every visit from these parents
we get asked if we sell the specific items for their school,
of which we have to reply ‘no’ to them, which generates
the response from the parent ‘Why can’t you stock
the item, it’s real pain having to go to the school to
get it, especially when term’s out and the school’s
shut?!’
We, the retailer,
do not decide what items of personalised clothing a school should
make their pupils wear, although if you were to listen to parents
airing their grievances we are often implied as the party responsible
for the extra expense. A school chooses what specific items it
wants its pupils to be kitted out in and it’s the school
that causes the extra expense to the parents, whether they are
forced to wear one particular style of trouser or use a school
logo’d fleece instead of a hooded top in a cold classroom.
Bad communication,
from schools, to parents and retailers are also causing big problems.
A school will often make a uniform related decision that hugely
affects the retailer but only let the parents know. The parents
then approach the retailer with instruction from the school,
that hasn’t yet been approved / run passed us, and then
proceed to cause mayhem in the shop as the customer believes
the school is the almighty force that rules all and we are the
whipping boys/girls.
It is with
all the above in mind that it is now becoming an essential part
of an independent retailer’s house keeping to have legal
contracts covering the retailer for losses in the event of a
school ceasing use of a personalised garment. These types of
garment have spent the last five to fifteen years becoming the
national norm for schoolwear, but whereas a plain ‘V’ neck
jumper will stay pretty much the same design for 20-30 years
fashions and trends change much faster and this in turn causes
school logos and even names to be updated to something much more
modern and striking. For a school this used to just mean changing
the letterhead and sticking a new front page on the prospectus
but these days it means a new sweatshirt, Polo Shirt, PE T-shirt,
Book bag, PE Bag and School Cap!
It is on this
note that I suggest Independent schoolwear retailers should unite
to discuss the best approach to bring this kind of protection
into the system. I have worked sometime for my family’s
schoolwear outfitters which has been established for fifty five
years, and I constantly put forward the suggestion that we need
legal contracts/protection but I’m always met with the
same response ‘If we start to push lawyers and legal contracts
onto school boards and PTA’s our unwritten contract will
most likely be torn up’.
Does it really
mean that to protect our livelihoods from potentially huge losses
we have to first risk potentially
huge losses?
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