The most awesome retail business model ever!

[mjr]

The Mrs. and I thought of this over dinner...

Think Mr. Walton's Club, or PriceCo. You know, the "big box" clubs, with the memberships.

Except with a twist.

1. They're by invitation only. This way, it appears "elite" or "exclusive".
2. If you're a SC to staff (think 90% of the stories on here), your membership is revoked.
3. You have someone at the door (maybe in "guest services") who takes your membership card when you enter. If you behave yourself, you get it back when you leave.
4. It's a photo ID membership, so you can't try to pass it off to someone else.
5. It doesn't just have to be a "big box" store. It could apply to all sorts of retail/customer service outlets.

There are more, but I can't think of them right now. As I do, I'll add...

Anyway, I'd like to know what you guys think.

[Chromatix]

It sounds intriguing. It wouldn't work in Finland (where most shoppers are decent folk already), but I can see it working in the UK or the US.

However, I wouldn't take membership cards away at the door. Just scan them and compare them to a database. Members are responsible for themselves and for anyone that comes in with them. Misbehaviour gets the membership revoked.

[Kittish]

Expand that "if you're a SC to" to cover other shoppers as well as staff.
Would you allow members to recommend others for invitation?

I agree with Chromatix, don't take the physical membership card at the door, just scan it.

[mjr]

However, I wouldn't take membership cards away at the door. Just scan them and compare them to a database. Members are responsible for themselves and for anyone that comes in with them. Misbehaviour gets the membership revoked.

Yeah, scanning the membership would be good. Also, they wouldn't be allowed to bring anyone with them, except maybe their children. And a modified set of rules would apply to the children, based on age.

[mjr]

Expand that "if you're a SC to" to cover other shoppers as well as staff.

Would you allow members to recommend others for invitation?

Yes, it would be an "if you're an SC to" thing.

And yes, you could allow members to recommend others for invitation, but that could come with a price. We'd thought of that, and so we came up with the following: Let's say Sally Smith recommends her friend Tina Jones.

Well, if Tina Jones gets her membership card, then goes to the establishment and goes all SC, then there's a possibility that BOTH memberships could be revoked -- at least temporarily.

Another thing we thought of was we would have to be VERY careful as far as employees hired. The establishments who adopted this model would have to have mic'd security cameras (to review footage), and employees who seem like they wouldn't cause trouble.

Because you know in a model like this, someone could berate an employee, and then say that the "employee started it".

[Pimento]

You could also have it so they scan their card to get into the bathroom. Do hourly checks. If there's poop all over. Look at the log (no pun intended) and see who did it. Nuke membership immediately.

[Seshat]

Also, whenever you're dealing with a staff or customer complaint, you check the cameras. You KNOW you'll get 'cursing out coworkers' staff, no matter how careful you are. And you WILL get some customers who decide they dislike another customer's tattoos, piercings, or wild hair colour.

Cameras on the money handling area, as well, and train the cashiers to show the camera the money received, and to count back change where the camera can watch. (Almost) prevents quick change scams and gives both cashiers and customers extra security against all sorts of things.

Neither customers nor staff can be 'fired' over a single bad day, nor an honest mistake. Especially if they own up to the mistake and attempt to rectify it.

EG: bathroom mishaps do sometimes happen, no matter who you are. If you seek out an employee and tell them, and especially if you offer to clean up/help clean up, you get to remain a member.

Staff should be trained to be extra understanding of genuine disability issues, such as communicating with a customer who uses assistive communication technology or helping with the high/low shelves.

Customers with disabilities, however, should understand that while their genuine needs will be helped, they aren't special. And also that the staff might have disabilities of their own, and if you need a heavy thing lifted, the first staffer you speak to might have to call someone healthier to help.

Edit to add: ooooh. Child minding centre. Paid, of course, but with a discount for members with well-behaved children.
Special needs children might be catered for, but only if a carer is present, or if there's enough notice for the centre to reasonably hire a carer for the purpose. (And no-shows get to pay the cost of calling the cerer in for the no-show.)

[AccountingDrone]

And if it is a convenience store or open 24 hours, get the best quality digital camera security system you can, and make sure that it captures images of every customer face *clearly enough to recognize them*! Also the data is transmitted elsewhere so they can't just smash everything. Perhaps make the cameras focused on the face of the person standing in front of the cashier hidden as well. Sound would be nice too.

I just watched a show on some poor 19 year old woman kidnapped out of her convenience store and the camera was not just fuzzy and black and white, the ciggy overhead display *blocked* every single picture of the guys face. Some engineer at NASA even tried using the program they use to clear up telescope images and only got a bit better blur.

What the hell is the point of cameras if they are effectively useless?

Hell, any business - not just c-stores.

[cindybubbles]

Your store should have the right to detain unruly children, and then make the parents pay for the damages they have caused. Failure to do that results in detention of the parents as well as a call to the police to file charges of child neglect and/or vandalism.

[Seshat]

In the rules for entry, mention that unattended children will be escorted to a safe place by the staff, and if the parents can't be found within (reasonable time), the police will be called.

And do it.

And yes, unruly children: I was kind of hoping that the childcare option would deal with most unruliness; though I guess I'm underestimating the suckiness of some people.
I was thinking 'better to leave your children with decent childcare, where they can play with fun new-to-them toys and shop in peace', but some folks just don't think like that, do they?

[Mytical]

I personally like this message about children.

Unsupervised children will be given copious amounts of sugar, and a free kitten.

[Pimento]

I personally like this message about children. Unsupervised children will be given copious amounts of sugar, and a free kitten.

Free hamster! Then You can make money by marking up the "beginner rodent " packages. Placed conveniently by the safe area where the parents pick them up.

[wolfie]

You could also have it so they scan their card to get into the bathroom. Do hourly checks. If there's poop all over. Look at the log (no pun intended) and see who did it. Nuke membership immediately.

I understand that surveilance cameras in bathrooms are prohibited for privacy reasons. However, what would be the status of a single unit containing a camera and an occupancy detector (passive IR or otherwise), where if the occupancy detector "saw" that there was a person present, it would turn off the camera? Net result, the video feed would show "no signal" if a person were in the bathroom, but it would show the bathroom if it were unoccupied.

In this situation, camera shows an unoccupied clean bathroom. Card reader catches membership number and a second camera (outside the bathroom, set up to "see" people entering - put it on the hinge side of an outward-opening door so there's no chance of it seeing into the bathroom, again for privacy reasons) gets video of the person who swiped the card. Bathroom camera goes "no signal" on detecting an occupied bathroom. Some time later, camera comes back online, showing an unoccupied bathroom with feces smeared all over. Pretty good evidence of who did it.

[Firecrackers Not Included]

I like the idea of this being an elite shopping-privilege center. Remember, you were
invited. There is no corporate police on individual matters. The employees had been
hired under a certain publicly unknown scrutiny. They have the power like that of
the bartender. One foul occurrance with only one staff member could do it. Or worse,
you could be one of those consumers who coworkers rant about in the breakroom.
You could be shunned in the least expecting moment...

[Chromatix]

No need for a camera *in* the toilet at all. Just fit proximity detectors in each stall - these already work with automatic flushers - and time-correlate them with the membership card swipes. At worst, that'll narrow it down to a handful of members, in which case you wait for the next incident which will undoubtedly have only one common factor.