The Off Topic Topic

[Gold Coast Amusement Force]

3 hours ago, AlexB said:

whereas fright nights tickets sell for $45.

 

Up to 65 on the nights after first 4 nights

[Park Addict 93]

Former HWSD shop is now Superman store, judging on the current stock I think SE Escape store will be gone soon.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Jordan M.

[themagician]

So now we have two Superman Stores, very pointless decision

[jjuttp]

You mean the exit shop will be going?

Then how are we supposed to exit through the gift shop if we need to go all the way up the road to exit the ride properly?

[Park Addict 93]

1 hour ago, jjuttp said:

You mean the exit shop will be going?

Then how are we supposed to exit through the gift shop if we need to go all the way up the road to exit the ride properly?

That is indeed what I have heard will be happening, like what happend to Jet Rescue it will purely be an exit with Fast Photo screens.

[themagician]

And they say they aren’t cost cutting

[Gary86]

You couldn't buy anything from the Superman Escape shop anyway since your money is in a locker. 

[pushbutton]

1 hour ago, Gary86 said:

You couldn't buy anything from the Superman Escape shop anyway since your money is in a locker. 

It's a free locker and it's just around the corner. 

[Redboost]

The location of the lockers/exit store on SE has always bugged me - they don't let you bring any loose items on the ride yet when you disembark, you exit through the store but aren't able to buy anything anyway until you get to the locker. By which time, the euphoria of riding SE has probably worn off or you're distracted by something else to even want to return back to the store. Even if you wanted to get your picture, you go to the locker, get your wallet/Photo Fast Pass then return to the store only to wait in line because another group is purchasing something/checking photos. By which time you say, screw this, lets go and check something else out. Not a smart way of making money methinks.

[themagician]

 

and so the changes begin

The change has also been made to the JR at SW

Edited October 22, 2018 by themagician

[westical]

Inside hedges. Love your work MW. 

[Jokes_on_you]

1 hour ago, themagician said:

 

and so the changes begin

The change has also been made to the JR at SW

How about wait til it’s finished before assuming this 🤦🏻‍♂️ 

[Brad2912]

7 minutes ago, Jokes_on_you said:

How about wait til it’s finished before assuming this 🤦🏻‍♂️ 

I don’t think any assumptions were made. 

🤦‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

[red dragin]

JR has been like that for a while, I thought? Last time I was there was May. 

Works OK for DC Rivals. 

[Slick]

Say you were the owner of Movie World and you noticed that a shop like Superman's wasn't making any money, surely you'd go "well shit, don't suppose no one's buying anything because the lockers are AFTER the shop where their wallets are" and then modify the pathways to fix that? (Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey does exactly this.) It'd cost a bit of money sure, but every retail design book on the planet would tell you letting a potential customer walk out the building is a potential sale lost.

You'd think given how much debt Village have right now that they'd be looking for ways to maximise revenue instead of finding inventive ways to minimise staffing requirements. But silly me of course, here I am holding the parks to the same standard as everyone else overseas. 😑

Edited October 22, 2018 by Slick

[themagician]

I just remembered that the SE shop already did have it installed in the corner, so either they are extending it and removing the shop aspect entirely.

[XxMrYoshixX]

Planning on going to be MW in late November, going to shave my head to get on Superman without any problems because I'm literally just short enough to ride it . Will just miss the re-opening of SDSC which is a shame, but I may be moving to the Gold Coast for university around February next year. If anyone happens to be around on the 28th of november, I'll be around. Don't plan on going to any other parks because Dreamworld is a hard pass and Sea World I'll wait till uni to return to when I get one of those unlimited entry year passes VRTP sell.

Edited October 22, 2018 by XxMrYoshixX

[joz]

I'd love to see the numbers that says one central on ride photo shop does better than shops at each ride v labour costs. I'd have thought the excitement you feel coming off a ride contributed the impulse of wanting to buy a photo. I'm sure the numbers have been crunched but I'd love to see the numbers because seems counter intuitive to me.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Probably a case of "it seems to work fine for hypercoaster, so why don't we do the same everywhere?"

 

Must admit, i do find it convenient to get a wristband, scan all the photos and then just select the best ones at the end of the day...

[red dragin]

By closing it they'll probably push the "fast photo" pass up sell.

Reduced staffing cost, slightly reduced on show stock holding (and theft). 

[Slick]

I'll just leave this here...

 

[RossL]

47 minutes ago, Slick said:

I'll just leave this here...

Yeah but supermarkets don't force your path like Ikea because it is way too annoying if you do something regularly...imagine having to weave through every aisle of a supermarket?

Being forced through a store at the end of a ride generally feels forced and often a garbage experience.  Happy for them just to strip it back to photos you can collect and put the shopping part elsewhere.  They may also find that rushes of people trying to get out just forces everyone out, resulting in nobody really purchasing.

Also, is the store changing a sign of HWSD on the way out soon too? 

[Slick]

1 hour ago, RossL said:

Yeah but supermarkets don't force your path like Ikea because it is way too annoying if you do something regularly...imagine having to weave through every aisle of a supermarket?

Being forced through a store at the end of a ride generally feels forced and often a garbage experience.  Happy for them just to strip it back to photos you can collect and put the shopping part elsewhere.  They may also find that rushes of people trying to get out just forces everyone out, resulting in nobody really purchasing.

Also, is the store changing a sign of HWSD on the way out soon too? 

Yeah, you're right, I guess all of the gift shops Disney & Universal make you walk through for their humungous staple attractions like:

• Star Tours
• Tower of Terror
• Stitch's Great Escape
• Winnie the Pooh
• Maelstrom
• Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
• Splash Mountain
• It's A Small World
• Space Mountain
• Test Track
• Toy Story mania
• Monsters Inc.
• Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey
• Jurassic Park

All result in a garbage experience. 🙄 I guess they keep doing it because there's no money to be made.

Let me point out what that clip creates that's important for this discussion:

• generally speaking, over half of purchases made are unplanned
• capitalising on euphoria (whether that's the dopamine release from a ride or swedish meatballs) makes people buy more
• good retail design further increases revenue through simple things like optimising flow, lighting and simple window aesthetics (known as the Gruen effect.)

You're making it sound like i'm suggesting making guests wonder through an IKEA floor-plan just to get out which is ridiculous. What i'm suggesting is Village should learn from folks like Disney & Universal who spend millions in R&D on stuff like theme park retail design and try and do better instead of doubling down on mistakes.

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Slick

[jjuttp]

9 hours ago, RossL said:

Yeah but supermarkets don't force your path like Ikea because it is way too annoying if you do something regularly...imagine having to weave through every aisle of a supermarket?

Actually, having worked in both markets, supermarkets, and IKEA, they all do it in some form. 

Harris Farm Markets (all stores) sends you down that first isle thats full of fruit of the season (and sometimes the imperfects) that are all full of smell to make you buy it.

Woolies and Coles do the same type of thing with different layouts, and not making it so obvious. My local one has a disjointed half isle thats very clearly marked as cereal, making you navigate the healthy food before getting to the unhealthy cereal, and they have the deli visibly next to it down the end to pull you down there too.

IKEA are very open about how they do it, down to the fact they teach you it before they teach you the shortcuts through the store. Anything from empty walls to path vectors and god rays on products.

[Brad2912]

All supermarkets employ subtle “tricks” to direct you where they want you. You may not notice it, but subconsciously you are being programmed and conditioned to do things in the order they want you to. You’ll notice bananas have relocated to the back of the produce area in Coles whereas they used to be at the front, the reasoning is that the majority of people purchase bananas in their shopping & if they have to navigate through all of produce to get to them, they are more likely to impulse buy another line on the way than if they were right at the door when you walked in.