The Pasty Shop thinks its a fast food chain. It is mistaken

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Missioning my way through Liverpool Street Station in the London rush hour on my way to the office, I am likely to be all of

  • tired
  • hungry
  • in a rush
  • annoyed at being in the middle of rush hour

As I enter the station, there are a number of convenience food kiosks along the way. The Pasty Shop is one of these. It sells coffee, baked goods and cooldrinks. I often try to do what you expect all their customers would like to do – grab a sausage roll and a diet coke  as quickly and hassle free as possible

The Pasty Shop Liverpool Street Station

Unfortunately, I never get the experience I am after. The Pasty Shop thinks it is a fast food outlet and this is where it goes wrong

There is a fine but important distinction between optimising your business primarily for fast food or for fast service. In the customers’ perfect world, The Pasty Shop should be a fast service outlet. Get in, get out, don’t take up any of my brain space

Upsell is a critical for a fast food businesses, but it is counter productive in a fast service businesses

Death by Measurement
Its easy to measure short term sales and optimise your sales pipeline for it. How much did we make yesterday? lets try make more today!

The Pasty Shop upsell is a perfect example of not being able to see the wood for the trees. Yes, you increase your average basket value, but you erode your client base.

Now you have to put more money into new client acquisition rather than the relatively less money required for client retention

Death by management consultant
Having worked in food and beverage retail, from top to bottom, I lay part of the blame on management consultants.  When an outlet is underperforming, consutants are dispatched to improve its take – normally in the manner of advice like

  1. say hello and smile at every customer
  2. Upsell by asking ask customers if they want to take the deal of 2 cooldrinks rather than 1
  3. Upsell by asking customers if they want napkins or sauces (it shows they care)

Now, 1 is part of being a human being, but 2 and 3 are the slow death of your business and how you annoy customers into not coming back. The marketing strategy for The Pasty Shop is just not right

The Result
I no longer bother with The Pasty Shop, I now keep a box of cereal at work. It’s just much less mental bother

measurement
management