Kathmandu best stories

you missed the n at the end of the link http://www.kathmandu.co.nz/terms-and-conditions/kathmandu-87-competition I fell asleep before i got through all the rules

I've got a story about Kathmandu. I travelled in a group with someone who didn't like Jan Cameron and subsequently Kathmandu. Sometimes she would ask what brand such and such was that we had and we'd say it was Kathmandu and we'd bought it at the half price sale which always made for laughs. One day she asked if anyone had a spare bag and I said I did but she wouldn't want to use it...because it was one of those half price sale plastic bags from Kathmandu. (In actual fact, Jan Cameron was kind to me and replaced some gear that had been burned in a house fire that she'd read about in the paper. And this was done quietly with no publicity. So she was in my good books, that's for sure).

Jan is an interesting and impressive character alright. I met her a couple of times socially many years ago. In her early "Alp Sports" days there was a lot of heated competition with Cobergers based in Authurs Pass. The senior Coberger was old school European and imported various well-known brands, but when his son Anton took over they attacked the market more aggressively. Well Jan saw this as a personal challenge and apparently there was a piece of paper on her bedroom wall with a single down feather pinned to it ... and the words "Anton Fucks Ducks". Not sure if this is the kind of story they're looking for ... :-)

Jan has a bad image in tasmania where she lives now... her approach to business can be pretty single minded and its put her offside with the locals when she got into other retail ventures... tasmanians tend to be a pretty friendly bunch when it comes to business, some companies were boycotting providing services for her businesses. she sold kathmandu years ago , bought part of macpac with the intention of out competing kathmandu, I'm not sure if she still has shares in Macpac. kathmandu had a reputation for bad design, the materials were usually reasonable to good quality though, and the design has been improving, but i find the clothes are cut for people built for comfort, not scrawny beggers like me.... she knew what to do to turn a profit. make gear for the masses, make it overseas and sell lots of it in massive sales where the price reductions are over inflated by using inflated retail prices... now we have the benefit of cheaper outdoor gear sold in chain stores where the staff have very little real world knowledge on advising people about outdoor activities and the shops that had the highly experienced and skilled staff have been closing up shop for years, there is only one independant tramping shop in all of auckland now as the kathmandu model has been applied to most of the other surviving outdoor retail chains. if Kathmandu didnt do it, another company would have done it first, Jan probably borrowed the retail model from overseas or other retail industries here and was the first to apply it successfully, now copied by several other chains to varying extents. a lot of other retailers are hamstrung by having to purchase their products through distributor middle men who add a further markup to prices, making it hard to match Kathmandu prices. its hard to establish yourself in the market with the monopoly held by kathmandu and other companies, you need to be a big player that can deliver value for money through high volume efficiency.. just go into a kathmandu shop at sale time and see how much business they do, look around and see how many people are wearing their clothes. and they cater to kids as well, family friendly, buy for the whole family from the one shop... before Jan bought into Macpac, they shifted to a similar retail model as Kathmandu, moving all their store retail away from third parties into their own branded stores and having regular sales. who knew that puffer jackets or fleeces would one day be so widely worn, when they used to just be the domain of weird outdoors types....

Another change in the market is retailers often becoming distributors themselves, or distributors setting up retailing outlets. The whole process is getting streamlined. The last few times I been into a kathmandu during sale time the store has nearly been deserted, it is a far cry from their glory days when the Easter sale saw their store packed. Macpac, and Torpedo7 have certainly brought a lot more price competition to the market. They need to maintain nearly constant sales, or provide 'significant' club discounts to remain competitive. Fairly certain Kathmandu have a constant 30% discount for club members now... Which basically mean their 60% off sales are really only 30% off. The independent retailers do seem to be struggling, the quantity and quality of stock in many of their stores seem to be less. They seem to be moving in two directions, increasingly stocking 'lower end' brands, and trying to compete on price or going in the other direction and targeting more niche or specialised segments. Although Torpedo7 and Biviouac have basically all of the main niches covered between them.

sales have partly been upset by the weather. sales often coincide with change in seasons, but the weather often doesnt change when the seasons do and the changes come a lot later... people often impulse buy bad weather clothing when the bad weather sets in.. when summer hardly comes, theres no point in updating your summer wardrobe... you're almost buying clothes for that season in the end of season sale... sales have had to become more aggressive to cope with this, stores are left with a lot of stock they have to get rid of. i think independant shops sold themselves short, they could have set themselves up as advisory services online or hold in store talks to help out new trampers with information and encourage them to shop at that store and establish brand loyalty, but with todays internet, a lot of people assume they are experts and dont ask the right questions and make bad purchasing decisions, or dont realise just how much knowledge the independant retailer has , especially compared to the kids working in the chain stores who often look far to pale to have spent much time outdoors. often they may just be trail runners or climb at the gym or local rock wall and are not really into tramping. you have the rise of other outdoor sports like mountain biking, off road running and multi sport which tend to be well organised and promoted and tramping looses prospective people into the sport to those other sports. and so you have macpac, kathmandu and torpedo 7 which to varying extents are catering for those other sports to keep business going... as well as just catering for casual outdoor wear for the fashion conscious who are looking for gear they can wear in a variety of settings...

Or customers just come in plumb you for knowledge then openly admit they're going to go buy from a chain store or online and that they have no intention of buying off you. Unfortunately my retail experience only taught me the vast majority of consumers place no monetary value on knowledgeable staff.

@Dodgeydave. Might be true for the majority of punters ?. I'm no longer in the dominant demographic ie oldies no longer rule socially, but I'll buy where there is good gear, from somebody who can helpfully advise. Other times, it's just about getting something useful for a good price eg T7, even The Warehouse. K-du, to me, is equivalent to the $2 Shop. I think your customer experience might be influenced by the public perception of where you work ?.

I think it is worth noting how much cheaper good gear has become over the years. When I was starting out, say 30 something years ago, any of the 'big' items you would need; an alpine sleeping bag, a pack, a tent would cost several weeks of wages, often more. Now any of those items could be got for a few days wages, whether buying through one of the retailers mentioned above or going online and getting directly from somewhere like Poland. I can get a good alpine sleeping bag for about the same price as I paid 30 odd years ago.