JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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Mentioned in a prior post that I would do a Tomcat style quick re-cap of the Yard Sale this past Saturday at SU.
First off bad job by SU and the lack of communication about the event and start time. I talked to about a half dozen people before hand and I think each one of them had heard a different start time. One of my friends on here was kind enough to give me the correct info and SU did send out something Fri afternoon clarifying the early entry for STH but as you will see they screwed that up.
After hearing STH could get in an hour early at 9 I made the decision to get there early figuring there would be a line. Got there a little after 8 and the line was already about 30 deep. About 10-15 after I got there people really started showing up in big number and by 8:30 it was wrapping around the building. NO idea what time the first people in line got there at but I was little surprised to see that many people there an hour before.
Outside things went pretty smooth you had the usual few people think that we were all standing in line for our health I guess and try to just walk in or go to the front because they though they were STH or something. After being educated they made their way to the back. Ran into board legend Orange Extreme around 830 and he joined me in line. At exactly 8:47 they let the line come in. First let me give SU kudos for starting a little bit early, that's always a plus especially with several hundred people clearly in line. That said SU simply guided people through the display/trophy area and then let everyone and their brother in. No proof was required to indicate you were a STH and even though SU had at least a half dozen employees standing outside the doorway to the field itself they just waved everyone in. I didn't expect this so I was caught off guard but being one of the first In I made the move to the sneakers (far right) while my better half went for sneakers as well which were in the same row but farther down for women. Was able to get two pairs of bball shoes was trying to move somewhat quickly as people were scrambling in at this point so I went with the first few I liked in my size. Most people seemed to be reasonable taking on a few pairs though I did see a few people with the 6+ pairs hoarding whatever they could. SU would do itself a favor to institute a 2 pair per person limit next time (if there is one).
After hitting up the shoes things became kind of a blur. They had long tables with stuff arranged by sizes but some of the sizes were off. I was in the 3X section finding a lot of Double X stuff etc. They also had tubs and cardboard boxes with stuff under the tables that you had to go through as well. SU also was directing people to go over to a big pile of boxes as they entered Manley to keep their stuff in as they shopped. This ended up causing some issues as on at least a half dozen occasions I had people going through my box next to me thinking it was a part of the sale. The sale did have a huge variety of items and it was easy to come across a multitude of great items. As I said some of the sizes didn't match the listed area and some of the clothes were in plastic packaging that listed one size while the actual shirt or item inside had another on the tag. Other then that I thought they did a pretty decent job. There were tons of jackets (all varieties), t shirts, exercise shirts, polo's SU pants, long sleeve shirts, etc etc. I didn't see much in the way of hoodies and shorts but I could have missed them. I did luckily come across two pairs of high quality bball shorts later in the shopping excursion but I think that was more luck then anything else.
The jerseys were in the middle and while I did browse them briefly they looked real small and I wasn't that impressed. Im not really a jersey guy though and I know others were happy with the jersey they got. The back row of the set up contained what I believe was the small through XL sizes and that was a mob scene as unlike the 2-4X tables you could only access one side. I popped over there briefly to shop for someone else and bailed. Will leave comments on that area to someone else who was there. I never made it to the Lax side but heard there was some good items. Wanted to get some Lax shorts but as Arod says "It wasn't in the cards". While most people were pretty friendly SU clearly errored in letting in everyone at once. People were ripping open packages and items were getting tossed all over the place. There were piles of clothes and items just on the floor randomly as you got 30-45 min+ into the sale.
The biggest issues of the day was the checkout process. After about what I would say was a half hour+ of shopping the wife and I decided to go through our boxes and make sure we weren't' going overboard. In the course of doing this the line to check out literally formed in front of and back of us and we were on the opposite side of the check out area halfway down 2x-4XL table. Needless to say we were in line for at least an hour. SU had about a dozen people running credit cards and handling cash but they needed at least another half dozen people if not more. The line to check out literally wrapped around the sale area twice. Most people were in astonishment but got in line and waited. Did have one guy and his two teenage girls caught in late in front of us and a fist fight nearly erupted. Again SU personnel was no where to be seen. There were police walking around inside but they seemed to be more inclined to shop and talk to people they knew then anything else. Apparently later in the day people formed another line and began cutting into people who had been in line for quite some time.
I think I finally made it out of there around 10:45-10:50 with a pretty nice haul but it was definitely a mess inside. SU has to do a much better job of coordinating the entrance and check out process. If your opening an event up to STH early then let in 75 people or so at a time and confirm they are STH, letting in the whole crowd at once was not a smart move. Also as anyone who went knows it was like a sauna in there making the long wait to check out even more brutal. Still kudos to SU to allowing this type of event it allowed people to get some really costly gear at bargain prices.
First off bad job by SU and the lack of communication about the event and start time. I talked to about a half dozen people before hand and I think each one of them had heard a different start time. One of my friends on here was kind enough to give me the correct info and SU did send out something Fri afternoon clarifying the early entry for STH but as you will see they screwed that up.
After hearing STH could get in an hour early at 9 I made the decision to get there early figuring there would be a line. Got there a little after 8 and the line was already about 30 deep. About 10-15 after I got there people really started showing up in big number and by 8:30 it was wrapping around the building. NO idea what time the first people in line got there at but I was little surprised to see that many people there an hour before.
Outside things went pretty smooth you had the usual few people think that we were all standing in line for our health I guess and try to just walk in or go to the front because they though they were STH or something. After being educated they made their way to the back. Ran into board legend Orange Extreme around 830 and he joined me in line. At exactly 8:47 they let the line come in. First let me give SU kudos for starting a little bit early, that's always a plus especially with several hundred people clearly in line. That said SU simply guided people through the display/trophy area and then let everyone and their brother in. No proof was required to indicate you were a STH and even though SU had at least a half dozen employees standing outside the doorway to the field itself they just waved everyone in. I didn't expect this so I was caught off guard but being one of the first In I made the move to the sneakers (far right) while my better half went for sneakers as well which were in the same row but farther down for women. Was able to get two pairs of bball shoes was trying to move somewhat quickly as people were scrambling in at this point so I went with the first few I liked in my size. Most people seemed to be reasonable taking on a few pairs though I did see a few people with the 6+ pairs hoarding whatever they could. SU would do itself a favor to institute a 2 pair per person limit next time (if there is one).
After hitting up the shoes things became kind of a blur. They had long tables with stuff arranged by sizes but some of the sizes were off. I was in the 3X section finding a lot of Double X stuff etc. They also had tubs and cardboard boxes with stuff under the tables that you had to go through as well. SU also was directing people to go over to a big pile of boxes as they entered Manley to keep their stuff in as they shopped. This ended up causing some issues as on at least a half dozen occasions I had people going through my box next to me thinking it was a part of the sale. The sale did have a huge variety of items and it was easy to come across a multitude of great items. As I said some of the sizes didn't match the listed area and some of the clothes were in plastic packaging that listed one size while the actual shirt or item inside had another on the tag. Other then that I thought they did a pretty decent job. There were tons of jackets (all varieties), t shirts, exercise shirts, polo's SU pants, long sleeve shirts, etc etc. I didn't see much in the way of hoodies and shorts but I could have missed them. I did luckily come across two pairs of high quality bball shorts later in the shopping excursion but I think that was more luck then anything else.
The jerseys were in the middle and while I did browse them briefly they looked real small and I wasn't that impressed. Im not really a jersey guy though and I know others were happy with the jersey they got. The back row of the set up contained what I believe was the small through XL sizes and that was a mob scene as unlike the 2-4X tables you could only access one side. I popped over there briefly to shop for someone else and bailed. Will leave comments on that area to someone else who was there. I never made it to the Lax side but heard there was some good items. Wanted to get some Lax shorts but as Arod says "It wasn't in the cards". While most people were pretty friendly SU clearly errored in letting in everyone at once. People were ripping open packages and items were getting tossed all over the place. There were piles of clothes and items just on the floor randomly as you got 30-45 min+ into the sale.
The biggest issues of the day was the checkout process. After about what I would say was a half hour+ of shopping the wife and I decided to go through our boxes and make sure we weren't' going overboard. In the course of doing this the line to check out literally formed in front of and back of us and we were on the opposite side of the check out area halfway down 2x-4XL table. Needless to say we were in line for at least an hour. SU had about a dozen people running credit cards and handling cash but they needed at least another half dozen people if not more. The line to check out literally wrapped around the sale area twice. Most people were in astonishment but got in line and waited. Did have one guy and his two teenage girls caught in late in front of us and a fist fight nearly erupted. Again SU personnel was no where to be seen. There were police walking around inside but they seemed to be more inclined to shop and talk to people they knew then anything else. Apparently later in the day people formed another line and began cutting into people who had been in line for quite some time.
I think I finally made it out of there around 10:45-10:50 with a pretty nice haul but it was definitely a mess inside. SU has to do a much better job of coordinating the entrance and check out process. If your opening an event up to STH early then let in 75 people or so at a time and confirm they are STH, letting in the whole crowd at once was not a smart move. Also as anyone who went knows it was like a sauna in there making the long wait to check out even more brutal. Still kudos to SU to allowing this type of event it allowed people to get some really costly gear at bargain prices.
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