Bridlington Site shop
For anybody travelling to Bridlington, please note that the site shop is closed, even for the sale of gas. There is a garage nearby and Morrisons where you can buy gas, if they have any. Please do not rely on being able to buy gas on the site.
Comments
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We have just arrived at Poolsbrook, no shop here either! Don’t know about gas though. CAMC site in Cornwall we just left was fully stocked, bread, milk, homemade cakes, ice cream, etc etc. Perhaps it’s up to wardens whether they have a shop or not?
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any shops and gas available on club site is down to the site manager,as they have to stock it and gas out of their own pockets as a service to members with minimal return,,
one site i know of that a shop is/was part of the lease is Coniston park coppice ,that the National Trust required
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I think last year every effort was made to keep people out of reception so that may be continuing on some sites.
As JVB said, wardens fund the shops themselves so it'll definitely be down to them.
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Which is further evidence it ain't a club, but a purely commercial enterprise offering the basics of a pitch and some washrooms with little or no regard to the range of site services a true commercial enterprise would offer its customers.
The only real selling point is the ability to book in advance with no payment and cancel without cost if you play the system right to your best advantage as we have learned to do
Race to the bottom
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I don't get your point. I've been a member for 20 years and an employee for 11. In all that time site shops have always been the responsibility of the site staff. There's no obligation for any site to run a shop at all. We do it mainly as a convenience to those staying on site (the profit probably pays for a night out). Covid has changed many things including the need to have a stack of risk assessments to run a safe shop which to many is just not worth the stress.
As this year there is no gas to be had to sell I personally have no shop whatsoever. I have rock pegs and green toilet chemical that's it. To be honest I'm happy with that.
JK
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Is the CMC a commercial enterprise or not? You seem confused.
Any club or community company or charity or similar types of businesses - usually characterised by having objectives of greater importance than making a profit and thus often described as a not-for-profit organisation - must still operate in a business-like manner and aim to make surpluses to enable re-investment in new or improved facilities.
In that sense, of course the CMC is "commercial" and it would be condemned by its members if it were not - or should be because, without it, it would eventually die.
What the CMC isn't, however, for the most part, is the type of caravan site provider that has bars and restaurants and entertainment centres and the other trappings that come with what one presumes you mean by "a true commercial enterprise".
And to that I say, jolly good too; that is precisely the reason why I only use CMC sites! Long may it not be a "true commercial enterprise".
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But the original request was not for “bars, restaurants and entertainment centres”- it was just about a shop. That’s all.
We often went to Cambridge and stayed at Highfield Farm Touring Park, and Beverley or her daughter would always ask if we wanted to order bread or milk or newspapers for the morning - their reception area is in fact a small shop with basic groceries, various things in a fridge, odds and end that campers might need, and several sizes and brands of gas cylinders outside.
But it’s family owned and family run - and that makes a big difference from a site run by paid employees.
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So what's your point exactly? Because you have entirely missed mine.
As regards shops on site, and the type of shop you describe, I completely agree.
But, as I am sure you know, I was responding to KeefySher who stated that the CMC paid "no regard to the range of site services a true commercial enterprise would offer its customers".
That expression suggests he was talking about much more than just a shop hence my reference to the broader facilities that lots of non-club sites offer - especially those near the sea. If he was only talking about a shop then the expression "range of site services" is entirely over egging his pudding.
I am much more in sympathy with having small shops on site; however, in my view this has to be left to individual site managers. The kind of administrative establishment needed to set up shops at all CMC sites - or not even all but a selection of the most popular ones, for example - and then stock and service them would be way beyond the capacity of an organisation like the CMC. That brings us back to the point, of course. It is a club, not a corporate body with the kind of staff and size of establishment that could take on that level of operation. In any case, if they take on such an undertaking I do not think there is a snow ball's chance in hell that it would be profitable. But locally run, by the site managers and wardens it can produce a modest return for them and that's all to the good.
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Hi Gray, I never had any expectation, when staying on sites, of anything other than a newspaper or maybe an ice cream however, calling it a 'club', in the sense that you appear to be doing, is a bit of a misnomer.
Its a very large commercial organisation-one that has apparently lost £10 million according to the latest accounts.
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But your comments completely ignores how the organisation is set up. What large "Commercial Organisation" allows representation of its members at executive level as the CMC does? What large "Commercial Organisation" ploughs all it's surplus earning back into developing it's facilities? What "Commercial Organisation" allows it's customer to vote for members of the Board. What large "Commercial Organisation" provides the opportunity for its members/customers via public forum to voice their views. Where does that leave us?
David
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Hi David, I was ignoring nothing, certainly I was not attempting to give the detailed opinion you have, rather just saying that, in the context of the post that I commented on, using the term 'club' was, in my opinion, a misnomer.
I have belonged to clubs, and they are nothing like the caravan club, but it was not meant as a criticism of the club, just the way that the term is sometimes used.
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What "Commercial Organisation" allows it's customer to vote for members of the Board. What large "Commercial Organisation" provides the opportunity for its members/customers via public forum to voice their views.
David, it's us members that are allowed to vote for Board members, just as share holders of "Commercial Organisation" do, and many of those "C O" do have forums where members/customers voice their views. Neither of these are the sole prerogative of the Caravan Club. There are many other companies that have an employee i.e. company member, usually as a union representative, on their board.
Edit. However that's getting well away from the OP so perhaps this part of the discussion should end here.
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