Clothing Stores Help Line Topic

[BinRat55]

At CFB Halifax, I walked into the tailor shop without an appointment, waiting in line for 5 mins, handed the counter 3 pants, 3 shirts and 2 jackets with 8 name tapes, and 15 mins later they handed them back to be with my names tapes on all of them.

Well it would seem that the tailors in Halifax are not that busy! We have a fairly large base, a good portion of which are schools. Our tailor shop are literally 3 weeks behind and putting out fires on a daily basis is beginning to qualify them for firefighter training! Adding nametapes to that would definitely sink that ship! We have actually had to haul our master tailor out of retirement for a temporary stint just to catch up!

 

[armyvern]

We have actually had to haul our master tailor out of retirement for a temporary stint just to catch up!

Wilf!!??

 

[BinRat55]

Yes good ole Wilf! He retired last year and now he comes in (partly on his own time) to help clear some backlog! God bless 'em!

 

[Pusser]

LOL; have you seen the thread complaining about the already extremely long wait-times for the Base Tailors? 

Oh, Logistik - a Contractor.  Kind of like the contractor who does them now?  Except much cheaper on the budget now with a bulk (minimum) order requirement and bulk delivery to Clothing Stores. 

The reason that Logistik worked for DEU is because it was cost-neutral (cost-negative is more exact).  The CAF simply took the millions in CUA benefits that it was paying out annualy to members back from those members' paycheques (the members weren't actually purchasing new DEU & accoutrements with that CUA benefit anyway) and redirected it to pay for the delivery of Logistik items to members' doors when they actually did order DEU items.  The CAF is still financially ahead in that department.

With your proposal above, there is no revenue neutrality - 70 000 sets of individually mailed nametapes to 70 000 members' doors will cost much more (in just mailing fees alone) than a bulk delivery and the saved 'minimum order' manufacturing costs currently contracted for.

The fact that some base tailors are swamped is a different issue (i.e. we either need to hire more or contractors, who are not paid for the number of people they employ, but for the service they provide, need to hire more staff and be held accountable to their contracts).  However, I wonder whether people think that embroidery is some kind of black magic.  Machines with pre-programmed fonts can spit out name tapes within seconds - probably less time than it takes to fill out the form to order them.

As for Logistik doing it, I think that is well within the realm of the possible.  Keep in mind that they have to mail out all the other stuff as well, so adding in a few name tapes won't increase postal costs excessively.  Remember there is nothing stopping us from ordering one shirt at a time (as long as you don't order more than 10 per year) or one pair of socks at a time.  If we really want to save money on postage, perhaps we should impose a minimum order size?  We could even impose a restriction to say that name tapes will only be shipped as part of a larger order.

No solution is perfect, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't explore other options.

 

[BinRat55]

When we have fastballs we are authorized to go to ** **** here in Lincoln. They do a great job. There's an option I think could be explored.