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Mareel - Cinema & Music Venue


madcow
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Not quite....

 

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01373/SNF1034FX_1373779a.jpg

 

Then?

 

That would mean no need for.....

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RNX3XBTFL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 

That is great news,,,,,,,

 

What you could do, like we used to do when we went to expensive clubs was to have some cheep stuff b4 we went, perhaps, stuffing your face at the Fort than having 3 necked pints at the Marlex before you go perhaps...

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To clarify the point, and as Unlinked seems to have grasped, the venue was advertised as a wedding venue so, how could it adequately provide sit down catering for weddings without a reasonably functioning kitchen to provide a three or four course silver service meal?

 

Same way as with most Halls and weddings - the hostesses bring the flesh, bannocks and homebakes (and soup, if you're being posh and fancy) for thier tables, and so long as the venue provides a few muckle teapots for the servers to brew up with what more can possibly be needed?

 

But realistically, big sit-down weddings like that are becoming more and more rare, food (if there is any) can often consist of a few buffet items and a bit of cake these days.

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Apologies if this has been discussed in the 148 previous pages.

 

Haven't they made a marketing mistake by not including a proper working kitchen to cater for sit down meals e.g for weddings etc.?

Having been in the trade I can say with certainty that outside catering has its place but loses something when you are looking for something with a bit more pzazz.

I was dumbfounded to hear it can't do this sort of catering.

 

Why would it?

 

They're not running a massive restaurant, so why would they need a massive kitchen? It's similar to the sort of food you get at Bonhoga, with a similar size kitchen and that manages perfectly well to serve a variety of meals at very busy lunchtimes.

 

:?

 

One word, "opportunity". Then wear a "running a business" hat, not a "providing a service" one.

 

You have a building within which anything up to circa 1000 people may be for several hours, even if you should only sell them corned beef sandwiches, £1 bags of chips and packets of jelly babies, its all money in the coffers, and you need adequate space and facilities to store prepare and serve it to the punters within an acceptable window of time - ie. folk are gonna get narked if they're wanting a "snack" and they are expected to wait more than a couple of mins.

 

The fact that the bar has been closed at least twice unless to patrons of a specific facility within the building, is more than adequate grounds to suspect that the "add on" value sales/hospitality provision side of the facility isn't adequate to meet demand, consequently income/profit is being lost and customer satisfaction is diminished. Not what any business wants to have happening.

 

Any successful business is well aware their success is largely down to footfall and sales volume, Mareel appears to be succeeding in achieving the former which they cannot match with the latter. Given the widespread accusations of "creative accounting" in the projected balance sheets contained within the business plan, and the repeated assurances that profit would be achieved in year three, one would have hoped provision to maximise additional income/profits from sales to a sizeable captive audience would have been bordering on the excessive rather than just "adequate", to have best chance of proving the projected profit/loss numbers right if nothing else.

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^ I'm not suggesting the place should have a full blown restaurant, I noted what MuckleJoannie posted about local businesses complained it would affect their trade. I'm talking about filled rolls, sandwiches, pies, chips/chip suppers and suchlike - "snack" grub, the kind of thing you buy on impulse when you're out on the razz. You have a captive market within the building drawn in by other things, why not capitalise on that by flogging to them whatever "add ons" you possibly can. Such would not compete with "sit down" restaurant businesses, and I believe would only have negigible affect on existing fast food outlets. Its not like folk will leave Mareel and go elsewhere to get something to eat in the middle of something, then go back to see the rest of it, they'll just do without, or then go elsewhere in the first place, either way Mareel's bank balance loses.

 

The fact the cafe/bar has had to be closed at least twice when attendees at an event had reached, or were expected to reach a certain number, strongly suggests the existing facilities cannot cope with the natural demand of the building's users, let alone be in a position to capitalise on the opportunity to profit presented to them.

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The fact the cafe/bar has had to be closed at least twice when attendees at an event had reached, or were expected to reach a certain number, strongly suggests the existing facilities cannot cope with the natural demand of the building's users, let alone be in a position to capitalise on the opportunity to profit presented to them.

 

Perhaps the cafe is just the right size.. yes perhaps a little to small to cope with the current demand, I would assume that it is bigger than it will normally be, because it is new but given when the place has been open a few months the natural demand will fall and will be closer to its designed capacity..

 

look at flames when it first opened.. it couldn't cope with the demand and now you could probably fit its daily customer base into the old harbour cafe.

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^ You're very probably right as far as "ordinary" days/nights go, but surely once Mareel is established in folk's minds as a viable choice for a "night out" and it has been open long enough that acts requiring to be booked numerous months before the fact are coming through. The aim would be to have at least one weekend night, if not two, with "crowd pullers" capable of at least filling both venue and cinema to 50+% of capacity, otherwise the facility is arguably not be capatilised to its full potential/not achieving the purpose it was designed for.

 

Even for a moderate 350-450 captive customer base within the building, I have my doubts about the cafe/bar's ability to fully capitalise on the sales potential that presnts, but time will tell.

 

I don't know if something like Flames or any other "eaterie" is a particularly good comparison. Certainly curiosity and novelty value drag in punters to any "new" facility, but its entirely the "dining experience" that drags them back again and again, or not. They have nothing else to act as a carrot.

 

Mareel has the venue and cinema as carrots, the cafe/bar can utilise the potential customer base those bring in. IMHO a better comparison would be the burger van at the Cross and spud shop on the street. Folk conregated at the Cross and street long before either existed for other reasons, and went uncatered for. However, both as far as I'm aware have done a pretty good and steady trade from the day they opened, by planting themselves in the midst of a potential customer base and trying to supply them with whatever they could persuade them to buy.

 

Mareel cafe/bar has the same opportunity right now as the burger van and spud shop had when they each set up. Can their facilities and business attitude make them succeed as well as the van and shop have, that's all I'm questioning and having doubts about.

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Very well put GR.

 

I fear I'm about to open a can of worms but I think a large part of this has to be about Shetlands drinking culture.

 

Mareels bar is comparible to many similar venues on the mainland, which can serve similar numbers of gig-goers with relative ease (there will always be a build up at the beginning and during intervals etc) because they simply don't drink as much.

 

Should Mareel expand its service to maximise supply/consumption, or carry on as it is until people say to hell with the waiting, make their dram last and just enjoy the gig they paid to see?

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Two thoughts.

 

Where events have fixed intervals, as opposed to folk just wandering in and out to the bar, they need to organise pre-ordering of drinks so that your order is paid for and waiting for you in the foyer (not the bar area, to keep congestion down) at interval time. That's routine south. Clickimin has never (as far as I know) got that right.

 

As to eating, I think Shetland restaurants are missing a trick. They could attract more people in by offering an early evening, fixed-price, pre-theatre (or cinema/concert) menu up to, say, 6.30pm Sunday-Thursday. Again, that's routine elsewhere: two or even three courses for around £12-£15, often with a glass of wine thrown in. At that sort of price, people start to think of a meal out as an occasional alternative to eating in. As things stand, local restaurants' evening menus seem to be predicated on the notion that eating out has to be a big occasion with prices to match.

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