thoughts on the c3 store

[CooLJoE]

Yeah, the C3 store could have gone better.

But I did hear that around 100 people signed up to help (of the volunteers), but only like 28 or so actually showed up. So they were short staffed at the store. I'm not saying it excuses all of the problems with the store, but it does explain why it was slower than it should be.


Really they should give you a cheapo pencil and order form when you walk in the door. And then have you hand the order form to the cashier instead of actually telling them what you want. This would shave some time off the lines. And if you weren't sure of clothing sizes, there should have been an area to see them clothing in person like at one part of the line (perhaps near the display cases). And if you didn't fill out the form completely before getting up there, you had to sit off to the side and wait til you did have it completely filled out.

I noticed alot of people would get up to the cashier and spend most of the time asking about various products, clothing sizes, etc before actually ordering anything. Plus some of the runners were just plain slow. My friend ordered his stuff after I did, but he ordered at a different register (next one over from me) and he got his stuff like 30 seconds after he paid for it. Mine took like 5-10 minutes to arrive.

[Bantha274]

The whole experience was a freakin joke. I had a four day pass and couldn't even get in the store the first two days. I got to the convention at 6am Saturday just to get in the store line. It was raining, windy, and cold, and we waited outside until the doors opened at 9am. After getting in, there was more waiting in line. I didn't get out of the store until after 12 noon.

6 hours for "exclusive" figures that I found out were being sold at the starwarsstore.com after the convention. That's f**ing bulls**t. How DARE they sell these online after all the crap they put so many thousands of people through at the convention!?

While I chose to wait hours in line for the store for these so-called "exclusives", It just seemed unfair to many people who had only single day passes who couldn't even get in line for the store minutes after the doors opened. Add that to the fact that every line for just about every event was hours long wait just made things that much more disappointing. The organisers of this event had no f***ing clue what they were doing. Volunteers were rarely helpful to answer questions, in many rooms they seemed to rush you out the door after you had been waiting for hours in line to see certain things (the Lucasfilm Archives room seemed like they didn't even want people to stop and actually read the descriptions of the items being displayed, volunteers were constantly telling people to "Take a few photos and move along as quickly as possible". I told one that I would take as much time as I needed and he said if I lingered too long he would have security remove me. This was after waiting an hour in line to walk through the room in less than 5 minutes. Again, more frustrating B.S.)

Overall, scoring between 1 and 10, with 10 being the best, I would rate my four-day experience at Celebration III a 4. I will never attend a future Celebration event if they do continue to do them. It's just not worth the money, hassle, and TIME, lots of time wasted to leave so un-satisfied.

[BoPs]

6 hours for "exclusive" figures that I found out were being sold at the starwarsstore.com after the convention. That's f**ing bulls**t. How DARE they sell these online after all the crap they put so many thousands of people through at the convention!?

don't worry.. the one you got at ciii is different than the one offered on starwars.com and also.. i didnt get either if it makes you feel any better

[JEDIpartner]

I only stood in line for 3 hours on the first day, so I can't really comment.

[Dar' Argol]

The store was poorly planned. If they had 2 or 3 in different locations that would have made a world of differance. Here's what I went through:

Thursday: Go there early. VERY EARY! Because we did not relize there was a time shift. Stood in line just to get in for 4 hours or so. Got in and I saw the Clone Wars Animated Series, then I went to the store . . . bad idea. The line was capped right outside the Exhibitors Hall D. They said come back in 2 hours . . yeah right. Didn't get in that day.

Friday: New plan . . head right for the store. Even got in early thanx to Dr Evazan22. Bee lined right for the store and here they shut it down for the day because the Fire Marshall told them to. Friggin 9:30 in the morning and they closed the store down!?!?!?!

Saturday: I got to get to this store. I promised my little girl a shirt and my nephew. Plus I wanted a few things. Drop the crew off at the front so they could get in line while me and The Xir parked the cars. Heading back up there Dr Evazan22 called me and said they had 3 lines, 1 for the fan clud entrance to the convention, one for the fan clud store, and one to see Lucas. So we met up with him and Lowly Bantha Cleaner had stood in line for the store. So we all went back to get in line with him. It was cold, windy, raining off and on, but there we were. Then the line starts to move, amd it goes good until we are about 20 people from the door. Then this girl and Guy walk out, saying they had room for the second showing of Lucas but you would not be able to go to the store if you went. Hmmm . . . . Lucas, Store, Lucas, Store. Well, my daughter cannot wear Lucas, nor can I take him home with me . . . . I stayed for the store. Skipping the boring "in-line" stuff, got up to the regisiter. They were sold out of the Childs Tees, they did not have the Yoda Hoodie I wanted . . . So I got my figs, got my shirt, ordered the badge set and the 2 child tees and had them shipped to me. I had Forrest Gump working the register and he was having a hard time dealing with cash/credit/breathing. Took waaaaay to long just to do that transaction. But I think it was worth it. My daughter and nephew will be happy, I'm happy.

Total wait time from when we got there till we left: 6 1/2 hours . . . . that is too long for anyone to wait. And if you had to go to the bathroom . . forget it! They had vendor guys waling around selling bottles or water for $3!!! WATER!! They had thes little Pappa John's personal pizzas for $4!!! I will go to another celebration because my over all experiance was awesome, but I do hope that they re-think their approch to the store. On Friday they did still have the Kiosk open, selling the hats and shirts and lanyards and such, but they shut that down friday night . . . why not have that open the whole time??? I think we should all email GenCon and let them know what a poor POOR job they did in handleing this. Unless SirSteve can organize something more formal.

[JEDIpartner]

Typos, Dar! Typos!!!!

[Dar' Argol]

Typos, Dar! Typos!!!!

Where WHERE!?!!?!

These are not the typos you are looking for

[mericen]

Yes the store was a disaster. I went to Celebration III on Thursday. My Mom and I waited in the store line for close to 5 hours. And about at 7 pm, they finally came out to say that the store was permanently closed. But they did hand out armbands that enabled us to get back in the next morning early to gaurantee that we got into to store. Plus they converted our Thursday passes to Friday passes. So I got a free day at CIII too. So, all in all it was not bad.

[Jayspawn]

The C3 Store was a total disaster. I didnt get in till Sunday morning and waited 4 1/2 hours to get in. The lines inside were horrendus. It didnt help that Employees and Volunteers stood around and did nothing -that really set me off! I was about to start blasting Sith lightning from my fingers!

Other people waited as long as 12+ hours to get in -which is insane! They wasted a whole day just standing in line. I talked to GenCon Supervisors about this fiasco, and they appologized and said that if I was a Fan Club Member it wouldnt be a problem getting into the store -what a joke! I fired back against their excuses, wanting a more specific response. They got quiet and apologized again and said they were sorry, and that theres nothing that they're going to do about it.

[Sentinel18725]

don't worry.. the one you got at ciii is different than the one offered on starwars.com and also.. i didnt get either if it makes you feel any better

It's different? How? I picked some up there but also got some online but they are not here yet. Any info?