For whatever reason, the club's first city-centre store didn't take off. Theories ranged from a lack of commercial acumen at the top to Evertonians in general just not being big consumers of merchandise... who knows, but I suppose the club felt the costs associated with a store in town couldn't be justified... or outsourced!

discussed this on a different forum, and theory or not, I believe it is part of the exclusivity deal with kmbc, to cut all ties with this city. A massive missed opportunity and apparently the supporters living in this city cannot (not won’t) cannot buy any merchandise without going to the ground. Neither then can any visitors.

I thought JJB stocked Everton related clobber?

Neil, in theory only. In the city centre store next to the r/s flagship store (soon to be closed and moved wholesale to Liverpool one, already open) is the main EFC stock outside of the EFC store at Goodison. It is embarrassing, tucked away in the far corner, very little range and just a couple of dummies (how apt) in the window as advertising/ promotional stuff. JJB at hunts cross is far worse. Online problems as well.
New kit not out for summer, traditionally last game of the season worn by players.
It is shocking and in another industry the person responsible would be sacked.

Neil H
Being involved with the retail sector and travelling the uk extensively, I can assure you JJB hardly stock any Everton shirts let alone other merchandise.Another great ’deal’ by Wyness - who could not negotiate his way out of a paper bag.

Fully agree Andy. The JJB outsourcing is a complete joke and gives our gear no prominence at all. But it’s not just that, the way business decisions have been made in relation to marketing/ticketing has been amateurish for some time now. You only need to hear some of the fans comments about buying tickets to know that we can’t even get this aspect of the business completely right. The fact that we don’t have some exposure in the city centre during Capital of Culture year is fucking unacceptable to me and I’d rent a bloody store for 12 months just to let people know we exist!. As I’ve said before, a radical overhaul is needed from top to bottom and I’d prefer a change of ownership with a new broom

What you should remember is that many touruists come to Liverpool and will end up buying Beatles and LFC memorabilia. That external revenue makes it worthwhile them having a city centre presence while most EFC fans are from the locality and will buy merchandise from the club shop while going to the game.

Also, as we have outsourced our merchandising I don’t think we are allowed to have a shop in competition with our chosen partners are we?

I think that the big reason for the failure of the EFC merchandise store at the end of bold street was that the merchandise itself was rubbish.

I’ve walked past the LFC store a bunch of times and the adverts in the window show some rather well designed clothes that could be worn by everyone, and some neat keyrings etc.

The EFC range on the other hand is a shockingly designed chav-tastic mess of ’graffiti-look’ hoodies and cheap polo shirts.

On top of that, the non-clothing merchandise is equally bad, with cheap looking neon clocks, pennants etc whose ’design’ seems to consist of cramming the badge onto the item as many times as possible. It just looks tacky, making the entire range is more befitting of the MK Dons than our Grand Old Team.

If the stuff on offer was good, I’m sure people would have bought it, but there’s no way I would wear 90% of the clothing, or give house-space to the rest of the merchandise. A huge missed opportunity considering our loyal fan base, who deserve better.

How come we have one in Birkenhead where the shite dont, but not one in the massively expanding and touristy city centre? clueless.

Laurel and hardy springs to mind for me.
Untill this club is Revamped from head to toe which in my opinion includes the fools who serve and provide food on matchdays then we will go round in circles

Friends of ours that live in Widnes, asked their next door neighbour to buy an Everton baby grow from the Everton shop at the Newcastle game, for my new born as a present. He had to come back with a bottle as the shop didnt have any and ’hadnt for ages’ according to the sales assistant. Now I know that this attempted purchase wouldnt have payed Arteta’s wages for a week but it you add up all the customers that have been unable to buy standard merchandise I imagine it runs into thousands of pounds. Perhaps Sir Terry can give the buying and marketing department a lesson?

According to the financial pages the new mega shopping centre in the city centre is only half-let - can’t say because I no longer live on Merseyside - and that’s probably because the rents and business rates are sure to be astronomical. End of story. However I agree with a lot of other comments in tbhat a lot of EFC "stuff" looks tacky. For crying out loud why don’t they produce a an ordinary blue sweater with the club badge. The one I have is about 20 years old !

Lyndon, the city centre store was closed to accomadate jjb, which to me was a joke because everyone knows what’s happened with them. If you look around you wherever you go in merseyside evertonians are out numbered by people in red shite replica kits by i would say 20 to 1.
I think we have missed a fantastic opportunity to push our club forward, have we not got a marketing manager, i would say sack the fat ceo. the buck should stop with him. first time on toffeweb, sorry about the rant.

I think everyone can tell that the whole JJB outsourcing has been a failure and well, a joke.

The JJB in Widnes is awful, the Liverpool section is alot bigger then the Everton section. (Although it has to be said there is many more Liverpool fans in Widnes than Everton fans)

The sooner this JJB deal ends the better.

Have to admit that it was pretty bloody depressing yesterday walking around Liverpool One.

The whole area is far, far more impressive than I ever could have imagined. In fact it’s downright superb and like a lot of people I felt somewhat overwhelmed by it all and had to keep reminding myself that I was in Liverpool.

Unfortunately slap-bang in the middle of it all is a certain shop. And whilst anywhere in Liverpool One would be a good location, it has to be conceded that the spec they have bagged is Grade A. On the main walkway half-way between the new Debenhams (stunning) and the new John Lewis (majestic) which are the crown jewels at either end of the whole presentation.

You can see the edifice of their store the moment you leave Debenhams which is a smart piece of work, too. Not that you needed to, anyway, because yesterday they had an army of worker-bees clad in red polo-shirts (badge etc) buzzing around the whole Liverpool One gaff handing out leaflets, vouchers, tickets for raffles etc.

Some of the female worker bees, not surprisingly, were very easy on the eye and it was to one of these honies that I, to my shame, vented a little bit of Blue frustration as she handed me a prize draw leaflet "to win a meeting with Fernando Torres".

"Do I look like I’ve had a lobotomy?" I said. The l’il beauty didn’t miss a beat and calmly replied "enjoy your day, sir" and it was clear that they’d obviously been trained to deal with "problem customers" like me.

I really should have gone back, apologised, and said "look, I really haven’t had a lobotomy but for some reason I support another team who were the first to hail from these parts who for some lobotomised reason are completely absent from all of today’s proceedings and are, as we speak, making plans to try and hide away even further out-of-sight."

The way the whole Liverpool One area links up with the Albert Dock is quite clever and it’s no longer a choice to be "here" or "there" because it all seamlessly merges into one and I couldn’t help but think about when the first cruise ships start to appear later this year for 36-hour shore leave stop-overs.

They’ll head straight from ship right into Liverpool One and they won’t be disappointed and within minutes they’ll see their store and all that red-liverbird connectivity. We won’t stand a chance.

Between that at Liverpool One and that huge advertising awning covering the whole edifice of St George’s Tower which dominates the eyeline right down Lime Street and Renshaw Street, the city centre is a pretty depressing place to be for any Blue right now.

I would hope, seeing as though he attended the premiere of his Evita at the Empire on Wednesday night, that Bill Kenwright stuck around for Thursday morning to witness the opening of Liverpool One and finally, finally, the penny might have dropped with him that the very last thing Everton need right now is to be removed even further out of sight.

Once I heard the radio adverts for the new LFC store, I sent an e-mail off via "Ask Sharpy" to EFC and the commercial dept, asking why the club are missing out on potential new income, and an increased city presence, by not opening in one of Europe’s biggest developments.

I’ve had e-mails with the club about this very subject before, and I’m normally given the response that the club is "actively looking at sites". Well, if they can’t find one now, they never will...

I’m stating here and now it is deliberate. It’s deliberate because the exclusivity deal is to transfer ALL TRACE and CONNECTION of our club from this city to Knowsley. There is no other sensible business reason for missing this none, not even financial because it offers the opportunity to not only retain your customers but swell their numbers.
Everton who? indeed !!

Does anyone else think it will be funny when the shite have to rip down that massive dirty picture by Lime Street of the ’family’ coz they’ve shipped one of em off to Juve!

Hopefully have to cut the end off if that little girl up front leaves too

Is it only Toffeewebbers that have trouble finding Everton merchandise?

Other web sites show an unlimited number of photos of fans, from babys to geriatrics, wearing Blue stuff.

My own collection of shirts and all manner of paperphanalia keeps on growing and I am 12.000 miles from merseyside.

I recently visited my family in the East Midlands (I live overseas) and happened to go into a JJB store. Obviously, as a Toffee, I headed directly for the footy merchandise to see what was on offer. Absolutely fuck all Everton-related to be seen.

They had Newcastle shirts tho. And plenty of Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Red Shite merchandise.

What the fuck is this retail partnership? An absolute joke if you ask me.

On Monday I walked into the JJB in the Hunts Cross Shopping Mall, south Liverpool, to be confronted by a red mass of LFC shirts. On my right, the queue for the till was lined by assorted LFC merchandise.

Oh fair enough, I thought, it’s their kit launch. Have a walk around but can’t find anything of ours. A few dozen Chelsea shirts though.

I look for a member of staff. I am told the store’s Everton stock had had to be sent to the club shop because it had run out.

I am directed to some Everton shirts - about 30 white away ones selling at £15 and a handful of blue ones, but not as many as there were blue Chelsea ones. There were also two small stands of Everton beer glasses etc.

I agree with comments about some of the LFC stock being more stylish.

I’ve believed for a year or two that there are more people walking round town with LFC shirts than EFC.
This trend is going to get worse, if only because it’s much easier for a red to buy their stuff than it is for a Blue to buy ours.

Situation is sad, very sad, and must change.

I think it’s more to do with lots of evertonians not bothering with all that. I havent got an everton kit or a mug or a flag. I havent got an everton bedspread an i dont want one. i go the match in my own clothes and support them as much as any fan supports their club. every time i see one of "us" with flags badges hats etc it kills me because they look like one of them norwegian gobshites that support them other cunts.

@ Mike Hughes. You end your piece ...

"I hate to use the Shankly comparison but, on a hopeful (deluded?) note I feel that DM could truly be a similar figure for EFC given more backing and more time."

Shankly was a great man IMHO who loved football. After LFC gave him the could shoulder he’d spend many an hour at Bellfield. And let’s not forget he once said this of a certain W.R. Dean esq. ...

He "? was the greatest centre-forward there will ever be ? He belongs to the company of the supremely great . . . like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt"

@Chris Jones
My point was that Shankly was something else that the reds got right. Of course he was a great footballing man and no disrespect was intended - hence my hope that DM does the same for EFC.

Regarding the Shakespeare, Rembrandt quote, I use this at work in an internal advertisement for my own department with a picture of Dixie Dean beside it!

In reply to ste kenny - I don?t think you are right in saying that Evertonians "nol bothering with all that". I agree about the pharaphanalia but I think most of us like to wear an Everton shirt on match day. You have only got to look how many women were gutted when they couldn?t get the breast cancer pink shirt.


As for JJB - as an exiled Evertonian I now live in Carmarthen, South Wales and not only do we have a JJB store in this town, I also quite frequently visit the Swansea and Cardiff Stores. Apart from Cardiff and Swansea AFC shirts, the only other shirts on show are Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U and the Shite. As the Assistant in all of these Stores explains :

Its the kids that get their Mums and Dad to buy the gear and they are only interested in the Big 4 - we don?t stock anything else

So what do you resort to if you live away from Mecca. Visit the Club Shop when attending matches or use the Website facilities.

We really do need some more publicity.... I am sick of being told, upon hearing my accent, "Your team?s doing well" - "Oh aye whose that then?" I reply, everyone says Liverpool and are soon put in their place.

Everton have always had issues with regards to selling the merchandise and the new kits.

I don’t know what the deal with JJB proved to offer, as every time I go in to a JJB, they only have very few kits left (in which the sizes are either XX Small or XXXX Large - for fuck’s sake!), and in terms of training gear, they have nigh on fuck all in. The same applies to the Megastore and the website - either silly sizes left in stock or next to fuck all.

And with regards to the new kit, Everton have always had a habit of bringing the kit out late. Does anyone remember 02/03 where the kit was brought out AFTER the season started?? Fucking ridiculous.

I also thought it was a disgrace with last season’s kits. Although smart, they were near enough exactly the fucking same as the year before, just with a wierd pattern under the arms and the yellow thing on the collar. I just hope this season’s kits are easily recognisable from last years, as if not, they must clearly take us all for a gang of gobshites.

Why we haven’t got a store in the new shopping part of town, I don’t know. Regardless of worries over whether we’ll make enough business or not, we should have a megastore in the city centre.

Just to expand on an earlier comment from Barry Bragg, I was speaking to a couple of rs fans from Norway (cliched, i know) in a city centre pub on the morning of one of their games early last season. Not only were these two lads over for the game, they also told me they had an extensive shopping list from friends,family etc for rs merchandise. From what they told me, it must have added up to couple of thousands pounds worth. I might be wrong, but I dont think we have that sort of supporter following us, or if we do, i don’t think there are that many of them.

I was in my local JJb on Sunday asking about when the new kit was coming out (July) and there wan’t even an Everton stand.Instead it was full of red and white streamers and all the staff had the new Liverpool shirts on.I thought we had a deal with JJB rearding the retailing of our products.

Also may I just add I think that it’s bad marketing on BK and KW part leaving it so long for the kit to come out, the longer you leave it the less you will sell before the start of the season.

The clubs finance/commercial department is a joke, its a joke that we don’t have a club store anywhere in town.

Why the club hasn’t got a store in the new liverpool one al never know, surely having a store in europes biggest retail development would increase are revenue?? The idiots shouls pull there fingers out and do domething.

The partnership with JJb is a joke, apart from the JJB in town, most the other stores around merseyside stock more Liverpool merchandise than everton, & most the stuff they do stock has to be transfered to the megastore because they’ve sold out.

The megastore in waltons out the way, apart from matchdays, it would be so much easier if there was a store in town which you could go in whilst doing your normal shopping, & whats going to happen to the walton megastore when we move to Kirby?? - we’ll be left we a poor retail outlefts and a dowt there a sote involved in tesco’s plans.

Maybe teso might become are new retail partners!

How are we ment to try and compete withthe top 4 with sh*te like this? Keith Wyness is alrite sayin the Kirby move is "the deal of the century" & moyes will have so much more to spend, if he sorted out the clubs merchandise he could have abit more aswell

WE agree that the JJB out source is a farce as I myself have found out trying to buy my grandson a kit .But what I can not understand is why JJB do not stock more gear surely its in their interest to advertise our merchandise .

John Derbyshire.

you mention (probably jokingly) that tesco might be our new merchandisding partner but that might not be a bad idea. Comercial oportunities around Europe and pretty much on every high street in the UK and lets be honest if they can’t sell everton gear who the hell can.

In response to above would just like to add that it is an absolute joke that we haven’t got a place in the new development and I wouldn’t be suprised if the Mancs put their own in there before we bother to catch on that it might be a good idea to sell stuff to our own supporters. I doubt that it is part of the ’move us out of liverpool conspiracy’ that many of the writers on this site subscribe to though. It’s more likely to just be typical poor management at exec level or because of the already discussed outsourcing of the merchandise.

Yet again I think people on here need to get real and get some business sense into their head. Regrettably Liverpool are one of the top 3 best supported teams in the world. Everton are apparently the 13th best supported team in Britain. In retail terms Everton are now TJ Hughes to Liverpool’s Selfridges. There is no comparison and it is a total waste of time for us to try and compete with them in city centre stores. Personally I doubt even Liverpool’s store will survive the cost of basing in the new shopping centre for more than a few years. We wouldn’t stand a chance.

Geoff, sorry mate, but you're talking bollox!
You have missed the point, EFC should have a store in liverpool one,if only to advertise the fact that there are 2 teams in our city. Tourism will play a major part in the finances of Liverpool (Capitol of Culture, new liners docking) and as such, we should be ramming in down visitors throats that WE EXIST!!!

I think you will find that most sports shops all over the place are similar, if you don’t support Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea you will find very little.

I work in Derby and the sports shops there don’t have any Derby stuff either.

Most shops are national chains and don’t do regional variations its the ’big 4’ or non-existent generally!

The jjb contract is up soon!......thank goodness!

expect a new distributer soon........