Barrister and Mann

Hey Will, in all this excitement re Hallows I almost din't notice the Hallows T-shirts on your website!  Very cool, I just bought one.  A person can never have too many cool t-shirts.
Thanks,
Mark

Lets stay away from anti competition stuff and look at it as a loyalty program which is very American and essentially rewards a businesses most loyal customers.  Duh, why would you want to reward people who never buy your products other than when an opportunity to flip them at a profit arises so they can then screw that businesses most loyal customers.  That just sounds like bad business all around.  

The computer script you mention is I think called a bot and they are used by people in the collectible Air Jordan shoe releases.  Its basically got to the point that regular collectors cannot buy the shoes on release from vendors like eastbay.com  If you really want the shoe you have to end up buying it from a reseller / scalper/ jerk for a markup.  Nike has struggled with it but there doesn't seem to be a quick fix.  Even without bots, when you release a sought after product at a specific time most systems aren't built to handle the sudden slam of internet traffic. I blame stuxnet  

I've said in previous posts that I like the Italian Barber approach to limited edition items but I just went to his site and I notice that he's dropped the description of the process he follows so maybe there is a competion problem there, however I don't think it should change anything.  How about making limited release items work in conjunction with your loyalty program?  B&M has a loyalty program where you get point when you make purchases that you can use as cash when you reach certain number of points.  Why not say limited release items require X number of loyalty points (plus cash obviously) to purchase?  I just went and did a quick tally of my stock of B&M products (I hope my wife doesn't see this) and I have 34 tubs of soap and 12 bottles of aftershave splash/kyovu/wonderbalm/beard oil.  I love B&M's products and I've been a loyal customer for a few years now.  Its a free country and I know that the loyalty and a buck might buy me a cup of coffee and doesn't entitle me to jump line to buy anything.  But don't you think that I'm the sort of customer that an artisan or a vendor might just want to reward in some small way?  I don't think its rocket science either, they were able to limit purchase of DFS soap/splash to members of DFS weren't they?  

This is the last time I'll say anything on this subject.  Unless, of course I absolutely can't stop myself but I promise to try really hard so we can just get on with talking about these wonderful soaps and razors and blades and aftershaves.  Like Bay Rum.  I just love that stuff.

That's an interesting idea as well. Suppose I have another year to come up with a way to fix the problem, since Le Grand Chypre will be our last SE release for quite some time, and that will be going to our retailers as well as available on our own site.

Going to bug Shopify about it again tomorrow, since they've been digging through the transaction records to see if they can figure out what happened.

missed out again this year myself and i would have been more then happy with just one. i really wanted this one this year. but imo i think a limit is great but maybe not 1 per person maybe on a super limited soap do a limit of 2 or 3 at most. this way for those who want a backup can get that extra one. but when people buy 6 or who know how many it kind of sucks imo.

Well, I missed out on Hallows this year. While sad, I know there is a chance next year, and was solaced by my other B&M soaps. Keep up the great work.

I recently heard of your Roam scent, and hope one day to happen upon it. It sounds very intriguing.

Monte

You can double check with Will but I think Roam is discontinued.

Roam is indeed discontinued. I wonder if any amount of pestering could result in another batch being made for those of us who really want one. Hint, wink, nudge.


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Will, I notice that you no longer make Petrichor - any particular reason?  I find that things I like often get discontinued.  Petrichor has a wonderful wet dirt scent that I really like.  Now I have to go and lay face down in the garden when it rains to get my fix.  Until your soap I didn't know there was a word for that smell - soap is a teacher too.
Mark

Will, I notice that you no longer make Petrichor - any particular reason?  I find that things I like often get discontinued.  Petrichor has a wonderful wet dirt scent that I really like.  Now I have to go and lay face down in the garden when it rains to get my fix.  Until your soap I didn't know there was a word for that smell - soap is a teacher too.
Mark

He has a way of capturing things like that. Petrichor reminds me of the smell of waking up in the mornings in South Rainier while in the army. Every once in a while I wake up to a bad day and bust out the Petrichor. It reminds me that things could be worse...I could be freezing my ass off soaking wet and miserable.

Wow, did you bring back some memories, the smell / sensation of mud in my nostrils waking up cold and wet hugging my rifle for warmth being momentarily confused as to where the hell I was...oh yeah, basic training and I signed up for it.  I love the smell of petrichor in the morning...now lets go surfing. 35 years evaporate in an instant.

I, for one, can testify to the great service Will provides for repeat customers.
He can and indeed, does go above and beyond to try and satisfy genuine repeat customers and for that I am most appreciative.

Will, perhaps a simple caveat, stating something along the lines, that orders deemed to be of a commercial nature will be cancelled upon limited editions.
This provides you the legal grounds to cancel order that you suspect, or know are not in the spirit of the greater community and your personal values and also carries the benefit of encouraging an element of constraint.
Perhaps even going as far as either requiring a purchase prior or along side the limited edition would further alleviate issues ?
I hope you're able to identify the order from the 'bot' that caused you grief and blanket ban them for good!
Publicly setting an example also will discourage other opportunistic types.

Cologne Russe, I hope the formulation changes does not change the scent profile, it's wonderful and everyone that I've shared it with agrees!

As for last years and this years Hallows, I will be interested to see what those that own both think of the scent profile.
I noted a slight difference between your last release and prior releases of both fougeres.
So much so, that I sought out confirmation and thus far all have agreed absolutely, bar one, who is indecisive, yet believes there is something.
So there is scent profile changes between batches and to me, that makes these products that much more interesting