talkmagic.co.uk

I don't understand why you told the man in International Magic that you were just looking if you intended to buy something. Usually if you tell him what you are looking for he will crack a joke and then go and get it and be really helpful. At least give him a clue.

I dunno about Davenports though, the man who works in there always looks at me like I'm some sort of schmuck and it always appears to me that he would rather show tricks to the tourists who come in and aren't going to buy much.

People don't realise that Davenports have two shops. Nobody seems to know they also have one in Glasgow. Tam Shepherds is the name of it and Roy Walton used to run it. I am not sure if he still does. I do remember he was always friendly to virtually everyone that came in.

When I went to London last year to lecture for International Magic I was in their shop virtually every day, particularly in the evening just before my lecture. I saw no evidence of unfriendliness to anyone and in fact just the opposite. They seemed quite welcoming to everyone no matter who was behind the counter and no matter who the customer was.

Martin's mother was there one day and growled at me complaining about bounced cheques I allegedly gave them in the past and kept telling Martin to deduct the money from my lecture fee. Mind you she was friendly to everyone else. Naturally I pleaded innocence and scarpered soon after. She did regale customers with stories of me doing the boomerang card when selling svengali decks for them years ago and annoying everyone in sight.

She did seem hale and hearty and in good form.

I don't understand why you told the man in International Magic that you were just looking if you intended to buy something. Usually if you tell him what you are looking for he will crack a joke and then go and get it and be really helpful. At least give him a clue.

So right.
Let's be fair, it's rather hard to "just look" in either shop. There's not much room to wander around in International, and it's all behind glass (and does not change much) in Davenports.
The best experiences I have had in both is where I had some idea of what I was looking for, and asked for suggestions and demos.
That said though, whilst I have had good, and poor experiences in both shops, they could both do with, (at minimum..) a "spruce up" to bring them into the 21st century. I just get the feeling that neither are bothered with the way they look.
Bruce

Had lots of bad experiences in Davenports with snotty staff but IM has always been friendly and helpful. A cup of tea, a chat, demos, suggestions and lots of useful stuff with Martin and Marco. There will often be someone in there nattering away to the staff but don't let that stop you asking questions. If you're friendly and talkative then a few minutes later you'll be that person chatting to the staff when the next customer walks in!

If you walk into any shop and the assistant asks if you need help and you reply 'no', then odds are they'll leave you alone. Be it Dixons, ASDA, or a Super Dooper Magic Shop.

This is because most people in retail have at some point experienced something like this:

Assistant: Do you need any help?
Customer: No.
Assistant: Well if you need any help just give us a.......
Customer: Mate, I just said I'm ok, Jesus Christ!

When I was a manager of a shop I trained my staff to not even talk to customers (except to greet them) for at least five mins to give them a chance to look round, it is very easy to offend customers by asking if they need help. Would you find that rude? Only some customers find being 'pounced on' when they walk through the door rude. Here at my humble store I normally ask after a while if they need help in a tongue in cheek style, such as 'Do you need help, or should I stop bothering you?'

Saying that if you did walk into a shop, said 'Hi' and received no greeting in return and you're pretty sure they heard you, then that is indeed poor customer service and you have every right to be disappointed with the store.

The local magic shop owner here gives them a minute or two to adjust to the shop and then asks them "Are you a magician or are you normal?"
This seems to break the ice.

Stu, you are right. I was travelling through Heathrow and went into an electronics shop to buy a present for my daughter. In about two minutes I had been accosted by three different staff members asking could they help me. I felt like a shoplifter surviellance. I made a complaint to the manager, and left the shop.

I had a friendly experience in Davenports, just depends on the day / staff I guess. I was after a book / DVD on card magic, and explained I had a few years experience with card magic. I left with Lennart Green's Vol 1 having seen an (obviously out of practice) demo of the top shot, but more importantly had a heat felt recommendation for 'Geen Magic' and Lennart has been my favourite magician from that day on. I was considering buying card to wallet too at the time, and had the cash to spend, but the young chap fluffed the demo of that up too (which must have been embarrassing as he'd been telling me how easy the load was!!) and I must confess that did put me off buying it. Also I'd agree that the shop itself is pretty disappointing with everything behind glass, so I would recommend before going in to have an idea of what you want, and take any demo's of said products with a pinch of salt as it must be virtually impossible as a young shop assistant to stay on top of every effect that they sell...

Tommy Magic wrote:Also I'd agree that the shop itself is pretty disappointing with everything behind glass...

Most of the time you are not buying (or paying for) the item in the box, you are buying the secret behind a magic trick. Some of the time you are buying a gimmick too and could you imagine if everybody could just open pack and boxes, see how it's done, go home and make half of the stuff at home? I think that's the main reason why everything is behind glass, and rightfully so!

I like the Magicbox way of doing things.

They have the normal shop with jokes and masks and party things but then they also have a shop entrance a couple of doors away that is for magicians only.

T'is a magic shop, not a mind reading shop, they can't read minds. I'm not going to justify the behaviour but I am going to say that going into any shop and having somebody ask you if 'you need help' and your response is 'just looking' then, well, read some of the above posts. But then to come in a chat room and type a disgruntled post about how lousy the service was is a little childish. I'm assuming we are all adults. A retail place is not the time to play mind games and then walk away disgruntled.

When I was involved in such things I made sure I demonstrated something to everybody who walked into my shop. And there were times when people responded, "just looking" and I'd smile and tell them that it would be my pleasure to show you a magic trick, In fact it is what you win for climbing the steps to the magic shop, (yes I was up a set of stairs) and it doesn't cost a thing. Some people really didn't want to see anything, they were seriously just curious and didn't want what they percieved to be a bother. But yes, at least I tried, unlike what you experienced. So I see your point, but at the same time you could have been honest in who you were, what level you were at, what you were interested in. Rather than make a 'game' of it.

I do feel that magic shops can be a bit intimidating, with everything behind glass, you've usually either got to start chatting straight away or stand there like a lemon. IM is an especially small shop, you walk in and the counter is right in front of you.

I really like Fantasma in New York, it has a mini museum (Houdini stuff) so you can walk around and browse that, chat to other people, and then speak to the staff once you got used to the place a bit.
When I was there, there was some little kids there, so the shop worker showed them something, then I showed them something too, and spoke to them for a while. They do kids parties too

gunnarkr wrote:

Tommy Magic wrote:Also I'd agree that the shop itself is pretty disappointing with everything behind glass...

Most of the time you are not buying (or paying for) the item in the box, you are buying the secret behind a magic trick. Some of the time you are buying a gimmick too and could you imagine if everybody could just open pack and boxes, see how it's done, go home and make half of the stuff at home? I think that's the main reason why everything is behind glass, and rightfully so!

Fair point well made. Many Magi's in Iceland? I'm going to put a question mark at the end of this post, mainly because if you answer you'll be on 2011 posts which would be very 'now'! I can see why some things need to be behind glass, but for many things, it would be nice to be able to pick them up and read the packaging, especially for DVD's etc. Although I'd imagine they'd have more issues with shoplifters than people opening stuff then! I don't open up products when I'm shopping, if I did I would expect to be made to buy said product (nor shoplift, except for occasionally snapping the long stem off of a choice piece of broccoli to keep the wieght down..) - but it's definately nice to be able pick things up and read the shizzle on the back. Behind glass is pretty much worse than on the internet, because at least you can read the sales pitch online and often watch a demo vid of the product being used / trick being done?

I don't think it is just the "shoplifting" aspect. It is a matter of getting the props soiled or packaging damaged. Books especially are subject to being made a mess of. On the other hand I do know that customers want to browse and handle things before buying. It is a delicate balance. I am not sure what the answer is.

The only thing here at House of Magic in a locked glass cabinet are the coin effects. For obvious reasons these are the most expensive and anyone with a bit of sleight of hand can easily switch a real pound for a coin unique say

For DVD's and books they're sealed so any grubby hands or snoopy eyes can't see the secrets but genuinely interested people can read any info/blurb.

The reason why most dealers have things sealed away behind glass cabinets though are for the mentioned reasons in other peoples posts. To prevent thefts, keeping the stock clean and keeping prying eyes from the public revealing too much.