Dear Pitt Shop,

First of all, congratulations on being able to sell the new logo apparel before anyone else. I hope business is brisk and sales strong.

As an alumni and one who has spent hundreds of dollars on Pitt gear over the last 18 years (a good chunk at your store) , it is important to note how far you’ve come.

For years, you were practically non-existent. A small little hovel within the bookstore in the Quad. Barely any gear at all worth mentioning.

Then in the early 90s, Pitt decided you needed a place of your own (and the accompanying revenue). To do so, they kicked out a long-time tenant and alumni who operated the Pitt Store on Forbes Avenue. This created much consternation from the community and alumni who found the methods heavy-handed and unfair. You’ve had to patiently wait for the negative fallout from that action to recede. It took time before some alumni would even set foot in your store.

If that wasn’t enough, there was competition right down the street from an operation that literally operates out of the back of a truck. With their reduced overhead, they usually have slightly lower prices than you. Attempts to get rid of the competition by Pitt have failed and you bore the brunt of the ire for the school’s action.

Then the football team started playing its games off-campus, killing your Saturday sales expectations. Most of the time there is just no way anyone is showing up at the store before or after the game.

Still, you have persevered and evolved. You added a catalog to help further sales. You even got the products online and have a direct link through the Pitt Athletic Department website.

It is your website that I wish to discuss. Let me put this as delicately as I can.

It’s an embarrassment.

Look at it. Look at the storefront photo. You attempt to frame the shot, but it cuts off on each side. Look at the layout. You can’t get a really good look at the items once you click them. There is no “larger view” link to really see the individual products.

This is all fixable and not that difficult. And it brings me to the main issue.

For god’s sake get your own host and system and get off of “Yahoo! stores.”

Are you telling me, the Pitt athletic department or the University can’t help set you up with your own domain name and space on their servers? Are you so cheap, you can’t get your own payment system rather than just use the standard one from Yahoo!?

I mean, you are the “official headquarters” for licensed Pitt merchandise according to your site. Start acting like it. You have no idea how annoying it is to see that little “Y!” appear in the address bar when I click to the Pitt Shop. What’s next? Set up a store on eBay?

Thanks for reading this.

Regards,
Chas Rich, CAS ’92