Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles,alt.sewing
Subject: Re: Patterns: How to Find Other Styles?
From: tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot)
Date: Tue,  5 Jan 1993 18:09:11 CST
Reply-To: tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot)
Organization: The McCall Pattern Co., Manhattan, KS, USA
Nntp-Posting-User: tp


In article <1id0iaINNqu7@fido.asd.sgi.com>, close@lunch.wpd.sgi.com (Diane
Barlow Close) writes:
>I know that some people from McCall's monitor the group from time to
>time.  They rarely post or otherwise become "public" due to the
>overwhelming responses via e-mail.  Perhaps one of them will see your
>posting and address your concerns.  I know that I feel the same as you
>do!

Actually, I'm the only one from McCall's that reads this group. Only one other
person here has access to the net. I haven't been monitoring this group for a
while because I've been too busy. A rarely post because I can rarely contribute.
I don't sew, and I'm not in anyway plugged into the departments that could help
with most of the things that come up here (marketting, design, customer service,
etc.) (By now you are wondering what I'm doing at McCall's...) 

I'm a programmer, and I'm responsible for our grading and tracing computer
system, which is involved with grading patterns to different sizes, and laying
out printing plates and fabric layouts. In all those cases, it is computer
assist, all the decisions are made by humans. In other words, I can't answer for
how the Grading people decide to grade a piece, or how the layout people decide
to layout printing plates or fabric layouts. I develop the tools they use to do
these things. Thus I know about some of the technical aspects, but not about the
decision making part. (I hope that explanation is clear.)

I started monitoring this group when a co-worker who was taking university
classes at the time told me there was a technical discussion going on about how
patterns are graded. That's the sort of thing I can talk about.

Very Important: articles posted by me to this group are my opinion only and are
not an official statement by my employer, who hasn't seen my postings, and
doesn't even know I'm doing it! If something I say offends you, talk to me about
it. I apologize in advance for any erroneous statement I may make. And finally,
I refuse to denigrate the competition, so don't ask.

Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that so people would know how little they can
expect from me. :-) Now as to the article that Diane was following up to (and
please keep in mind all the above):

In article <1ictgdINNmkt@life.ai.mit.edu>, botteron@pop-tarts.ai.mit.edu (Carol
J. Botteron) writes:
>The pattern companies wouldn't have to increase their inventory to
>provide more variety, since many of the patterns they sell are minor
>variations of each other.  If they cut back on those, they could offer
>others, including "old classic" styles from a few years ago.

All I can say is that our marketting people try very hard to provide a mix of
patterns that will satisfy the customer. I can't comment on how similar various
patterns are, because I simply don't know. I do know that they try to produce
what will sell, which means, of course, what the customer wants. There's no
brand loyalty in patterns, we have to produce what the consumer wants or the
consumer simply will not buy it. I don't really know how they make the
determination. Probably the way most marketting organizations do.

>Is there anything we can do about this?  Would letters to pattern
>companies ("I'd buy more patterns if you had more variety") get a
>response better than the standard patronizing "bedbug letter"?

I strongly suspect that such letters are read and considered when trying to
determine what the customer wants. The more letters asking for something they
get, the more attention they will pay. I know they changed policies on how many
and what kind of patterns were multi-sized in direct response to customer input.
I know that because it directly affects my software. I'm sure there are other
cases I am unaware of.

My guess would be that a letter would be your best course of action. I'd also
guess that the best place to send the letter would be the customer service
address. I know someone that works there, and I know that every letter is read
carefully. I'd resist the temptation to try to skip channels and get to the
person you think needs to see the letter. You are better off sending it to the
people whose job it is to read such letters and see that they are properly
handled. (I mention this because it's something I might do! :-)
--
Terry Poot <tp@mccall.com>                   The McCall Pattern Company
(uucp: ...!rutgers!depot!mccall!tp)          615 McCall Road
(800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041           Manhattan, KS 66502, USA