Ihnen wrote:Metro's ridiculous - if they'd just planned for success more people would ride. It's abolutely shameful that the system is completely disfunctional. Even if you can figure out the mensa ticketing system, how is one supposed actually find a store from the platform? And the maps are so bad it's a crapshoot as to whether you're even getting off at the right place! And the trains can be a couple minutes late sometimes! Ridiculous!!!
Wait . . . people were using the Metro to go shopping/get downtown!?!? Wash U. must be an elite university - its intrepid students braved a disfunctional system and unraveled the mysteries of mass transit in StL. What a brave group they must be! Fearless! BRAVO I say, BRAVO.
I try and use [sarcasm on] [sarcasm off] tags.
BTW: I forgot to add that when going east around 9pm, at the Richmond Heights station 4 middle aged, well dressed women (who looked like out-of-towners) all got on the train with doggie bags from PF Changs. They were still on when I got off at Skinker. I wonder where they were heading? Maybe back downtown?
Dierberg's should realize and should utilize the sudden advantage of having the closest-possible Metrolink entrance to their store. Right now, the Clayton Road Schnucks almost owns the Wash U student grocery market. As a former student, I drive some current students there for shopping trips. We also frequent the Aldi on Olive (for the best value) and Trader Joe's (for special groceries).
But we have never visited Dierberg's by car or van. What's the point? The Schnucks is the closest, is the nicest, and has earned our habitual patronage: ours and that of lots and lots of wealthy (not me) students. When I don't drive, students will still trek to the Schnucks, some by bike, and some others again on foot even, with packs on their backs, to buy necessary groceries.
But now, the equation has been changed. Dierbergs is now as close as Skinker and Big Bend.
Doesn't Dierberg's understand the advantage of opening up the 'iron curtain' at the Brentwood station, which would allow Dierberg's to recruit perhaps half of the Clayton Schnucks Wash U student customer base? Such students might even remember Dierberg's when on a car-trip past Trader Joe's, then continue their shopping excursion to the Dierbergs at the Metro stop, instead of passing it to the Schnucks on Clayton Road.
So many of the Wash U students live over on the U City side of Millbrook, and many would learn the Metrolink shopping habit to Dierberg's (even I might) . . . Especially if Dierberg's were to advertise, in the student newspapers, how hip-and-green it is for the university community to shop from the Metrolink.
?? Are there not some big shots on this forum who could explain this advantage to 'Mr. Dierberg' at the country club ??
I have an uncle who works in Dierberg's executive offices. The business practices of big Bob D are frequently the topics of conversation at family gatherings (usually making for some entertaining stories). I'll see him at Thanksgiving and could mention this proposition.
To be clear, the recommendation is that Dierberg's should target the local college demographic as a potential new customer base using metrolink as the marketing fulcrum?
