The Worcestershire CCC club shop, reintroduced at New Road to great success last summer, has a new home during the 2015 campaign when, amongst the many items on offer, will be merchandise from new county kit providers Canterbury.
The shop was moved from its pitch level location close to the Premier Inn restaurant into The View Sports Bar during the winter months -and will remain there throughout the forthcoming season.
It has enjoyed a steady stream of trade during the close season and the opening game versus Yorkshire and the emphasis will again be "selling the type of products that supporters want."
Worcestershire commercial director Jon Graham said: "With the club shop, as with everything, we always try and listen to feedback from customers.
"Last season's location was ideal for T20 because you've got a full ground and people will potentially migrate to those sort of areas.
"The four-day crowds are going to be bigger this season so we want to have a club shop in more of an area where you are going to get a lot more footfall and it will housed in a carpeted area in the Sports Bar on the ground floor as you walk into The View.
"The club shop, we are not going to spend half a million pounds on a retail store because we are not a Test playing venue. A lot of the bigger grounds, half of their stock is England product.
"I'm not going to shy away from the fact that the club shop is there to make money.
"If you spend a huge amount of capital expenditure on something that is a white elephant, then it is not in the best interests of the club – and every decision we make is in the best interest of the club.
"It is in the Sports Bar, it is a non members area, so anyone coming in home or away, is more than welcome to have a look."
Graham stressed the importance of stocking the kind of products that are attractive to members and supporters.
He said: "We are not going to be selling cricket bats and cricket pads because we don't feel supporters come to New Road to buy that sort of equipment.
"What we do want to do is support Canterbury, our new kit provider. There will be a lot of 150th Anniversary Year merchandise, clothing, T-shirts, hoodies, all that sort of stuff.
"The replica shirts will be available, certainly for the Somerset game.
"The approach with retail for us is selling the type of products that supporters ultimately want."
