By Mark Ilsley, Assistant Megastore Manager
Christmas is coming, which means things are hotting up for us in the Reading FC Megastore.

We've had a big change behind the scenes lately in that we have a new warehouse for stock, it's now situated off site. We used to have lock-ups behind the Academy Training Dome, and that was often a nightmare! But now we have a big new warehouse and everything is well organised and sorted. We have a picking area for mail order, which will mean that we can get more orders out in a short space of time. That leads to greater efficiency, which in turn leads to happier customers, and that's the point of it all at the end of the day.

This is all a sign of a growing club. We couldn't have run all of this from the small office we used to work in out at the back of the shop. I started here on work experience about eight years ago. I used to work part time back then and we used to watch the games from the upper level of the West Stand.

The whole of that area used to be empty in those days and the maximum gate we'd ever get was 18,000. The shop layout was totally different back then, with a much smaller space and old till system. I remember going to the Wigan play-off game and filling the stadium for the first time. That season was a busy season for us. Since then we've grown and grown as a club, and the Megastore has become busier and busier.

We've also become much busier on the mail order side of things over the last few years. Now we have customers from all over the world, Korea, America, Australia. I think that's a lot to do with the players we have here now, like Bobby Convey, Marcus Hahnemann, and Seol Ki-Hyeon when he was here.

The number of people buying in the online shop is higher now than it ever has been, and it will only continue to grow as customers get used to that service. We've recently started doing e-catalogues, which have been a massive hit. We've just released one about two weeks ago, and as soon as that went live the numbers we were selling of those items just flew up. I think it's brilliant, the fact that customers are buying stuff from all over the world with Reading FC logos on.

We're always listening to customers' ideas for new products and trying to come up with new things which we think will sell. At the moment we have a few new club toasters which even print RFC into your toast. We've got a few in on a trial period, and they're going well.

We've just got a new advent calendar in for the first time this season, and the fans are loving it. Also the new 2008 calendar is selling well, plus lots of festive stuff, hats, stockings and the like. Then the normal warm clothing items which we sell a lot of in winter - hats, scarves, fleece tops.

We always try to make sure the customer is aware of issues to do with the Megastore, and I would say to make sure you keep up to date via our website. We've got the Christmas Shopping details which have all the opening hours and dates to order by if you're wanting items to be delivered in time for Christmas.

If you've got a mail order enquiry though, please don't call the shop itself, because the people behind the till won't be able to help. We have a new mail order hotline specifically for those enquiries, and that's 0118 907 0372 or 0118 907 0373.

This year people seem to have started early on their Christmas shopping, maybe a week or so earlier than last year. We're snowed under at the moment, no pun intended, and it's only just got into December.

When it comes to Christmas orders, I would have to stress that it really helps if customers get their orders in early. If there are any queries, get them into us as soon as possible, it gives us more time to answer and get the product to you. If we get phone calls on Christmas Eve, there's little we can do about it. I would say to customers, make sure things are sorted by the week before Christmas, otherwise we will struggle to guarantee things will be with you in time.

We are bound by the same postal problems at Christmas as anyone else. So often it's down to Royal Mail to deliver for us on time. Of course, the best way to be sure you'll get things on time is to drop into the Megastore itself. By doing that you'll be all sorted and out within 10 minutes.

When visiting the Megastore, the busy time to avoid is obviously on a matchday after midday. Unless you are heading to the game itself, I'd highly recommend not coming anywhere near the shop! Sundays do get quite busy as well, it seems to be the new Saturday in terms of shopping. The best time to drop by is during the week, you can get a lot more focus from the staff at those times.