Week Three at Stowe

While we unfortunately weren't able to ski at all during this past weekend at Stowe, we were able to get a very strong base of knowledge on the daily functions of a Ski and Snowboard Rental Shop. Both Friday and Saturday were spent in the Rental Shop located on the Spruce Peak side of the resort.  Due to the professional appearance that Stowe takes with pride, we needed to dress up for this job.  Collared shirts, dark pants, and an overall professional appearance were needed for this job.  It was chaotic at times, as all rental shops are, but we were able to work with some great people and learned a lot of very useful information.
The services provided in Stowe Mountain's Rental Shop are extremely efficient.  Everything from the ground up is meant for customers to be able to quickly get the proper equipment they need so that they can get out and put that $95 dollar lift ticket to use! The fact that they use a large amount of technological assistance means that they can handle a very large body of people with very few errors in a very short period of time.  This is not only good for the customer, who is looking to get through the process quickly, but for the mountain as well, as they can handle a larger number of customers in a shorter period of time.  The employees job is made much simpler by the use of technology in the shop.  for example.  Every piece of equipment in the shop is labeled with a bar code that can be scanned.  This bar code provides essential information on things like where the binding needs to be moved to for a certain pair of skis. A simple scan of a code, quick adjustment to the bindings, and the customer is ready with a factory recommended set up based on their skill level.
By focusing on efficiency, Stowe's rental shop is successful in pleasing the customer quickly as well as making their employees job easier.  This comes together to make for a very profitable business and their numbers certainly reflect that.  It was a great experience to learn and I look forward to next week.