BRC question and poll

UPDATE:  We have had some good suggestions.  A number of people suggested increasing the length of time for the purchase window.  We settled on 2 months prior to a limited release to count towards getting that beer in the beginning of our BRC program.  It was a way of getting it started and letting everyone sign up and get used to the system.  
Now that we have been doing the program for a year, I think it is fair to increase that window (based on a number of customer suggestions).  I am not going to change Derivation #1 release, it will still be based on previous 2 months purchases, but for Derivation #2 I am switching it to be based on the prior 6 months purchases.  
I am going to try 6 months on upcoming releases from now on and I feel that will help reward people that come into the store consistently week after week.  We will continue to announce release dates, but we might shorten that window too.  I might only give a week or so warning.  
Still reading through comments and suggestions.   This is where I am leaning now.
Thanks for all the great constructive criticism and suggestions.  We will try get the system to be as fair as it possibly can.



Looking for some input....
We had a regular customer suggest that maybe we should not announce limited releases that are going through the Beer Reward Club (BRC) in advance of the release date.   His point was that it takes away from the BRC rewarding the "regulars" for shopping at the store each week--and of course, this is the reason we set up the BRC in the first place.
He was thinking that when we announce special releases, non regulars head to the store and try to buy enough to swoop in and get the new releases.   Possibly not to come back to the store unless something else exciting that they want is announced.   
As he said, he can see the benefits of both ways.   It helps the regulars to know when something special is coming too.   As he mentioned, he would also ask how much it would take to get a bottle of a certain release to see how much he needed to spend and he is a regular (generally in the top 20 on the list).   He just thought he would raise the point to us.  It is something we had not thought about.  I always thought it was best to give the information as I get it, but maybe is better not to?  

We are always trying to improve the system as nothing is perfect for these limited releases.
So we thought we would take a poll and see if there is a strong preference either way.

Vote yes, if you want us to continue to announce release dates in advance to give you notice when limited releases are coming.

Vote no, if you would like us to not announce release dates in the future.  We will just announce them when they arrive and print the report so that people cannot rush in and spend more money to move up the list.  We will not reveal how much is needed to make the list of a limited release or let people know where they are on the list

I decided to stop the poll already, only after about 8 hours or so.  At this point it is tied with 21 votes each.  After reading comments and thinking about it, I do not think much can be gathered by a simple yes/no vote.  You have no way of knowing the reasons and who is voting.  Just does not help at all.  I will continue to listen and take all suggestions and ideas to better improve the system, but I do not think the poll is going to help at all.

Leave us any questions, comments or suggestions below.  Or you can email me at paul@wineandcheeseplace.com






A few comments that came in on twitter

Not a question of announcing or not. Debate should be around the purchase window. Announcements create new patrons and great buzz

Two thoughts: I think using a variety of ways to release is best; and I prefer a fairly lengthy purchase history as a ranking.