starting a mobile shop

[TheBakingLady]

hello. I was wondering if there is anyone that could possibly give be some advice? I am wanting to start up a small mobile shop, but when i type this into a search engine, all i get is information on mobile phone shops!!!

basically, rather than have a van which customers walk into, i will just be using a small van and selling out of the back of that (its not as dodgy as its sounding). I will be selling home made produce such as fresh bread, cakes, vegetables etc. I live in the countryside, so would be visiting the local villages on certain days etc. because people cannot get into the main supermarkets/shop everyday (like you can i the city), so i believe there is a market for this kind of thing.

I have been thinking about this for a while, and i currently work in the food sector and baking is one of my hobbies. I'm getting a bit sick of my job at the minute, not necisarily the actually work, but the atmosphere and lack of morale!!!!


I don't really know where to begin, so if anyone could perhaps help me in this matter, i'd be grateful. Apparently you don't need street trading permit if you are a mobile shop (i checked the councils website), but it doesn't say anything about timelimits, as i'd be hoping to stay in each place for about half an hour?

thankyou
amanda

 

[gadgy-tronix]

Hi Amanda,

The best advice i could give is don't go rushing into things.
Remember as you don't know this market very well have a ask around, to shop owners near you, people who have been in this industry for a long time & believe me you won't get many customers selling of the back of a van, if i were you, i would do a walk-in shop but have everything in protected glass cabinets & have stock behind the counter as otherwise you'll get majorly robbed & loose a lot of money. But the key thing to do is get the products, find out what people want, try & get in contact with big names like 02 so you can offer contract deals in your shop & have a online website so if people don't buy from you instore they can take a leaflet & buy online. I also do mobile phone wholesale, if your looking for any send me an email charliefloate(at)gmail com also i run ukwebsolution com & get proffessional people to make affordable websites.

Thank you & have a nice day,
Charlie

 

[TheBakingLady]

perhaps maybe you should have read my post before replying to it???

 

[gadgy-tronix]

Im really confused now, your selling food of the back of the van, but your title is "starting a mobile shop" if i was you i'd get your facts right first

 

[TheBakingLady]

i am going to sell things out of a van. i will travel around, which means i'm a mobile, and i'm selling things which means im a shop? what else would you call it? A mobile shop in the sense i'm writing about (if you had cared to read my whole message) is a shop that moves around. a shop i a van - a mobile shop. you got confused cos my title says starting a mobile shop (which is what it is) and then you must have read the first paragraph to know about the van. the rest of the information was there plain to see, why didn't you just read the whole of my message then you would know what i was on about??? the title may have been confusing, but the whole of my message was not. it was plain to see exactly what information I am after. you chose not to read it, so lets leave it at that

if there is anyone who would care to read the whole of my message and possibly help me, that would be excellent. thank you.

 

[mitch@volume]

do people not have a village shop for these things? (i live in a town, what do i know?)

Ice scream van with bread, milk, eggs and Veg sound like a reasonable idea to me if there really are villages and areas that don't have a local shop to supply these things.

Keep it local produce and organic, visit villages and old people type areas and i think it might do quite well

 

[skyhi2]

It`s a shop,but its on wheels,neat huh !

Great idea TBL,especially in the rural areas.

I am sure there would be a lot of people who would welcome not having to trek/drive/bus miles to the nearest supermarket.

Maybe take it a stage further,maybe spend a day at your nearest market with,say,a stall for one day a week.

Specialise in what you are good at for the day (yummy cakes by the sound of it ),as i myself am always drawn to the specialist stalls at farmers/country markets.

Get your ideas down on to a simple leaflet telling customers about your " Moby " and hand them out there.

Good luck with your venture

Skyhi2.

 

[MH1]

These used to be very popular years ago, but I would door knock several hundred houses and do a quick survey to check the viability of such a service, fuel is expensive, but impulse buys are a strong sale at times.

 

[Draugen]

Firstly, thankyou so much to gadgy-tronix for giving me my first proper laugh of the day! Not bothering to read the post, formulating a completely irrelevant reply and then criticising the OP for not being clear enough! Fantastic!

On topic, I've seen a fair few companies lately advertising home deliveries of organic vegetable boxes, perhaps this is something you could incorporate into your business? If you can build up a base of customers taking deliveries of vegetables from you, to which you can add cakes, fresh bread etc then you would be able to visit the village to do your rounds and then be able to sell extra items from the shop while you're there also.

Another idea, in a similar vein to the ice cream van suggestion, is to sell sweets, soft drinks and the like. That way, you're likely to attract some of the local kids who will hopefully spread the word to their parents about your core items!
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[papverpoppies]

These are popular in many areas, not just rural.

To many elderly people who cannot get out - these mobile 'shops' are a life line.

I know exactly what you are talking about because I have used many.

Converted old ambulance - sold, cakes, fruit, tinned produce (but check with Council over regulation relating to food etc).

Mobile butcher, mobile veg, pet food deliveries etc!

Heck look at ALL the major stores this is the service they offer (so of course there is a call for it)!

Some things to watch - carrying cash - be careful the areas you do your rounds (you will see that Tesco etc etc say on their vans) NO CASH ON BOARD.

Perhaps you could offer other services with your mobile shop, stamps, papers.

Do some good market research, make sure you meet ALL the required regulations, get a good van whatever - and see how it goes. You can always expand once your round is established.

Good Luck.

Poppy.

 

[Willself]

Yes, do a complete fact-find, before you spend a small fortune on any vehicle, perhaps a good idea would be to do a leaflet drop, include on your leaflet a voucher say 10% Discount-whatever!!
Even suggest that the customer gives you a list of items, bread, sugar,
butter..etc..that way you limit your stock, because you already have an idea what your clients want! Good Luck!!

 

[accountancyextra]

Two things I'd say be wary of:

1) Your market research may well throw up many people who say they'd be interested in buying from you. However, being interested and actually getting their wallets out can be two very different things.

2) Whilst it is always good to have an interest in the business you are about to undertake, be careful of turning a hobby into a business (baking being your hobby). A lot of the fun element goes out of the window when you are relying on what you do for money and you can end up hating the activity that actually attracted you to starting the business in the first place

 

[Christine Hough]

I think I would be inclined to start with using it to deliver pre-ordered goods. That way you know that the customer will buy what you take.

I don't know if you will have another outlet for produce that does not sell on the day, as I assume that there will be a fairly short shelf life for your baking? I can see quite a good establishement that linked e-shop, mobile shop and had an outlet for excess stock.

I am sure if you get it right there is a viable project here.

After all many people use supermarket delivery ans we used a butchery, greengrocery and bakery for a few years. But more to it than just buying a van and hoping people will buy.

The one we used delivered produce from local farms and it was great quality. However in the end they folded and could not make it pay.
So do be careful with your cash flow.

 

[evocart]

I live in a city and we have a van near us that goes round the areas where a lot of elderly people live, this includes sheltered accomadation as well.

Someone has already mentioned door knocking for research, good Idea, but take a clip board and ask what people would most like to buy, ie. Bread, milk eggs etc. I would also stock bottles of pop and sweets and even icecream in the summer months.

If you are catering for rural areas then you want to target all age groups as although some will drive to the supermarket you will still get those people who went shopping and forgot somethng.

I really do think it's a good Idea, just make sure you know of any competitors and contact your local cuncil to make sure you know of any rules and regulations. Also travel in pairs just for safety reasons.

Good look, hope it works out for you.

 

[MH1]

Further to other comments, personally I would halve the expected turnover based on any survey, you would be much closer to the real figure then IMO. Another line too consider is pet food since it can be so heavy, many elderly struggle to carry much back from the shops, plus impulse buys such as pre-made sweets etc for the odd treat.

 

[movietub]

We have a van that does the same in our area, we live in one of those villages where the residents think they enjoy country living - but really we all want poncy olive oils and crusty bread delivered on a van. Prefferably by a ruddy faced salt of the earth type.

Popular service, and I notice the guy has bought a very nice new van so must be keeping busy.

From a business point of view there isn't really much to know. There is not a whole lot of risk either.

You can buy a smart enough looking van for £2k, get some magnetic signs made for £100 each and off you go. Half the stuff you collect each day to sell you can return so long as you make that agreement with the provider - it's in their interests for you to take their stock in to a new area afterall.

If the business doesn't take off bin the magnetic signs and sell the van for what you paid.

I believe that any friendly hard working person can make at least an average living doing this sort of thing. Probably well above average if you don't mind putting the hours in. Thats the beauty of doing something so simple.

I would agree do some research in a local area. Give a £1 token to anyone that doesnt slam the door in your face, they can redeem this when you start the service. Will give them a reason to actually buy when you next come round. Two birds - one stone.

Just get started

 

[TheBakingLady]

wow!! thanks for all the amazing comments guys. you're right about the market research thing though, i definately need to get an idea of what people would want from this service, although at this stage its just an idea i have, i need to look into it a bit more. where i live, there is a post office which is only open 3 hours a day and it sells milk and newspapers, thats all, so there is no competition (other than from supermarkets that home deliver) in my village alone. the nearest petrol station is about 6 or 7 miles away but this just has a small kiosk and again just sells newspapers, milk, bread and off licence goods. i live in the lake district so you can imagine some of the villages are very remote. the nearest town to where i live is about 15 miles away!!! also, this area is very popular with tourists, so this may help aswell. i think i've come up with a great idea, i just need to develop it further, and see how i get on. thank you all for your help and comments. if anyone has any other ideas or comments, feel free to send them my way!!