The Sweet Shop thread!

[David1962]

I just thought maybe not advertising I may be missing a trick?

Well no one on here can answer that for you as every shop and town is different. But there is one sure fire way to find out

 

[warnie]

thank you for your reply.

no, I don't think there is... I have been adding bits and pieces and different ideas for the past year, and feel it has a good offering. Admittedly, the shop is not in the best place, it's in a residential village, with a post office shop up the road, and next door to an express supermarket. The people that come in, really like it, and say we are very reasonably priced, and I do get regulars.. I just thought maybe not advertising I may be missing a trick?

If the shop is as good as you think it can be and it's still not paying it's way then I doubt advertising would be money well spent. I asked the question as some start off with a base and add to it all their ideas/expansions as and when they can afford to. We were like this, we knew what we wanted to do, and where we want to take the business but had to do it slowly hampered by our insistence on making the shop debt free asap.

This hampered growth to start with but we are seeing the benefits now (bit like what the tories are doing with the economy, but less said about them the better!). We had many times like yours when things didn't look so rosy, but we always knew that we had the footfall and just needed to give them what they wanted, it's just that our cash flow was stopping us.

It sounds though that you already have your ideal shop, but it's in the wrong place with little footfall and unfortunately as we found with our 1st shop no amount of advertising will fix it. We even had the Express and Star, which is meant to be the biggest regional newspaper in the country, contact us to ask if they can do a small feature on us for free and yet still our 1st shop was shut exactly one year after opening.

Sometimes you just have to accept the inevitable and move on. The hard part will be knowing when the right time is to stop throwing money at it.

good luck in any case

 

[kihughes]

We're offering shake away style milkshakes in our new shop and are struggling to find a single supplier for confectionary. We've currently found the pound shop and b&m to be cheapest being 30-35p a bar. Anyone any ideas?

Were also struggling to find a decent stand to store all of the sweets/chocolates on?

 

[warnie]

We're offering shake away style milkshakes in our new shop and are struggling to find a single supplier for confectionary. We've currently found the pound shop and b&m to be cheapest being 30-35p a bar. Anyone any ideas?

Were also struggling to find a decent stand to store all of the sweets/chocolates on?

For bars of chocolate B&M and the poundland are fine, you will struggle to buy in chocolate cheaper through wholesalers. Cadbury's for example only offer a 21-24% margin for retailers.

 

[jimjamuk1]

Have read through this thread and have found it really interesting and its nice to see how helpful everyone is.

I am not in a position to rent a shop so I thought I could set up a website selling retro type sweets, I have seen people doing this but wondered how realistic this is, there are a few people doing it already.

Also can I run this from home or would I need a unit somewhere (which I am not really able to afford) / do I need take a food hygiene course, that wouldn't be a problem but just needed to know if thats something I need to get sorted.

Any help or advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you

 

[warnie]

Have read through this thread and have found it really interesting and its nice to see how helpful everyone is.

I am not in a position to rent a shop so I thought I could set up a website selling retro type sweets, I have seen people doing this but wondered how realistic this is, there are a few people doing it already.

Also can I run this from home or would I need a unit somewhere (which I am not really able to afford) / do I need take a food hygiene course, that wouldn't be a problem but just needed to know if thats something I need to get sorted.

Any help or advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you

There are thousands of people doing this, margins are now poor because of this, so to make any money you need a massive turnover. To get this you will need spend a few grand on a good website, then an absolute fortune on marketing it, which will make the £10k minimum on stock to start with and the thousands invested in a large unit seem small fry.

Trust me, we tried it twice and it wasn't worth it, as we couldn't afford to hold the amount of sock needed. And when the margins were being eroded we thought sod this for a game!.

In the bricks and mortar world I compete against 3 other shops within a 6 mile radius. In the internet world I compete against thousands of competitors operating at far lower margins then I do, and you may say, 'but there are millions of customers out there in the big wide world that I can reach'. But unfortunately for me to reach these people I need to invest a fortune that I just don't have.

 

[David1962]

There are thousands of people doing this, margins are now poor because of this, so to make any money you need a massive turnover. To get this you will need spend a few grand on a good website, then an absolute fortune on marketing it, which will make the £10k minimum on stock to start with and the thousands invested in a large unit seem small fry.

Trust me, we tried it twice and it wasn't worth it, as we couldn't afford to hold the amount of sock needed. And when the margins were being eroded we thought sod this for a game!.

In the bricks and mortar world I compete against 3 other shops within a 6 mile radius. In the internet world I compete against thousands of competitors operating at far lower margins then I do, and you may say, 'but there are millions of customers out there in the big wide world that I can reach'. But unfortunately for me to reach these people I need to invest a fortune that I just don't have.

Thank you Warnie, I've been saying the same for years - INTERNET is competing world wide, much better to focus on your local area and real people if you have a "real" shop.

Now pop over to the internet and marketing fools forum and see how they react to the same comment - they have no idea yet try to sell their services. But they can't fail once you have paid them for for zero result.

B&M Retailers know retail, bedroom marketing bods know "theory", nuff said

 

[Ronnie Micallef]

Is this post still open, looking at the date it reads 1012

 

[Ronnie Micallef]

Hi everyone, I have just found this forum after scouring the internet for some advice and help with a problem our shop is facing with.

Our shop has been trading for almost 5 years and we are on the verge of collapse, dont get me wrong we have a huge selection but I think maybe we are over pricing, and would like your comments as to the prices you are selling your products. ours are 1pound per 100grams.

Trying all options so any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[lak021978]

I opened my shop on Saturday & I also am selling 109g for £1 & so far everyone that has been in has said how reasonable the prices are. I also sell lots of other bits too such as retro, American, gift baskets, ice cream & soda. I know it's early days but with the good feedback we've had so far I would say the prices are fine. Have you thought about maybe repainting the shop or doing something else as well?

 

[warnie]

Hi everyone, I have just found this forum after scouring the internet for some advice and help with a problem our shop is facing with.

Our shop has been trading for almost 5 years and we are on the verge of collapse, dont get me wrong we have a huge selection but I think maybe we are over pricing, and would like your comments as to the prices you are selling your products. ours are 1pound per 100grams.

Trying all options so any help would be greatly appreciated

I wouldn't say so, ours start at 95p per 100g for the run of the mill stuff, then 99p, £1.09, £1.19 , £1.29 and £1.99 for the Barnips!

 

[Ronnie Micallef]

Thanks for the quick feed back from both warnie and lak021978, the shop has been recently painted and the decor in the shop is unique which you would not see in sweet shops, well put it this way I have not seen it and the comments we get are fantastic, we get the odd person and persons coming in to take photos.

We sell a large range of weigh out sweets, have a seasonal section, though small but relatively nice, we have a sizable section of non weigh out sweets. We also do wraps and baskets, we do not have a web site.

Our main problem is that we have a post office selling large bags of sweets for 99p a BM Bargains ad a Tesco, all close by, and to make matters worse we have a sweet cabin in the outside market just cross the road from us.

I think what we need is some advice on how to rebuild our business to where we can start bringing in profit once more

 

[mhall]

Almost everyone sells sweets, I noticed on Saturday even River Island have some at the till, so don't get too wound up about others selling them, that will just wind you up. What you need to sell is the experience, the quality and the fact that you are special. Yes it's hard, but resist the temptation to compete solely on price - you WILL lose as there will always be someone willing to undercut you. "Proper" sweet shops do well and those that target the adults with money better than the kids will do best.

Where are you based? Is there a local organisation who have a specialist? . I know that near us the local Chamber have an Enterprise Team who have a Retail specialist who, whilst he suffers no fools, certainly knows his stuff (helped by the fact that he is also a Retailer with his own chain of shops no doubt)

 

[herewegoagain.]

Good advice from MHALL - Ronnie, your shop I would imagine is a destination - same as mine - I too sell retro sweets, the world and his wife sell sweets now - but you are offering something special, I think your prices are reasonable -

I sell at 79p 100g for pick n mix, then 89p, 99p 100g then there are a couple of really expensive ones to buy in -eg. buttered brazils that sell (without complaint!) at 1.59 100g

You have to distance yourself from the cheapy crappy shops - they just devalue your products - they buy by the container load - not a box full like the rest of us...

Turn it to your advantage - can you buy products from there you can break down or repackage - for me sometimes they are cheaper (for me to buy in) tha some of the wholesalers !!

I distance myself by offering top quality service, not just shouting 'NEXT' as in Poundland !! - a good example is that I provide product sourcing for hard to find items...


Another one that works for me is when you get the customer who says that they love a particular product but cant get it anywhere... sell in bulk to them - get them to take the jar full !! - at a small discount....

do you do a loyalty card scheme? - works well for me!!

good luck with it

 

[kelvin1950]

Is this post still open, looking at the date it reads 1012

I don't think the Internet had been invented 54 years before the Battle of Hastings. I may be wrong though.

 

[kelvin1950]

Hi everyone, I have just found this forum after scouring the internet for some advice and help with a problem our shop is facing with.

Our shop has been trading for almost 5 years and we are on the verge of collapse, dont get me wrong we have a huge selection but I think maybe we are over pricing, and would like your comments as to the prices you are selling your products. ours are 1pound per 100grams.

Trying all options so any help would be greatly appreciated

Many of ours are more than that so I don't think you're right.

Need more info, where are you, what else do you offer, how do you get people through the door, etc..

 

[Ronnie Micallef]

Hi everyone and thanks for all your feed back, myself and my wife have taken in all your comments, we will be looking at the loyalty scheme and we think its a good idea, so thanks on that, On Monday we had just started doing a buy 5 100g bags and get one free, a loyalty scheme can be useful to add special offers

We are situated in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, my wife has also contacted an organisation through the council to seek some advice, he is going to contact us tomorrow as he was off today.

We do sell a huge selection of sweets which are not sold locally, so this does give us some grounds and we do have many loyal customers, so the idea of a loyalty scheme to reward those who support us would go down great, we will be thinking on the grounds of a card with ten stamp slots on the reverse of each card, with the other side advertising our business, with each visit the card will be stamped and when the card is full they can exchange it for a free bag, also we are thinking of putting an added bonus to the scheme, each card will have its own unique number, which will be raffled at the end of each month and the winning ticket would win a hamper of goodies.

Do not know if you can post pictures of your shop on here as I would give you a lay out of out shop

 

[Ronnie Micallef]

Forgot to add.
Kevin asked Need more info, where are you, what else do you offer, how do you get people through the door, etc..

We did start by adversising in the local paper and had a two moth slot in the free trade mag, again in our area, but not much came from them and the cost was a little expensive.

We now get customers by word of mouth and having a good window display to attract customers

 

[simon field]

Does anyone do little free samples of more unusual stuff on the counter?

Does it work?

 

[Ronnie Micallef]

I have, but never worked for me, might have sold a few items but not a lot, however I still do it from time to time, as you never know, plus the customers love a free treat

 

[homeshop]

Homeshop thread for sweet retailers........within ten miles of me is over sixty sheltered/residential homes for the elderly who are all partial to werthers/Pontefract cakes/coconut mushrooms/jelly babes/humbugs etc etc, each home 20+ residents and have coffee mornings/afternoons, have a word with staff and set up small stall in the lounge area before the coffee morning and bring in £1.00 bags weighed out......also chocs for xmas etc etc weekly service they appreciate, soon get to know their preferences,
Am trialing currently with some success with fresh groceries, but introducing confectionery with this
just a thought
regards
Colin oop north
ps need public liability/crb to visit

 

[kelvin1950]

Homeshop thread for sweet retailers........within ten miles of me is over sixty sheltered/residential homes for the elderly who are all partial to werthers/Pontefract cakes/coconut mushrooms/jelly babes/humbugs etc etc, each home 20+ residents and have coffee mornings/afternoons, have a word with staff and set up small stall in the lounge area before the coffee morning and bring in £1.00 bags weighed out......also chocs for xmas etc etc weekly service they appreciate, soon get to know their preferences,
Am trialing currently with some success with fresh groceries, but introducing confectionery with this
just a thought
regards
Colin oop north
ps need public liability/crb to visit

You also have to ensure that the residents are capable enough to buy their sweets. The staff aren't allowed to buy for them.

 

[homeshop]

The only staff in the homes are cleaners, and site warden/manager, we are talking very capable people, they are mostly forgotten about, still got their marbles (well probably a few more than me in a lot of cases!!) and a terrific sense of humour, just need to treat them with respect, they have independent living ie their own flat with warden on site if needed, not visiting nursing homes, these residents mostly have special needs.

 

[warnie]

The only staff in the homes are cleaners, and site warden/manager, we are talking very capable people, they are mostly forgotten about, still got their marbles (well probably a few more than me in a lot of cases!!) and a terrific sense of humour, just need to treat them with respect, they have independent living ie their own flat with warden on site if needed, not visiting nursing homes, these residents mostly have special needs.

Tried this with a little success to start with, visiting homes once a month. We set up a mini-sweet shop in the homes and to start with it went ok, but it soon dropped off to the point it wasn't worth employing staff to cover whilst we were out. We did the same thing in the large call centres and offices, which was better but still not enough to warrant employing staff to cover the shop.

Did have some good laughs though, and because we were at care homes or offices at least 3 days of the week, it really helped get our name out there.

 

[lak021978]

Hi everyone I am looking for some other wholesalers to try finding things that customers have asked for. I currently use, uk sweets, hancocks, sweets wholesale & stateside candy co.
Are there any others that you all use ?

 

[lak021978]

I'm after some more help.
I have just had a customer come in asking for a refund as the boiled sweets she bought on Friday were stuck to the paper bag that we use. What bags do you all use & how can I stop this from happening?

 

[kelvin1950]

Hi everyone I am looking for some other wholesalers to try finding things that customers have asked for. I currently use, uk sweets, hancocks, sweets wholesale & stateside candy co.
Are there any others that you all use ?

http://www.michaelswholefoods.co.uk

 

[warnie]

Well so far, if we take into account all the orders still to pick up and if we don't take another penny bedsides the money due in from those, we'd still have done better than last year which was a record year. plus there's big days coming up including this one, which has been strangely quiet so far, hence why I'm on here while I munch on some grub!

We had to stop taking orders on Friday as we just cannot make any more, and don't want to be letting customers down. Sadly the gyms not been visited but to balance it out the beer has been knocked on the head these last 2 weeks, as were stuck here 24/7. Can't wait until Christmas eve now to finally wind down.

How's everyone else's Christmas been so far ?

 

[warnie]

I'm after some more help.
I have just had a customer come in asking for a refund as the boiled sweets she bought on Friday were stuck to the paper bag that we use. What bags do you all use & how can I stop this from happening?

Use cellophane bags if the customer plans on keeping them in their car for example. We use the Bag N Box man, just google him, they work out about 3p a bag, so we just take that into account when using them.

 

[Crtrjas]

Hi Warnie

I see you already have your slush machine back. Did you decide to purchase this one or continue down the rental route?

 

[warnie]

Hi Warnie

I see you already have your slush machine back. Did you decide to purchase this one or continue down the rental route?

We purchased this one, last year was great on the deal that we had, as we got to try it without any risk. But it was a no brainer to buy our own for this year as we now make just over twice the profit on each one that we did before. I just didn't think we'd be buying it so early on in the year.

Today was the 1st day we'd got all 3 flavours on, and fair enough we only did 14, but the weather was awful and a lot won't know that were back up and running with it again. Still, it looks as though it's a all year round thing considering how many were disappointed when we had the machine taken away in December.

 

[warnie]

On a side note I'm not browsing or posting nearly as much with this new look. Just can't get on with it, far too busy.

 

[LollyPopGirls]

I'm based in Somerset, Uk and I make sweets - mainly boiled, but some gummy, chocolates, liquorice, etc. and looking to expand our selection all the time. The "business" is more of a hobby that's gone mad but it is something I would like to take places and turn it into a full time job and career.
The only thing is I'm not sure how to go further... I know that just opening a shop and making all the stock would be time consuming and very very little profit margins (my mum and various others believe I under-price)
Would anyone have any suggestions?
Or any sweet flavour suggestions? I would like to have a go at making bon bons just need the time to have a go! Thanks!

 

[Charlie's Chocolate Box]

hi I recently re ordered sweet spot aniseed balls from uk sweets before they was lovely all shiny looking but now there dull and powdery looking and taste different I have one lady who always buys from me and travel's 15miles to do so as im the only one who has the aniseed balls she like I let her try one today and she wasn't impressed so I lost a £10 sale. I've checked the invoices and the order codes are exactly the same. Have sweet spot changed the way they make them? or can I still buy the shiny ones?

 

[sweet lady]

Hi Charlie,
I have had the same problem. I had a problem some months ago with sweet spot baby dolphins. Colour and size were nothing like baby dolphins. The aniseed balls are not as shiny, aniseed like and much softer. Very disappointed . Will contact uk sweets for a refund

 

[sweet lady]

Charlie
I just got an e mail from uk sweets and have been offered ten pound credit. Although they are saying that they are the same as always (one look at the new batch and you can tell they are not)

Good luck

 

[Charlie's Chocolate Box]

I got a apology and offered a free bag with my next order after including some photos to show there clearly not the same as always. All I'm hoping is the next bag will be back to the shiny good tasting ones.
Thank you for your help.

 

[jennysimms21]

I've just opened up a small sweet shop after a few months of planning and purchasing and I'm really glad that I found this thread. I'm currently using Appleton Sweets as my main wholesaler after doing lots of research. Has anyone had any success with introducing a popcorn machine into their shop?

I'm trying to think of something slightly different! Thanks

 

[kelvin1950]

I'm currently using Appleton Sweets as my main wholesaler after doing lots of research.

Prices look good, wish they were a bit nearer to me.

 

[mhall]

We don't sell sweets but just had someone in trying to sell me what look like icicles on sticks - basically sugar crystals flavoured, coloured and cooked . Apparently made in South Africa and all the rage in Germany. Not seen them before but look attractive. Don't know whether I'd want my children sucking on posh sugar cubes though ( which was one of my favourite childhood pastimes !)