The Sweet Shop thread!

[Charlie's Chocolate Box]

How does everyone clear there close to date stock? knock the prices low at the start of that month or wait and reduce to cost or lower ect...

 

[kelvin1950]

We give ours to the midwives at our local hospital. In truth, we've learnt how to manage things so we don't get much at all.

 

[warnie]

How does everyone clear there close to date stock? knock the prices low at the start of that month or wait and reduce to cost or lower ect...

Shouldn't really be an issue with the extremely long life found on sweets. But due to the low buying in price of bulk sweets it's worth doing what kelvin does and give them away. We do competitions to give them away, which does no harm to our reputation.

 

[kelvin1950]

This is true. My partner's youngest is a midwife so she's the one who blags them from us!

We leave a jar in a very visible position with a label saying "Midwives Midnight Treats". We often get people asking what it's all about and occasionally get people giving us a quid or so to put something in the jar!

As Warnie says, it does no harm and hopefully some good to our rep.

 

[Newbizowner]

Hi everyone I have a very large pitch at a fete and to help fill my space I have brought forward my 'sweetie cart' plans.

I'm currently in interiors and events so looking at legislation etc but there seems to be very little RE sweets? Also my council site as little info.

I will not be doing pic and mix. Instead I will make up sweetie jars afew days before with pic and mix sweets for sale so no hands touching etc.

The only thing I think maybe reverent is appropriate labelling? Can anyone help?

Best wishes
S

 

[Charlie's Chocolate Box]

From my experience from events with a sweet cart even If its just wrapped sweets you need to inform the council and make them aware your selling sweets and check if they want/need to inspect the cart ect. you will need some form of hand washing this can be a sink like the portable ones or like we used due to low risk hand sanitizer. labelling and date coding each of them is also a must as you may find a council inspector will do spot checks on the day and will be looking for the hand wash and date coding. I am not sure if your making up the sweets before hand if they will want to check that area.
best way is to phone them and let them know and check anything your unsure on that way your covered.

 

[kelvin1950]

From my experience from events with a sweet cart even If its just wrapped sweets you need to inform the council and make them aware your selling sweets and check if they want/need to inspect the cart ect. you will need some form of hand washing this can be a sink like the portable ones or like we used due to low risk hand sanitizer. labelling and date coding each of them is also a must as you may find a council inspector will do spot checks on the day and will be looking for the hand wash and date coding. I am not sure if your making up the sweets before hand if they will want to check that area.
best way is to phone them and let them know and check anything your unsure on that way your covered.

This may be true in your area, I don't know. What I do know is that when we started, the council weren't in the slightest bit interested until I mentioned ice cream. Then they said someone from environmental health would probably visit us. They don't classify sweets as foodstuffs and that's the difference as ice cream is a foodstuff. Anyway, EH did eventually visit us and weren't interested in anything except blagging a raffle prize for their christmas party!

As I said, it differs from council to council. My mate in Kent has been inspected a couple of times by his local EH. Good job it's not confusing.

 

[Zumiweb]

We are a couple of weeks away from opening, having missed the Xmas ordering deadlines, so although we will package loose chocs with Xmas ribbons etc, we are a little light on gift boxes. The question is are we ok to buy, say, Lindt Xmas Selection boxes from the big Carrefour in Calais and resell... clearly they meet EU labelling and product standards, and assuming we think there is enough margin they will Christmassify our shelves and window very nicely. EU free movement of goods suggests this should be ok... have we missed an issue? Next time round we'll be better prepared of course, but we could only manage so much on our initial Sarunds order...

Thanks,
Mark

 

[kelvin1950]

Dunno about reselling Carrefour stuff but for boxes and packaging we use these guys. They supply Sarunds so there's a few pence to be saved.

http://meridiansp.co.uk/

 

[Zumiweb]

Thanks Kelvin, yes you mentioned these guys in our previous discussion on Trimco Zurich cabinets, and we will be placing an order this week... they have a really good range. Thanks for the pointer... Mark

 

[warnie]

Only checked for side gusseted bags, but Meridian are more than twice the price for these compared to http://www.bagnboxman.co.uk/index.html.

Obviously other items maybe cheaper but it's worth checking just in case

 

[Zumiweb]

Thanks, yes I was going to check their range and prices today as well... opening on Nov 21st, so no pressure here!

We've watched every business setup programme on TV for years wondering why they set themselves arbitrary deadlines and opening dates, leading to the inevitable last minute rush before opening day. And here we are, racing to open a chocolate shop on the day they turn on the Christmas lights in the Old Town quarter, where we are. So I guess that answers that question!

Thanks for the reminder about bagnboxman.

 

[credfern1]

Hi everyone
I know this is an old thread but i have just come across it. The pages i have read so far have been very helpful. I have not long started up and have been buying my stock from bookers costco and hancocks. Has anyone found anywhere cheaper to use. Need to be able to source things as cheap as possible. I did find sweetswholesale.co.uk online and nearly ordered but they didnt accept paypal which always puts me of as i have been scammed before with other things and they didnt have many reviews when i searched. And from the ones there was half were negative. Apparently this is from the old owners but the reviews were about stock not turning up so wasnt sure. I have also heard of sarunds and uksweets but havent dealt with them. I generally try buy the 3kg bags and put into jars. Also looking for somewhere cheap for chocolate i find the current suppliers quite pricey. There must be somewhere cheaper, the pound shop manage lol any help appreciated. Feel free to pm me if youd rather

 

[warnie]

Whereabouts are you ?

 

[credfern1]

Hi. Im in derbyshire. And before anyone says i know pound shops dont stock jar sweets but they get chocolate really cheap lol.

 

[kelvin1950]

Hi. Im in derbyshire. And before anyone says i know pound shops dont stock jar sweets but they get chocolate really cheap lol.

Usually very short dates though.

Try Appleton Sweets and Michaels Wholefoods. Both do online ordering.

 

[warnie]

Uksweets are ok, a bit expensive but delivery is free over £150 and comes next day. We use them for their Dorset Fudge, Jars and any offers they have. We have a warehouse near us in Wolverhampton that are a £1 cheaper on most 3kg bags. Their peanut brittle is £6.99 for 3kg and is better than Hancocks. All Hannah are £6.99 as well and their Brays Jars are £9.50, and although it's a small place they do a lot of sweets, especially the more traditional stuff that hancocks don't do. Only you can judge weather it's worth one big monthly trip or not. You'd probably have to spend £1k+ to make it worth while I would imagine though,

 

[warnie]

Tired out, worn out, gym time cut and not eating enough. That's my Christmas so far, can't wait until the last orders are picked up on Christmas eve so I can have a well earned break.

We've found that money is definitely easier to come by for folk compared to last year, which is great and gives us confidence to expand further next year, although we have a rent review which could alter our plans....

How's the rest of the sweet shop community finding things?

 

[Zumiweb]

4 weeks and 2 days after opening our chocolate shop in Folkestone, we've learnt a lot! Looking forward to a couple of days break and then coming back to see what we can improve on, and glad we found this thread or else we'd have made even more mistakes than we did. Nothing catastrophic (as far as we can tell at this early stage) - just learning about local tastes and preferences, as well as planning for some marketing in the future. Thanks to all those on here who have answered our questions (and others' questions that we would have asked). Seasons greetings to all!

 

[warnie]

Ooohh chocolate shop!

May have to pick your brains as this is an area we don't focus on enough

 

[kelvin1950]

Chocolates are a big seller for us.

 

[warnie]

Do you do specialist chocolate kelvin? we don't want anything mainstream but chocolate that's a little bit special so that people will come especially for it, and be prepared to pay a premium for it.

I'll be honest I've not looked into it enough yet and should stop being so lazy...

 

[kelvin1950]

We do a range of Belgian/Swiss/U.K. manufactured chocs from a company called House of Sarund. They are the best chocs I've ever tasted.

https://www.facebook.com/sweetsntre...9823291426645/701366746605628/?type=3&theater

My OH posing over our display cabinet.

 

[ksweetz]

Hi all,
stumbled upon the forum accidentally but glad i did..have caught up with all your posts. Hope page is still active. Would be gd to keep in touch and see how your all doing.
I opened my sweet shop in dec 2012 and although last few months have been tough,hopefully will pick up with the warmer weather

 

[Deleted member 140422]

I often 'lurk' on this thread, but am not sure that my range is suitable for sweet shops. I bake an award winning healthy flapjack and also a luxury Belgium chocolate brownie bar.
These usually retail in farm shops and delis,
Would either of these be suitable for sweet shops, and if so could you suggest some distributors I could approach?

 

[shelleps1]

hi peeps

im in the process of opening up a sweet shop in cornwall. would be grateful of some advice please? american sweets i have an inkling will do well? any suppliers nearer to me than bristol please.

looking forward to some helpful advice

thanks

 

[Simply Business]

Hi @shelleps1, congrats on deciding to open your own shop! Personally always felt the specialist sweet stores who focus on these types of products that you can't get elsewhere do well.

What's the area like for your shop? High footfall, especially of tourists and you could be on to a winner?

 

[shelleps1]

unfortunately, im not in one of the main touristy bits, but the tourists will certainly 'top up' on local trade takings.

can anyone recommend the best wholesaler to buy from?

 

[kelvin1950]

We use Hancocks, Appletons and UK Sweets as our main suppliers. All do mail order and Appletons are usually the cheapest. I would recommend an occasional visit in person though as none of the above have everything on the web.

For quality chocolates, use House of Sarunds, Creme d'Or and House of Flavours.

 

[Vicky Conrad]

Advice please I'm looking at starting a sweet stall up in my local shopping centre using a RMU footfall 9 million per year my weekly rent is £250 a week with such a small space need advice On products and if this will actually make money or am just wasting my time

 

[kelvin1950]

£13k per annum. That's almost twice the rent I pay for my shop. However, I also have other overheads. What is included in your rent?

 

[Vicky Conrad]

Everything just have stock and insurance to pay

 

[kelvin1950]

In that case, it might be a goer. You need to spend some time watching the exact location at various times gauging the actual footfall past "your" site. How many days a week will you be open? If, as I suspect, it may be 7 days a week then don't forget to factor in staff wages for at least 1 day a week.

 

[Zumiweb]

We buy most of our chocolate items from a UK supplier - one of their European suppliers has a far wider range of a gift item (chocolate shoes) than the UK people show in their catalogue. Has anyone had any success in getting their UK supplier to do special orders for off-catalogue items on their behalf? We contacted the manufacturer direct, but they referred us back to their UK distributor.

It'd be nice to offer something beyond the standard range, but we couldn't manage to justify buying an outer of each item, so if they won't do mixed outers we may be stuck anyway.

 

[georgina martin]

please help. I'm looking for a sweet wholesaler as I'm currently using makro but I've been told there are cheaper places. I've tried hancocks, costco, bookers and a lot more but none seem to be cheaper.

Thanku in advance

 

[Zumiweb]

Hi Georgina,

For the lines that they stock, Makro may well be as cheap as any as their buying power is pretty big. Same with Booker and CostCo. Where the others win (Hancocks, HF Chocolates, House of Sarund etc) is being specialist sweet and chocolate wholesalers/distributors, so the range will be much wider, and not just the same lines that every corner shop and supermarket sell. If it's absolutely only about cost, you might as well get your stock from Makro, Tesco or Aldi, but the others give you so much more choice, and choice in quality level too of course. And other sorts of customer support too... info on display, ingredients, networks etc...

 

[kelvin1950]

You might also try appleton sweets and UK sweets.

 

[flashgordon12345]

new to this forum, kelvin you seem to have the t-shirt.

I have a toy shop and wanted to do pick and mix, wondered do I need a license or some certificate? If so what does it in tail and how much?

Regards

 

[flashgordon12345]

Just an update for anyone who doesn't know, you do need a license but its free but you need washing facility in the location.

 

[Taste Buds]

Hi everyone,
I've had my sweet shop for 4 years now, and am right next to the gates of a high school. We do great whilst kids are at school but the holidays seem to take a hit.
Does anyone have any advice on selling American Sweets, we've been asked for them, but at the moment we only stock Twinkies..