Which problems are you facing?

[emmylou74]

Hi, I thought I'd add my bit.

I own a sweet shop on the main pedestrianised street in a town. Our current rent is quite a good deal but we are thinking of moving into a bigger shop but the rents being asked are too high in our opinion. Also rates are so high.

Supermarkets and discount shops are a problem. We cannot compete with their prices. For example the big tins of Roses they sell at Christmas - they sell them cheaper than we can get at any of our suppliers. We often hear people say they'll go to Asda/B&M etc because it is cheaper.

I hope this is of some help.
Jo
X

Have you tried negotiating a better price on the rent of the properties you have seen?

If its in a discount shop or supermarket I personally would stay away from that. You want to have something that they do not have. Its not always cheaper though sometimes they have smaller packages and people just do not realise. Wilkinsons sell these pigs ears and they are half an ear but the price of a full ear. When people mentioned they thought it was cheaper I just showed them the size difference and they were actually paying more for their "bargain".

Those tins of roses etc are rubbish. The quality of the chocolate inside is so poor. I would go to a specialist sweet shop looking for something much nicer quality, especially if it was for a gift. Being an independant we are just trying to get the message of quality out there to people. It takes time though

 

[kelvin1950]

For example the big tins of Roses they sell at Christmas - they sell them cheaper than we can get at any of our suppliers. We often hear people say they'll go to Asda/B&M etc because it is cheaper.

We don't bother with stuff like that for that very reason. Gradually we're converting our village over to our range of chocolates which are as different to roses as rat poison is to fillet steak!

 

[Ryan_M]

I'd guess some of the Roses type promotions are loss leaders even for the supermarkets... I don't know if the set up of your business would allow you (or if it would make sense) for you to do this.

If people go in to your shop and buy a box of chocolates then it wouldn't maybe be worth it, but if they buy a number of things then it might be... even if it's to get new customers through the door for the first time it could make sense making a small loss.

I don't know your situation but even if you were doing cut-price chocolate oranges at Christmas, or taster samples or something it sounds like it could be a really nice community shop/treat to take kids to visit if done up nice at Christmas or other events.

 

[Doodle-Noodle]

We just don't try and compete with supermarkets, my current mantra is "if Sainsbury's sells it, we don't".
Easy with the hand made stuff, as they can't stock what we make, but it's getting harder with things like the art/craft supplies as our local Sainsbury does stock things from time to time that we normally stock; we've given up on the crafting magazines as even though the supermarkets charge the cover price (as we did) convenience led customers to buy from them rather than us.
Our remaining local florist has just shut down and the computer shop has decided not to renew it's lease now - Sainsbury's has those markets stitched up too.

 

[Ryan_M]

There is definitely a place for specialist stores, we're one ourself, thankfully people are willing to travel but I'm sure we could do a lot better if we could afford huge rents in a nice area, I think location is key for specialist stores like ours.

As for florists, maybe tin hat time but I think the majority are a complete rip off for what you get (not saying they don't have huge overheads and waste but the customer doesn't care about that).

 

[SweetJo]

We don't sell the Roses for that exact reason. I thought I'd just use it as an example. Most of our products are not available in the larger stores. If they are they are pre-packed. We don't sell chocolate bars, boxes of chocolates, chewing gum, cans of English pop because they're all in B&M two doors up at ridiculously cheap prices!

One of our specialist ranges was the American products. Supermarkets have now started selling some of these products which kind of takes the uniqueness out of it, but thankfully it still sells well.

As for the rent, we are negotiating with our landlord. We are in the centre of town, so expect rents to be higher, but the money you have to pay out before even making a teeny profit is unrealistic. They have asked us to do a business plan for them to show we can afford the new shop. They are willing to negotiate, it just depends how much :|

 

[Ryan_M]

SweetJo

I bought some Lucky Charms from an American Sweet company for my girlfriend's brother and caused her to crash her car as she answered the phone to me checking if we really wanted to spend £8.99 for a packet of cereal. There's special hand-crafted food and chocolates then there's ripping the backside out of it for harder to get products. So on that I'm glad Tesco are starting to do stuff like that.

 

[kelvin1950]

SweetJo

I bought some Lucky Charms from an American Sweet company for my girlfriend's brother and caused her to crash her car as she answered the phone to me checking if we really wanted to spend £8.99 for a packet of cereal. There's special hand-crafted food and chocolates then there's ripping the backside out of it for harder to get products. So on that I'm glad Tesco are starting to do stuff like that.

Just don't believe that Tesco will be cheaper. We're cheaper than Tesco in at least 75% of the stuff we sell.

 

[SweetJo]

SweetJo

I bought some Lucky Charms from an American Sweet company for my girlfriend's brother and caused her to crash her car as she answered the phone to me checking if we really wanted to spend £8.99 for a packet of cereal. There's special hand-crafted food and chocolates then there's ripping the backside out of it for harder to get products. So on that I'm glad Tesco are starting to do stuff like that.

£8.99 is ridiculous! We charge £5.50 and still make a profit on them, so I totally agree some places charge too much. Some customers have told us they've seen them for over £10. We keep our prices lower because we find we sell more of them, and people are more likely to come back, or tell their friends

 

[hayden003]

Is it your own stuff or are you selling as a retailer and selling other manufacturers goods?

How are people finding you? How many visitors are you getting? Our conversion rate is very low although 90% of our customers that walk through the door found us online...

your posts

Hi Ryan

yea i am a retailer selling wallpaper online people are finding us on facebook twitter good search but not buying on average we are getting 35 people looking at the site daily

any ideas how i can get people buying ?

thanks

 

[warnie]

In answer to the original question.....My problems today are heavy rain and thunder.



That is all.

 

[herewegoagain.]

Hi, I thought I'd add my bit.

I own a sweet shop on the main pedestrianised street in a town. Our current rent is quite a good deal but we are thinking of moving into a bigger shop but the rents being asked are too high in our opinion. Also rates are so high.

Supermarkets and discount shops are a problem. We cannot compete with their prices. For example the big tins of Roses they sell at Christmas - they sell them cheaper than we can get at any of our suppliers. We often hear people say they'll go to Asda/B&M etc because it is cheaper.

I hope this is of some help.
Jo
X

Play the supermarkets at their own game, buy the tins of roses off them as they are cheaper than wholesale and take them back to your shop and weigh them out of a jar - far more money to be made that way, or break them down and add value...

for example, get some nice cheap (for christmas, ie little santas, snowmen) cuddly toys and cellophane them up with a nice bow sitting on a pile of the weighed out roses, same for easter - I have been doing this for years - they always go well... what would cost you around £2 maximum you could sell easily for £5.99...

This is the same reason I do not stock selection boxes as they are cheaper in the supermarkets than in the cash and carry - way cheaper... but...
after christmas, buy them cheap on clearance and break them down, you will get around 3 x POR !

 

[Deleted member 162294]

Play the supermarkets at their own game, buy the tins of roses off them as they are cheaper than wholesale and take them back to your shop and weigh them out of a jar - far more money to be made that way, or break them down and add value...

When I worked for a Chinese takeaway I recommended they do something similar. Wait until they make 2 Litre Coca Cola £2 for 2 bottles then buy 100 of them. The staff at Asda were not happy to say the least.

 

[SweetJo]

We do it with candy canes. We buy boxes from cheap shops then unpack them and sell the candy canes individually.

The teddy bear and roses wraps sound lovely what a good idea

 

[platnumcn]

Problem is poor resources, which have led to lesser returning clients and poor clientele base at the moment. This has effected my monthly turnover drastically :'(