I'm planning opening a pasty shop - what are the profit expectations?

PasturesNew

50p stalls on markets always seem to do well.

dopester

PasturesNew wrote: »

50p stalls on markets always seem to do well.

Yes but what is your margin on 50p items? 20p? How many items do you need to shift to make £300+ pw after all other costs? At least 600+ items to be sold even if you got the stock free, then your market stall fee.

Whereas the niche luxury car cleaning guy is getting £450+ clean per luxury car, either at his premises (yes he has to pay for the premises but may have paid it down in the mega good years). He also gets booked to do his work at dealerships, clients homes, and has been booked by foreign clients to do his work on their cars at their foreign homes.

With his niche-ish work (and "the way we do it") just one or two bookings a day, even if one working 2 or 3 days a week.. after his costs he's probably still making significantly more than someone else working 5 days a week on the market, trying to sell 50p stuff to 600+ tight-fisted shoppers on the market, with other 50p stalls visibly competing for their money too.

fc123

.and finally...the last chapter....:rolleyes:

With reference to DS and targetting wealthy/rich etc.

Sometimes it's a good thing to just do what you do and customers can be all sorts.

As some of you know, I am now trading in massively high footfall Real Life location....it is soooo high footfall, I almost want to throw myself on the floor and wail with gratitude for the opportunity....but, of course, I don't. Not a good look.:o
I have also expereinced high footfall internet land style too.....the past year has blown me away. I almost want to write a guide about niche and footfall enabling survival...but I won't.:rolleyes:


How can I make the point about doing what you are passionate about without targetting a particular income group.......and then letting the customer find you without seeming to be up my A??????

OK...I make things I want to make, that I think will sell in the locations I retail in and I have had a few high profile sales in the past 2 months.

The 3 people I have chosen to highlight are very different in terms of income but they all bought a garment from me @ about 50 quid per unit.

1; Can't find a pic of her wearing it

2; Bootyliscious eve was last week so no pic.

3; and x factor reject in new hot seller wolf dress yesterday


All completely diff target customers, income and personal style.

So, if Conrad goes it alone, best bet, like thrugelmir said, is to do something you truly feel and then the customer will come to you. It must have been like that with the loans...people recommending you etc.

Does that make sense or do I sound like a know all?....cos I don't mean to.:o

PasturesNew

I've never heard of any of those 3.
I'm really out of the Heat Magazine loop aren't I!

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never heard of any of those 3.
I'm really out of the Heat Magazine loop aren't I!

Come on PN...NO 1? Even I knew who she was...I confess to googling the other 2.

dopester

The 3 people I have chosen to highlight are very different in terms of income but they all bought a garment from me @ about 50 quid per unit.

Good stuff fc. You've sure met many an interesting famous and semi-famous person as a retailer.

It would take me a lot of thinking which location to choose in the North West to set up a retail unit (not that I even plan to). There is more to it than footfall, but you know this. Part of the decision you made in choosing to move on from where your last base was, with your decision to relocate, was based on more than footfall alone wasn't it? Selecting somewhere there was both significant levels of footfall but also where they are likely to have a higher than average amount of disposable income.

Where is Conrad's commercial base of operations? Even the failed pasty franchise guy admitted (with lots of frustration that Oggy hadn't thought to suggest it!) that if an area isn't particularly well-off, a lot of footfall makes little difference when they are counting the pennies and you're selling a product at a slight premium.

We had been told that although there were Greggs and Hampsons on every street, they were not competition because they had a lower priced structure and we had a higher class product. People would pay for that difference. Well, in Preston at least, they want the higher class product at a Greggs price. People would come in the shop with a Pound in their hands and see what it would buy. At that time it was really only a sausage roll. Even the smallest pasty was just over a Pound. Eat in prices were even higher due to VAT.

Footfall, by itself, does not mean anything apart from whether the street is busy or not. This is the only thing that we were asked to research in order to find a good location. Oggy didn't seem to consider any other factors such as whether or not those passers by have money or the desire to buy their product.

fc123

dopester wrote: »

Good stuff fc. You've sure met many an interesting famous and semi-famous person as a retailer.

It would take me a lot of thinking which location to choose in the North West to set up a retail unit (not that I even plan to). There is more to it than footfall, but you know this. Part of the decision you made in choosing to move on from where your last base was, with your decision to relocate, was based on more than footfall alone wasn't it? Selecting somewhere there was both significant levels of footfall but also where they are likely to have a higher than average amount of disposable income.

Where is Conrad's commercial base of operations? Even the failed pasty franchise guy admitted (with lots of frustration that Oggy hadn't thought to suggest it!) that if an area isn't particularly well-off, a lot of footfall makes little difference when they are counting the pennies and you're selling a product at a slight premium.

Didn't meet the 3 above as I rarely work on the floor...I miss running my own space though.

OK..reasons I chose to close ....which are just a valid as reasons to set something up.

1; Drop in T/0 mainly due to relocation of office workers who turned out to be everyday trade...except I had never noticed at the time..which sounds silly but I didn't ask customers where they came from and we lost 10% due to the crunch overnight.
It was survivable...then combined with

2; rent review and increase...so too high costs to make a living.

2 main reasons...but there were loads of little ones like how the area had changed and all the chains, all the other boutiques like me had closed down, and also I was quite bored...though I didn't realise it until I had stopped and did something else. Mainly I was bored as we chased T/O and went fairly manisbteam to pay down debt...which worked really well...but, man, it was dull sometimes.


New business came about by chance but I did select the Real Life Land due to customer demographic, highest footfall in world (apparently....or could be sales per linear ft in our sector?) and location. Of course, I could never afford to trade in that location as an indie.

Many shops are flagships and don't make masses of profit.

The snag is, in SE London we didn't have footfall all week, just weekends yet you would get destination customers and could take serious ££££ during the week but an outsider would look at an empty St and shop and would have no idea....it's really hard to call.

fc123

The biggest problem with a new venture is you know what you need to turnover BUT it's like the 'how long is a piece of string?' and if it turns out not to be long enough, then it is really hard to dig yourself out.

Our 2 riskiest (in terms of £££) start ups; one kicked A$$ from day 1 but the 2nd nearly took me to the edge,,took a year and half to settle in and make the T/O needed.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

Come on PN...NO 1? Even I knew who she was...I confess to googling the other 2.

I think it's a Royal - has a horsey look. Probably one of Fergie's as it has that hefty look.

Those of us nowhere near London don't really keep up with the shiny people.

carolt

Wow, fc, was just rading the freebie London papers, and there was no 3 looking down at me!

And nos 1 and 2... (well, actually have to admit I have no idea who no 2 is -am I showing my age?). Still, wow.

Not bad...feel rather chuffed you posh designer lady chooses to hang out with us....