Sweet shop - Advice Please

Frenchgirl

Hello everyone. Due to getting a divorce and selling our house I will shortly have 30. 000 to do something with. I was thinking of opening an "old fashioned" sweet shop in a small Devon town. The town gets a lot of visitors in the summer.

I worked in a charity shop for four years so have a bit of experience in the retail trade. I will admit I know nothing about the sweet trade apart from eating them!

I dont want to waste the money and would really appreciate your advice. Thanking you in advance. x

Savvy_Sue

Frenchgirl wrote: »

The town gets a lot of visitors in the summer.

And how are you going to make ends meet through the first winter, if your first summer isn't spectacular? And remember that all kinds of things can affect seasonal trading: wrong kind of weather, roadworks, temporary parking restrictions and so on.

Lots of research to do, but this really does seem like a high risk retail opportunity to me unless you have a clear plan for the 'off' season.

Hannah_10

What's the population size of the town please?

Is it a town with lots of young families/ older people/ high unemployment/ commuters?

What's the rent of the shop you're thinking of?

Can you manage to live on any other source of income if the shop does not take money?

Has there been a tradititional sweetshop in your town before?

What other sweet shops or outlets where you can buy sweets are there?

What kind of visitors do you get there?

Please bear in mind I say none of this to put you off at all (it could be viable) but to get you thinking about the things you need to have addressed practically on paper/ in your head at the least, before you spend a penny.

nuttyp

Maybe you could do an internet site to run alongside the shop. Try sweets from abroad, american sweets sell well - i buy loads :-). Where we live they do a small section for different cultures, not sure if its agd idea or not tho.

You could do a delivery service to local businesses if you have an assistant to help you.

ShaneUK

Is there any similar available nearby already?

Can you offer anything "unusual", and perhaps also have a website with delivery?

Your user name is "frenchgirl". From this I am assuming you are French? Can you offer any French style sweets perhaps? May help offering something not available elsewhere.

paulwf

Our regional BBC TV news reported on an old fashioned sweet shop that was closing after being in the family for 4 generations. The owner said he just couldn't make it profitable and that it only kept going for as long as it did because his grandfather had bought the freehold so no rent to pay.

Perhaps it was a bit too old fashioned though, I doubt it was selling online or maximising its potential. I do know a couple in my county that are still trading.

Anyway do a lot of research, go on a road trip and talk to half a dozen or more of these retailers. If you can observe their trade for an hour or two (if there is a cafe opposite this is perfect).

Also visit your wholesalers and work out margins. A lot of confectionery is only 20-40% markup and you'll still be more expensive than the supermarkets. You'll need to sell a lot of 50p bags of sweets to make any money at all, so either you'll need a lot of trade or go for more expensive products. Some shops sell sweets only in boxes, perhaps 2 packs for £3, that way a few sales make a bit more money.

newsseller12

As you can see by my username I have been doing this for a while, One thing I thought I'd add is that very few people can make a viable living just selling sweets, Just look at your traditional local newsagents, there are few left which just sells news sweets & tobacco. From personal experience several years ago we had the option to close down or diversify, we chose to expand into a small convenience store selling alcohol, groceries and game/dvd hire.
Now business is Ok giving us a fair wage for the hours we put in. If we had remained a traditional newsagent we would have gone bust years ago.

Pennywise

Talking from experience as the accountant for a city centre sweet shop, your more likely to lose money than make any.

Firstly, staffing costs are a killer. For large parts of the day, you've barely any customers, but 8-9 12-2 and 3-4 were incredibly busy with school kids spending their 50p and the office workers at lunchtime, making it essential to have 2/3 people on the counter for parts of the day, necessitating at least 2 scales and tills - all adding overheads. Without the extra staff & equipment, customers are served too slowly, resulting in other potential customers not bothering to wait and also lots of shoplifting as staff are busy serving and lots of people blocks the view.

Secondly, internet sales aren't the answer as there are loads of online shops and ebay sellers, all selling the same kind of thing, so you're just one of many. Sure, you can sell a few items per day, but my client paid thousands for a professional website and SEO optimisation but still had fewer sales than the top ebayers!

Our client managed to keep theirs open for 2/3 years but gave up in the end as they tried everything to no avail, and that was in a prime city centre locations, lots of footfall passing, open 7 days, diversified as much as possible, with no other similar shops in the same city.

I think there's a reason why there aren't many traditional sweet shops in city centres - they just can't be made to be profitable enough!

Frenchgirl

Hello thank you for all your advice. You have certainly given me a lot to think about. Which was what I wanted. I am not french I had thought about buying a little place there but travel is so expensive now. Thanks for the advice keep it coming. x

Savvy_Sue

Watch the 'Mary Queen of Shops' series, on TV currently. I have no idea what it's like, but she seems to be looking at shops which are swallowing money into a big black hole, so you might pick up ways of avoiding that, if nothing else!

Owain_Moneysaver

I think for this to work you have to have somewhere with nearly year round fairly upmarket tourist trade, who will buy handmade chocolates, luxury nougats, fudges, rock, souvenir biscuits, and speciality (maybe home-made) ice-creams.

I was in such a shop earlier this week, it was buzzing.

Forget the school lunch time trade. Don't sell anything less than £1.50. Swear on your grannie's toffee-pan that the words pic-n-mix shall not pass thy lips.