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One of life's saddest things is the new store that is doomed

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Skoorb said:
There is definitely business in selling overpriced stuff to doctors and grad students who feel that it separates them from the proles to patronize it.
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I'd kill to have a real cheese shop near me.

Ironically, I am a grad student...
 
Nebor said:
Your post reminds me of how much I love Applebees. The variety, the flavors, the atmosphere of sophisticated yet accessible dining... it's all so perfect.
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I dont have that for applebees because our local one failed 5 health inspections miserably and was shut down for 3 days in recent years for violations.

The initial complaint was a woman had shards of glass in her salad. Inspectors found filthy cooking conditions around the fryers, bugs, spoiled food, etc...
 
GasX said:
I'd kill to have a real cheese shop near me.

Ironically, I am a grad student...
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the local butcher expanded his store like 2 years ago. it now has a huge cheese, wine shop and a olive bar along witht he Butcher part.

i love the store. i always spend a lot when we go in.
 
loki8481 said:
there are 2 scrapbooking stores within a 5 block radius of my apartment.

scrapbooking.

seriously. I don't get it.
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Dude, scrapbooking is major bucks. My wife, her friend and I looked into it once. If you know your stuff you can make a killing.
 
Svnla said:
A lot of people think that if they have the "entreprenue" and "can do" spirit, they can open a store or business and they will make it. They don't bother to do any researches on competition, potential of clients, cash flow/credit, and so on.

Sad fact = about 50% of all new small business WILL fail within five years or less. Source = http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/getready/SERV_SBPLANNER_ISENTFORU.html
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the average self made millionaire also failed 9 times before they finally hit pay dirt.
 
Balt said:
As for the chains, I have no idea how they pick their locations. I've seen more than one city with 2-3 different chain pharmacies on a single intersection.
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This is not by accident. In fact, quite the contrary, it's completely intentional. For any given chain store, if a competitor puts up a store in a given area and you don't, that's basically handing the competitor all the business in that region. It's because of competition.
 
ahurtt said:
This is not by accident. In fact, quite the contrary, it's completely intentional. For any given chain store, if a competitor puts up a store in a given area and you don't, that's basically handing the competitor all the business in that region. It's because of competition.
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It's very similar to Gas Stations, banks, and grocery stores.
 
I think people have rose colors glasses about Mom and Pop places. Some of the absolutely shittiest food and service I've ever had has been from Mom and Pop places. The fact is, a lot of these dumps only survive because there isn't any competition around for miles. And thats fine, but lets not act like they're all some sort of service utopia. They're just filling a niche that the big box stores don't find cost effective to exploit.

As for AppleBees. I refer to that place as "Crap 'N Pees". I had a string of poor experiences with our local one culminating in our final trip where we were seated next to the bathrooms after apparently a baby had just shit 3 times its body wait everywhere or something. The whole place stank like shit.
 
Marlin1975 said:
"[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][SIZE=-1]by Richard Freeman[/SIZE][/FONT] "
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LaRouche owns and operates the Executive "Intelligence" Review from which that article was taken. That would be why I said, "a publication from" and not, "an article written by". No legitimate academic would be caught dead writing for LaRouche.

Reading comprehension; it's important.

ZV
 
my neighbor and his wife are starting an online business... I think it's the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

they're investing money and upkeep in a server to basically buy chotskies from some vendor and resell them. it's just pure random shit... like an e-lilian verner catalogue. and there's a market for that, don't get me wrong, but why wouldn't someone just go directly to the supplier themselves instead of a third party shop?

I just kinda smile and nod when they're convinced that their internet store is going to let them quit their jobs and buy a house, but I'm pretty sure they're deluded and their shop won't have much more than some pity sales from friends/family.
 
Chocolate shops with expensive chocolates are all the rage. Especially if they have sprayed-on colors and a glossy finish on the chocolates and cliched flavors like mango chili.
 
PingSpike said:
I think people have rose colors glasses about Mom and Pop places. Some of the absolutely shittiest food and service I've ever had has been from Mom and Pop places. The fact is, a lot of these dumps only survive because there isn't any competition around for miles. And thats fine, but lets not act like they're all some sort of service utopia. They're just filling a niche that the big box stores don't find cost effective to exploit.

As for AppleBees. I refer to that place as "Crap 'N Pees". I had a string of poor experiences with our local one culminating in our final trip where we were seated next to the bathrooms after apparently a baby had just shit 3 times its body wait everywhere or something. The whole place stank like shit.
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The best service I have ever gotten at a variety of different types of stores has been locally owned stores. The worst service has been chains. Of course I've had bad service at locally owned stores and good service at chains but on average the locally owned are better. And if you are talking restaurants its not even close.
 
mcurphy said:
I live in a small town with a population of ~2k. We had a small model train shop open up two years ago, and I was sure they would not last. I went in there a couple times and bought some toy trains for my son just out of sympathy for the store. Every time I drive by the store it looks empty, and really, in a small town, how many people are into model trains? Well the store is still around and last week they had a small write-up in the local paper about the store. Apparently they are doing well, and plan to stay around. I guess they do a lot of online sales, and have model train enthusiats from all around the area that stop in. Who would have thought?
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We have a store like that in my hometown as well. He also does models (which I buy from him) and some toys like Brio Trains and such.
A number of people thought he would fail. He just moved to a bigger store so he could increase inventory on hand because of the sales. He's the only guy in the area who does models and trains. Even Walmart doesn't carry those items.
 
I had a similar discussion on this topic with my wife the other day about how all these specialty stores will come and go all the time in our area.

Like expensive purses and shoes for women in a strip mall that also consist of a waffle house and a dollar store in the middle of nowhere with no large draw places near it, it's doomed to fail.

It always boggles my mind how people seem to have such a hard time with putting something in a place that makes sense for it.

Know your target. What area of town do they go to for most shopping? Put a store in that same area. Profit!

There's some places around me that are in a never ending cycle of non-chain store/restaurant/whatever.
 
loki8481 said:
my neighbor and his wife are starting an online business... I think it's the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

they're investing money and upkeep in a server to basically buy chotskies from some vendor and resell them. it's just pure random shit... like an e-lilian verner catalogue. and there's a market for that, don't get me wrong, but why wouldn't someone just go directly to the supplier themselves instead of a third party shop?

I just kinda smile and nod when they're convinced that their internet store is going to let them quit their jobs and buy a house, but I'm pretty sure they're deluded and their shop won't have much more than some pity sales from friends/family.
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they don't even have a niche? Confused....like are they specialized chotskies at least?
 
IceBergSLiM said:
they don't even have a niche? Confused....like are they specialized chotskies at least?
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isn't that on an infomercial?

"These products literally sell themselves!"

yeah, because everyone is lining up to buy a plastic figurine of a toad sitting on a log, holding a fishing pole.
 
Independent restaurants are nice because the food's unpredictable. It could be good or bad, but it'll most likely be different from the vanilla crap you get at the chains. Chains are like modern FM radio. They all serve the exact same stuff, and the only way to tell them apart is by the crap they nail to the wall. All style, no substance
 
The only advantage of Vegas is the cheap meals you can get from the casinos, as they sell underprice to get people gambling.

Mmm...cheap ass T-Bone steaks.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
the average self made millionaire also failed 9 times before they finally hit pay dirt.
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Did you even bother to read what I said?..... "They don't bother to do any researches on competition, potential of clients, cash flow/credit, and so on"

The tenancity of never quit is good but not to do any business plan/forecast or the potential/pitfall of a new business is stupid.
 
Riverhound777 said:
There is a store near my work that sells only lamp shades... its been there for a while. How the hell do they stay in business??
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There was a lighting specialty store somewhat near me that finally went out of business after...I dunno 15-20 years.

No wonder though. I went in and their "everything must go" prices were twice as expensive for shittiter crap than I could get at Home Depot.

OTOH, a sushi place just opened like 700ft from my house. A new construction area that has been thirsting for any kind of decent and close restaurant. Their business is going gangbusters now...but I hope they can compete when the inevitable chain stores come in. I actually think they'll continue do well if they can keep their quality/price as good as it is.
 
Zenmervolt said:
LaRouche owns and operates the Executive "Intelligence" Review from which that article was taken. That would be why I said, "a publication from" and not, "an article written by". No legitimate academic would be caught dead writing for LaRouche.

Reading comprehension; it's important.

ZV
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It's still a good article, and has factual information.
 
GodlessAstronomer said:
It's funny, Americans lament the death of small mum & pop stores, while I wish we had the ridiculously massive super-stores you guys have with such amazing prices. I don't have any kind of sentimental feelings towards any stores, I just want to pay less for my consumer goods. Bring Wal Mart to NZ plzkthx.
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economics reveals the truth. people talk a good game about small businesses but the wallet shows what they really do. funniest are the fair trade folks who shed tears about brazilian farmers but don't give a sh*t about american auto workers with health care.
 
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