Full Version: Mall at Christmas?
From: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#1]
1 Oct 2004
To: ALL
Hello All,
How many of you that are not already in a mall location, tap into that market during the holiday shopping season? If so, do you do a short-term lease of a vacant stall, kiosk, cart, or the classic four banquet tables in a square in the center aisle.
Have any of you rented display space from an existing tenant, where you would pay them an agreed upon rent for x-number of square feet?
From: Doug (JDOUG5170) [#2]
4 Oct 2004
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#1] 5 Oct 2004
David...
I suppose participating in a mall environment varies, city to city depending on size.
Here in the Portland, OR area, the malls are pretty fancy, have specific requirements regarding kiosks, will not allow 4 card tables set up in the middle of the walkway. And, once you work with the designer to build the specific kiosk or mall cart required, the rents will stagger you in the "good" malls.
I have been involved in a "Christmas Store". In this case a artist rented the space from the mall, a vacant, unused space. He in turn rented out space to a number of artists and craftpeople. They provided personal to work the floor and the central register. Those of us that chose to man our space (the hours will kill you) were able to manage our own transactions if we choose to. From the standpoint of actual cost of space and inventory, I made money...if you calculate all the hours spent in the mall...7 days a week, often times 18 hours...I made not a dime!
On the other hand, years ago I participated in arts and crafts shows in malls that were very successful. They were usually 4-9 days type programs which was not too bad, rents were reasonable, and sales were always very good. Unfortunately, most of the malls in this area no longer do that due to the congestion already in the mall common areas. The introduction of kiosk sales pretty much killed the old arts and craft shows.
The other issue you have to contend with is that malls have very strong contracts with their permanent tenants stating what can and can't be sold by a competitor and therefore it is very possible that your product would not be permitted.
It gets tougher and tougher to make a living these days!
Doug