starting a kiosk business

[imeight]

Thinking about starting a kiosk business in a local mall? Not sure where to start or the type of business to pursue. Do you guys have any experience in this regard or would like share some ideas?

Average malls are boring now a days. People are scaling back due to the economy. One trend I see is there are tons of teenage kids. For a lot folks it's annoying but on the positive side... they probably have the most disposable cash. They are not into savings, targeting them is the key.

Question is what exactly they looking for in terms of products and/or services?

[crayonberry]

At my mall, hair accessories and handbags are what sell the most at the kiosks! Teenage girls=Handbags and hair accessories.
I also saw a custom t-shirt printing business. Very cool, and has a larger customer base.
Best of luck to you!

[TVL]

Maybe you could do cell phone covers. You could incorporate this into the stuff that crayonberry said. And more targeted to the teenaged guys you could get your own t shirts with your designs on them and sell them.

Just a thought

[pboychuk]

SNUGGIES!!!!!! for everyone!

[imeight]

At my mall, hair accessories and handbags are what sell the most at the kiosks! Teenage girls=Handbags and hair accessories.
I also saw a custom t-shirt printing business. Very cool, and has a larger customer base.
Best of luck to you!

Thanks for the feedback! I like the accessories and handbags. Accessories have good margin but kisoks with those items already exist in my city and around. Handbags are good but they don't have very good margin. I don't think I can sell enough to cover all the costs. The other big issue is big stores like Macy's, JCPenny and others have large collections including brand names of those items. And of course there is also Claire's Accessories which is hugely popular!

[imeight]

Maybe you could do cell phone covers. You could incorporate this into the stuff that crayonberry said. And more targeted to the teenaged guys you could get your own t shirts with your designs on them and sell them.

Just a thought

Cell phone cover business is indeed very good and profitable. They are everywhere in all malls now. Majority of them are owned and operated by one group of people I know. However, the particular kind they sell, I think, are close to it's lifecycle. There are different kinds of skins that are muck slicker and you can also personalize them too. Example, take a look at this Skinit dot com
If you want to start something similar, here is one you can look into i-wrapz dot com

I have contacted them. Need to see how much they cost to startup, franchise fee, etc. I will keep you guys posted.

[imeight]

SNUGGIES!!!!!! for everyone!

I hate that stupid ad :-)

[LSnyder]

I was thinking more along the lines of personalized pet clothing. I hate going into pet stores, especially with my children and have to argue with them because they want a fish or mouse, etc. It's kind of like the candy by the register in a grocery store.
So many people are pet oriented and really embellish their pets as family members (I know I do). Just a thought.

Good luck

[Apmix]

ShamWOW!!!

[imeight]

I was thinking more along the lines of personalized pet clothing. I hate going into pet stores, especially with my children and have to argue with them because they want a fish or mouse, etc. It's kind of like the candy by the register in a grocery store.
So many people are pet oriented and really embellish their pets as family members (I know I do). Just a thought.

Good luck

ahaa... I like this a lot! This would be unique... I haven't seen the concept in any mall. Let me give it some thoughts... I will share a bit later. Thanks so much for the idea!

[crayonberry]

Maybe you could do a gift wrapping service around December?
People would pay for that.
And It would be relatively inexpensive.
I have also seen a make up kiosk.
Also, the kiosks that sell hair accessories and t-shirts have been around for a while. They are still doing well, and my mall has a Macy's TWO dillards, and a JCPenney. Oh and an Icing and Claires!

[dhigham]

I did gift wrapping last year and it was profitable. I did gift wrapping the week before Christmas and it worked out very well for me. The best thing to do would be to find a mall that does not have it and then negotiate a good rent rate with them. It would be best if you could get them to charge you a straight precentage of sales as rent since you do not have a good way to predict your sales.

[Evac]

In fact, there are many things you can take into consideration, so I hope you can make a research before you decide, just in or around the place you are prefer to do kiosk business.
Why not do something different? That is my idea.

[stand856]

Maybe you could do a gift wrapping service around December?
People would pay for that.
And It would be relatively inexpensive.
I have also seen a make up kiosk.
Also, the kiosks that sell hair accessories and t-shirts have been around for a while. They are still doing well, and my mall has a Macy's TWO dillards, and a JCPenney. Oh and an Icing and Claires!

Gift wrapping could be a good idea, as long as the mall doesn't have a kiosk that has a contract with them to be the only one in the mall.

[LSnyder]

happy to be of assistance imeight!