Mall Location

[Tech Savvy]

Hi,
Currently I work from home and I take computers in here. I have a little yard sign out front and I do a lot of on-site repairs. However, like most businesses, I want to grow and expand.

I was looking into a local mall. A lot of foot traffic in a good area in NJ, USA. Here are some demos about the malls location

7 MILES 12 MILES <-- Radius
Population 225,584 438,082
Average Income $105,749 $115,868
Median Income $72,629 $81,683

The mall gets a lot of traffic, but is fairly expensive. I plan to put up a small kiosk the price would be about 2500/mo. including fire permits garbage and recycling and 2 million dollar liability insurance.

However with paying someone to "man" the place it would be upwards of $7k/mo including rent and all.

So my question is, does anyone have a mall location? or has anyone tried it? heard stories? Do you think it is a good demographic for the work kind of work we all do? I would like some honest constructive feedback. I dont like asking my family and friends because I dont know if they are serious or just saying to to not crush my hopes and dreams.

The kiosk would be kind of like a gateway where the computers would get dropped off/ picked up 2-3x per day and brought back to "the shop" I would also be selling computer parts memory... hard drives... flash drives... graphics cards... Mice. keyboards (the common stuff) some software (antivirus, os upgrades, and office)

Let me know your thoughts?

Kevin

 

[cmonova]

wow....expensive....But, I like the idea...And I say that because for years I have thought about it, checked into it, pitched it to the wife and the outcome is always the same "I don't do it"...haha

Not to say it's not a good idea just really unsure. I do know the insurance in malls are pretty crazy at least in this area for a simple kiosk. I think my main drawback to the whole thing is location. Yes, people go to the mall (I actually hate going to the mall) but parking is usually pretty crazy. Is a customer/potential customer going to park who knows where and carry their computer into the mall? I think that is my biggest drawback. Parking can get crazy in some of those places. I even went as far as thinking the customer can call when pulling in and walk out to the entrance and get the computer and then they can park...bit of a disaster doing that also.

I think the only way I would do it is if the mall let me do a "by month" deal or a quarterly deal to see how it works. Typically those kiosk are not completely full anyway so I really see no reason they would say no.

 

[compnet]

Random thoughts -

Who is going to carry a desktop through the parking lot and mall..

Traditionally kiosks are for impulse buys.

Thats really expensive especially considering you dont have a workspace.


Overall Im a no on it.. I dont know about nj, but 2500 can get you a pretty sweet spot with way more space in a decent strip mall out here.

 

[EvolutionElectronics]

being from new jersey, i can say having a kiosk is not worth it

 

[tankman1989]

I hate the mall and will not go in unless the store has only one location - in the mall. And if that is the case, I usually do without whatever they are selling.

I would not want to carry my desktop into the mall.

Would you have space to do repairs in a kiosk?

Would you really want people watching you do your work? IDK about you but I kind of like my privacy while I work and I can watch or listen to whatever I want in a more private setting.

That sounds outrageously expensive! What do you think you are going to sell to hit those numbers? There are only so many people who need their computer fixed, the more you have to pay for overhead, the less profit margin you are likely to make.

It sounds to me like a MAJOR headache with the potential to work you into the ground or bankrupt you.

I'm pretty against this idea if you didn't get that.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Working

I would be doing all the work at my shop at home. And I agree with the desktop situation, although I don't get many desktops that come in (pretty much all on-site)

But thank you all for the input, and keep em coming if possible. The carrying in was my biggest concern. You also brought up a good point about the parking too, I didn't even think about that.

 

[tankman1989]

I would be doing all the work at my shop at home. And I agree with the desktop situation, although I don't get many desktops that come in (pretty much all on-site)

But thank you all for the input, and keep em coming if possible. The carrying in was my biggest concern. You also brought up a good point about the parking too, I didn't even think about that.

If this is the case it sounds like you are going to be spending even more time on the business than I thought before. This just sounds like a ton of work. Wouldn't you be wasting a lot of time, either yours or your employee, by not being able to work while at the mall? That just sounds like a recipe for failure.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I agree with the others. Far too much money for little return.

There is a 'mall type' place around 8 miles from me. There has been a pc repair guy there for at least the past 8 years that I can remember. He runs his business from a barrow type stall. (UK techs will know what I mean here).

They do no actual pc repairs here, this 'stall', is only for hardware sales, printer inks, keyboards, laptop cases etc.

They do take bookings here, and arrange repairs for their main office to complete. Although not a great deal of bookings are taken.

He has told me, its the worst decision his company has ever made, but the main boss, loves the idea of all the potential walk past clients.

Their overheads are small - in terms of what they need. Rent (approx £25k pa). Insurance (unknown). Utilities - Electric, covered with the rent.

Their stock, is cd's, dvd's and the like, but they do sell a lot of printer inks. (Same company I use).

Therefore they would need to sell a huge amount of stock, at relatively low cost to even cover the overheads. Yet alone make a profit.

 

[Jandakatz]

The only repair business I've seen work at the mall near me is a watch and jewelry repair. Of course most peoples' items he repairs are typically over $1k. Compare that to most pcs I see which are typically couple hundred bucks and a couple years old.

 

[joydivision]

Is that shopping mall in a suburb of a larger town beginning with W, and the suburb beginning with B any chance Nige?

Came across that guy when I met a friend who worked in Liverpool as it was a half way point. This was a few years ago, but he was charging £25.00 for a call out, I was thinking how the hell is he doing that when he is paying all that rent.

I really do think what I have done is a good compromise. These days people don't tend to impulse buy as much so a retail location in a fix-repair industry is a bit over the top. However working from home was becoming impractical, somebody had to stay in all the time and my parents were getting increasingly unhappy that I could have 6 or 7 computers in the spare bedroom.

It was also tying me to still live at home as I cannot run a business form a rent flat. In the end I took a small unit from a business park about 4-5 miles down the road. A bit far in Manchester traffic but love it.

Edit my local mall in Stretford has a laptop repair place, its in a proper retail type mall (one of the very very first Arndales in the UK) been there around 5-6 years now and is a very professional looking outfit. I just cannot see how he gets the returns though.

My laptop repair guy (DC jacks, reballs) has a shop in a city centre location but its in an old mill right next to a university. He does very very well but as its just slightly outside the city centre there is parking too, although about 80p for 20 minutes.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Is that shopping mall in a suburb of a larger town beginning with W, and the suburb beginning with B any chance Nige?

No Ian, its starts with a S, ends with a D. 7 letters. Riots there last year

 

[joydivision]

Not noticed that one, been a long long time since I have down there. Might have a nosy next time I visit my old university.

 

[Kitten Kong]

You'll find it outsie what used to be Woolworths, close to the market entrance, and Argos Ian.

 

[DocGreen]

I have been considering a similar situation recently...

In my area, there are several "super-center" grocery stores (think Walmart) that have boutique space for lease in the front of the stores. There are quite a few availabilities in the area and I had wondered how well a computer shop would do in a setting like that. The spaces are large enough that I could do the work in the store, and I could customize the space to give myself some privacy while working. But there again... how many people are going to drag their computers into the grocery store? I think in this situation it's quite a smaller deal than in the mall situation... It really wouldn't be any different that carrying your PC to the Geek Squad's desk in Best Buy if you think about it.

I haven't contacted the realtors for pricing, and am only really considering it in theory at this point... but do you guys have any thoughts?

 

[altrenda]

Apple stores are in malls, and people hate bringing their iMacs there to see the Geniuses.

I have several clients pay me to drop off and pick up their computers that are covered by Apple care.

 

[DocGreen]

Apple stores are in malls, and people hate bringing their iMacs there to see the Geniuses.

I have several clients pay me to drop off and pick up their computers that are covered by Apple care.

I can understand not wanting to drag a computer through a mall... a laptop is one thing, but a desktop? Forget about it.

 

[GeeksInKhakis]

That's very expensive, $7,000 x 12 = $94,000 a month, just for overhead. I've thought about it, too...Just don't think it would work.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

I had sales over $12k per month before signing a lease on a store. My first store was $500 per month and we doubled within 6 month but more to hiring more help than to having a location.

18 months later we got a first class retail store in front of Bestbuy, on a highway with 50,000 cars a day....Rent was about what you are paying for the kiosk.

I don't think we got 3 drop ins a week. So basically I was paying high rent for very little additional customers. I later decided to find 2nd or 3 rate retail store and put the extra money into advertising.

Don't be fooled into thinking that a great location will lesson your requirement to advertise and drive people to call you.....

I would get a reasonable office rent type location where customers can come to you and you can have a full time employee and they you stay on the road doing consulting/business clients or customer pickups and then take them back to the office for your full time employee to restore while you go find more business....this helped me a great deal.

IMO if you are not taking work home most nights, you might not be ready.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

The way to do it, find another business that is related to yours like office supply store etc, and ask them about renting even a store room or corner. Pay them some small amount like maybe 200 or so a month so you can put a sign up and have a table you can meet with clients at. Even if you don't work on things there it can work out if you have your business line ported to a cell number. Then you can work on things where you do now, home garage etc. if someone wants to meet face to face, sure you are finishing up something, would time x work and book an appointment. We did this starting out, nobody even wanted to give us a loan for say 1000 bucks and we literally started with a dream and a very small budget. But it's doing well still expanding each year. Just gotta figure out what other services we can offer given the changing landscape, most of our business has been residential home repairs and virus removals.

 

[NYJimbo]

The way to do it, find another business that is related to yours like office supply store etc, and ask them about renting even a store room or corner. Pay them some small amount like maybe 200 or so a month so you can put a sign up and have a table you can meet with clients at.

Is this how YOU did it ?