How in the hell do people stay in business with kiosks in the mall or other goofy stores?

All I ever see is a person sitting there reading a book and not selling anything. if you sold 20 pairs a day @ $10 profit (the most expensive pair is $20.00) that would be $200 per day.... less the rent ($50 per day?).... $150 per day for 12 hours of work (or sitting)....

Does that seem reasonable? can you sell 20 pairs in one day???? Do these people work their own Kiosk's or do they have employees? Pay the employee $7 per hour and you have now made $60.00 per day for not doing anything (assuming the employee didn't steal anything or give anything away)....

I would be pretty pissed to only make $54k for sitting on my ass 12 hours a day for 360 days a year....... or you could make $21k per year managing your employee's....??

If I were to go into any business, I would want to make sure that I had a chance to net about $100k or more for myself..... plus I wouldn't want to work more than 5 days a week, and would prefer to only work 8 hours each day.........

anyone here have some retail experience? I did not include the cost of interest that you would need to invest in inventory....but... i'll skip that for now....

 

how about one of those $1 stores...... the crap probably costs $.50 that they are selling....??? so they make 50% margins.... but the stores are fairly large and you are only get $1.00 for anything you sell....

You would need to gross $800.00 per day to get $400.00 in Margin..... then pay your rent & utilities $100 per day easily....... plus you have to have employees in that kind of store... just too big for one person....

$400-$100 per day ($3k per month) rent & utilties = $300.00 less $128.00 (2 employees @ 8 hours @ $8. including payroll taxes, etc..) = $172.00 per day......x 360 days =$61,920..... and you have to put up with that aweful smell of the place (cheap rubber/plastic)

That is assuming no advertising costs, only 2 employees, no health coverage, no 401k and selling $800.00 worth of crap a day.......... is that real?

 

margins are higher than you think Scot. I work with retailers all the time, and you'd be surprised at Wal-Mart's margins even when they claim they're giving their customers "discounts"

 

it probably only costs pennies to purchase in large volumes. The average sale is ~$10. They make money I am more than sure of that since they keep popping up everwhere.

 

Amazing that they can buy a piece of shit $1.00 dog scooper for under $.50.....

lets change it to 60% margins..... can they sell $750 worth of crap in a day? = $450 gross margins, less rent, employees, etc.... = $222 per day..... x 360 days = $80k

but to earn that $80k you have to work pretty hard yourself (and spouse)... ordering inventory, unloading the truck, stocking the shelves, running to the bank, paying bills, etc......

$80k is pretty nice $ but not if you have to work 360 days a year for 12 hours per day.

I still don't see how 750 items could be purchased in a store in one day.....but... all you need is 75 customers at $10.00 each...

 

Scot,
Typical retail markup is at least %100. I would venture to say that those $20.00 sunglasses they are probably getting under $5.00. Adjust your numbers using this markup and I think you'll see why it's profitable to have those little things