[mrmagic2713]

does anyone out there rent kiosk space in the malls, or large indoor flea markets to move their product? and if so, how is it working out? i was considering that option, so any feedback from you vets would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ntek 4]

Never tried the mall kiosk personally, after I found out the rent price, and length of lease. Have friends that did and unfortunately did not work.(expense to high). Plus all the apparel competition inside the mall. Flea markets are a good way to start, but you will find alot of other clothing vendors selling knockoffs or preprints at very low prices.

Just my 2 cents

 

[mrmagic2713]

man! you are right! i have a local mall here in new york that will charge me about 750 per week to rent a cart to display my shirts. when you also factor in paid help to staff the kiosk (this mall is open from 9am-9pm 7 days a week, and my kiosk would have to open during those hours) at a 10 buck per shirt profit margin, i would have to move over 100 shirts per week just to pay my rent, and part time staffing costs (i would work the kiosk myself mon-sat, 9am-5pm) but in any event, i think that many people who get these mall carts and kiosks, feel that becuase they are in a mall, customers will just flock to them, and no further promotion is needed! absolutley wrong in my opionion. you must hit your target area with flyers, billboards, low cost cable tv ads, radio spots, emails, or whatever it will take to drive customers to your mall space. you gotta figure that if major retailers like modells or footlocker (who hall full size retail operations in many malls) still do continous promotional ad campagins, then the kiosks owners need to do the same. maybe on a smaller scale, but you must promote nevertheless.

 

[rabid]

Man, I wonder where you guys are. I had my secretary (wife) call the one nearest me and they said $700/mo. In fact, she said she saw a guy in there doing custom orders with a heat press last week.

 

[mrmagic2713]

well i am in bklyn ny, but i may have to relocate to your town! ha-ha!

 

[Rodney]

Man, I wonder where you guys are. I had my secretary (wife) call the one nearest me and they said $700/mo. In fact, she said she saw a guy in there doing custom orders with a heat press last week.

I think the pricing is like real estate. It depends on 3 things: location, location, location.

Smaller towns will pay less monthly that big metropolitan areas like NYC.

More foot traffic/customers/eyeballs that they can deliver, the more they will
charge.

 

[photodiver]

Over the years we have done the kiosk thing, opened a retail store etc. I personal opinion is if you can get an online business going do that. My experience has been that the only people getting rich are the ones who own the property you are leasing.

Some malls here that offer kiosk space also charge you for the power you use. You have to be selling a lot of shirts just to break even. It was not worth it for us. Our sales increased at the same % as the expenses.

Needless to say we only sell online now and no longer do t-shirts.

If I had it to do over again, I would have gone to the net first and saved $70,000.00.

Hope this helps.

 

[mrmagic2713]

i think you are right photodiver! anyone in this biz who does not at least consider harneshing the vast power of the internet, is crazy in my opinion. first of all, the potential customer base on the net is 1000 times larger then even the highest traffic mall, and secondly, instead of paying insane amounts of rent per month, i think that money could much better serve you buy putting it into advertising and promotion. i recently got a quote from a magazine catering to teenaged girls of about 1400 bucks for a 1/3 page ad space. the audited circulation is about 110,000 per month (and unlike the mall this 110,000 potiental consumers ALL have simular interest!) if i pull .05 percent of that in sales, that would be about 550 shirt orders. it does not take rocket science to do the math there!

 

[rabid]

i think you are right photodiver! anyone in this biz who does not at least consider harneshing the vast power of the internet, is crazy in my opinion. first of all, the potential customer base on the net is 1000 times larger then even the highest traffic mall, and secondly, instead of paying insane amounts of rent per month, i think that money could much better serve you buy putting it into advertising and promotion.

Just playing devil's advocate here; true, the potential customer base is much higher on the 'net, but it takes MUCH longer to get a slice of that population to even see your product or know you exist. I could go to the mall tomorrow and have my product viewed by 100s more people than have seen it on the 'net to date.

i recently got a quote from a magazine catering to teenaged girls of about 1400 bucks for a 1/3 page ad space. the audited circulation is about 110,000 per month (and unlike the mall this 110,000 potiental consumers ALL have simular interest!) if i pull .05 percent of that in sales, that would be about 550 shirt orders. it does not take rocket science to do the math there!

True, but for me that's 2 months in the mall. How many people could walk by my cart in 60 days? I have no idea but I'd venture to say that the results would be damn similar. Seems a quicker way to build business. Your target needs to see your ad (chance they won't), like it enough to log on and go to your site, then find something they like and purchase it. At a retail presence it's in their face and they can see the quality and touch it and buy it right now.

Just some food for thought.

B.

 

[mrmagic2713]

thanks rabid for your insight! what i really think it comes to down to is your target market. what types of shirts you are selling, and who is most likely to buy them. for example, lets say i was selling t-shirts for motorcycle fanatics. now lets say i could get a mall space for about 3, grand a month (the going rate for a mall kiosk in new york) and then lets say i could get a space in a national motorcylcle mag for the same price, the thing to consider here is that while i will get alot of instant visibility for my motorcylcle shirts in the mall, alot of those people in the mall, are going to be soccer moms, teenagers who like hip hop or rock music, or the average working joe, who could care less for motorcycles, or motorcycle t-shirts. now if i where to go in a motorcycle magazine with my shirts, then EVERY single reader of that mag is a potential customer! so given the same number of viewers for my shirts in the mall, or in the magazine, i would think that the magazine would be a better bet. also in a typical mall enviroment, you are competing with the sneker stores, the record stores, other clothing stores, and everything else. most people i know go to the mall with a set budget, AND a set idea of what they are going to buy. so if a kid goes to the mall with 50 bucks to pick up a ps2 game, it will be very hard to get him to buy a tee-shirt instead, unless that shirt is incredibly hot! and finally you have to take into account that many busy working adults (mysef included) dont have the time , or desire to run around in crowded malls all day, waiting on lines and looking for stuff. i use netflix online to rent my movies, amazon .com to buy my books, circut city online to buy electronics, and so on. thats why i believe that if you are serious about making the maximum dollars, in the long run, and not just a few quick dollars in the short term, then you have to develope the internet side of your biz along with your mall kiosk. by the way, you say your internet sales are slow at best, what types of things are you doing to market the website?

 

[onemorechan]

Hi,

I know of a one-line humor tees franchise company - Laughingoutloud - that has kiosks selling 100 or so designs. They are located throughout Vancouver and perhaps Canada as well. Their t-shirts go for $15 for one or $25 for two. (Canadian dollars)

I think they are fairly successful since they have been around for a while and I've seen more and more of their kiosks springing up at malls.

 

[NARC72]

well i am in bklyn ny, but i may have to relocate to your town! ha-ha!

Wassup all! Great thread! This is a topic that I personally mull over & over in my own head nice to see others with the sane dilemna! I feel it's important for the customer to see/feel the product! I knoe as a t-shirt designer that's how I buy my own shirts!

So I feel that it's better to rent a space to showcase your stuff! This way you can pitch it, the customers can feel your passion for the product & the power of word of mouth, is incredible! Most of my business is repeat customers!

Another bit of advice is have your friends be your billboards! Hey for the price of a free t-shirt, all they have to do is wear the shirt & know your contact info. I make most of my sales this way.
This method really opens doors! I work at an Apparel Design Co in Manhattan & there will be Fridays, where 5 or 6 friends/co-workers will be wearing one of my designs!

I would try & get a listing of street festivals from your local borough/city hall & contact the organizers of these events in regards to vending. This is a great way to promote your business as well just by passing out flyers!

Mr. Magic & anyone else in NYC area intersted in vending space, check out this link:
http://www.themarketnyc.com

Good Luck All
Narc72

 

[sarafina]

Hi,

I know of a one-line humor tees franchise company - Laughingoutloud - that has kiosks selling 100 or so designs. They are located throughout Vancouver and perhaps Canada as well. Their t-shirts go for $15 for one or $25 for two. (Canadian dollars)

I think they are fairly successful since they have been around for a while and I've seen more and more of their kiosks springing up at malls.

I've seen there kiosk in Ontario (east cost Canada) and they are very successful. They have great shirts and I always see a ton of people nearby. The rent in that particular mall is astronomical (its one of Canadas largest) however with the amount of business they do, it makes sense.