Question to shop owners

[cardsbykatie]

Does anyone own a shop that sell either coffes and/or cakes, beads or handcrafted items?

I am trying to put together some idea of whether it is a viable to open up a shop in my local area. It would be a coffe and cakes shop, have a bead section and also craft sections selling my jewellery and cards, and with stands to hire by other crafters to sell their items.

If anyone could give me any info on how many items they sell in a month or any other info it would be much appreciated!

Katie

[elzi]

Can't help much I'm afraid but it does sound like a lovely shop... Mmmm!

[goldy1]

Areyou thinking like a gallery type shop with a cafe?

[cardsbykatie]

More a crafty gift shop - like the shop called Doodles that someone on here opened recently, but with a bead section and a coffee/cakes section. Also runnning workshops and parties from the premesis.

Katie

[goldy1]

google craft cafe there are a few out there to give you some ideas.

[doodles of Tadley]

Hi ya! I've just opened Doodles and we did look into to doing a coffee/cake shop alongside the arts and crafts, but couldn't get planning permission for food for our particular premises.

I have been to tea shops in places like Devon and Cornwall where they combine the two ideas really well. It would definitely give people an extra reason to visit your shop, and more people through the door means more people who will see your goods, and then possibly buy. However, legislation regarding serving food is a real minefield, there are loads of things you would have to put in place and it would make a massive amount of work for you on top of running a shop.

We definitely couldn't run on selling hand crafted goods and art alone, even with the shelf rental scheme we operate, so we've opted to do art and craft supplies. This is good as crafters like seeing hand crafted goods and are likely to buy them, while also wanting to stock up on craft supplies for their own hobbies.

good luck to you though whatever you decide, plenty of people do manage to make the food and crafts work well together, it was just more than we could have managed!