Often times people talk about what they’d like to do if they had a second go-round at this crazy thing called life. I’ve always said I’d try to become a stand-up comic. But something I would like to do now? Have my own retail store.
It would be a home store. Not just decor. Not simply antiques. Not only new stuff but furniture and serving trays and cushions and wooden bowls and anything and everything that I find appealing. Every time I see a pretty layout in a magazine or a photo of a piece made out of recycled materials by our pals at Second Bloom I get the itch to take on a small shop. The hours are pretty firm, not counting picking and accounting. But to have a little, older bit of real estate on a funky street seems pretty sweet to me. I’m sure it’s not all nubby fabrics and reasonable customers but it looks like something I’d like to do.
I have some retail experience in a record store, a deli/pinball arcade and a variety store. But they weren’t run by me and I’m (much) older and wiser now.
Do you have any retail experience you’d like to share to shed some realistic light on this fantasy? Bring it on!
If you included bacon in your inventory, I’d be a regular!
Ah but I’d buy bacon with the profits!
Staffing, inventory, purchasing, suppliers, shipping/receiving, accounting/books/auditing/payroll, marketing, operations, management, insurance, business continuity, and legal, so why?
Don’t we have something along what you describe called Ikea?
My sister-in-law and her family own a large furniture store in Sudbury their father established some 40+ years ago and its been a struggle to survive every time the market turns down and the country finds itself in a recession which kills off many retailers due to the cash crunch.
Oh, Allan, you brought up IKEA. That is such a sore spot for our girl…and why London doesn’t have one. She’d run for Mayor on a totally put-together-herself-with-an-Allen-key platform to bring Ikea to the Forest City!
As much as I’d rather sit on a hot poker than be in politics, if I could bring London an Ikea I’d go for it. Just for the occasional browse!