Teddy bears that transform

[BusinessGuy]

Hey guys,

I started a mall kiosk business just this past Wednesday selling teddy bears that transform into balls. They are a very high quality product. I buy the bears for about $10.43 each and I tried selling them for $29.99, but have reduced the price to $24.99 since. On Wednesday I had no sales. On Thursday I had two sales. On Friday I lowered the price to $24.99 and had one sale. On Saturday I had eight sales. On Sunday (today) I had zero sales. My rent at the mall is a total of $20,667 for Sep 23 - January 31. This means that I need to sell 11 bears per day in order to break even. I am nowhere close to that. I am at one of the highest traffic malls in the US and at a pretty good location. I basically stand there all day transforming the bear into a ball over and over. The children love it, but the parents just aren't buying. I borrowed some money from my parents to start this up and so far I've only paid through October. November, December, and January have not been paid for yet. My parents are disappointed in me and I am disappointed in myself. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I guess not. I put the bears up on EBay too, but people aren't buying. I never thought I would ever consider doing something to harm myself, but now those thoughts and feelings are creeping in my head. I come from a family that doesn't have a lot of money and I don't know what to do now. If I don't pay the rent for November and I get booted out of the mall, will I go to jail? What would happen?

[turboguy]

First off don't get discouraged. No matter what happens it's not the end of the world. I have had my share of dark days and have had times when I felt really down in the dumps but we all have faith that the things we try will work and we all have failures. Failures are one of the best things that can happen because they allow us to learn and to grow and eventually to succeed. They are tough to go through but they do make us smarter and stronger.

As we get closer to Christmas your sales may pick up. Perhaps an option might be to add a second product to your kiosk.

The only way they put people in jail for debts is for income taxes and that is pretty rare. The mall could sue you but without much to gain they may not even bother. Whatever they do you can work your way out of it and be fine. I admire your courage, resourcefulness and creativity in taking on the venture of selling the bears.

[Harold Mansfield]

I agree with TurboGuy, business is tough, sales is tough, retail is tough, malls are tough, and failure is not the end of the world...it's actually a great learning experience, but of course none of us ever realize that until later after we've recovered. At the time it's depressing as hell.
None of us hit a home run the first time at bat. Very few people do.

No one is going to put you in jail for not making rent. Just don't get desperate and start writing bad checks or start an investment ponzi scheme .

However you haven't failed yet, you're just realizing that you didn't know enough and are now against the wall. With the time you have left you need to go all out and focus solely on Christmas, and gift idea. Put some Holiday decorations up on your kiosk, signs about "Great Gift Idea", put some lights on your kiosk, wrap a gift box for display with a big red bow on it. Maybe even box a few up and sell them already wrapped. Wear a Santa hat, and change the wording on your Ebay listing to be all about the Holidays or "Gift". Maybe offer some kind of sales deal..."buy 2 get the 3rd for free" or "half off" or something like that. If you can have a little radio playing Christmas tunes and a little machine pumping out candy cane and gingerbread smells, or give out candy canes with each sale.

I'd also get some basic cards made up to pass out to lurkers who don't buy to "Find me on Ebay" for that second chance sale (or tell a friend). (Also make sure your Ebay listing is dialed in and festive) Ebay URL's suck for cards, so buy yourself a domain (that makes sense) for $12 that you can use on the cards and redirect it to your Ebay listing. Also use that for your benefit, "As seen on Ebay" in your marketing and signage on the kiosk. I would have put up a simple ecommerce website and also worked that angle in my down time, but that's just me. I put a website up for everything.


Part of mall shopping is how much can you carry. People go to malls to get specific things. Not sure how big your product is or how intrusive it is to carry, but I can easily see people thinking it may be a cute idea, but not wanting to add to the load of carrying it around right now, and thinking they'll come back. They rarely come back. Make it easy for them to buy NOW. You may want to offer delivery for an extra charge. If you're doing Ebay, you obviously are able to deliver.

EVERYONE knows a kid or a friend's kid or coworker's kid or a relative that they need to get something for this holiday. $25, already wrapped or delivered to their house? Done. No brainer.

Do you take credit cards?

The hardest part about retail right now, especially impulse products is that people can easily buy things online. They'll do it right in the store because the price is lower or it's more convenient. Take away any objections and make it easy for people to do business with you. Don't just sit there like all the other schleps waiting for the perfect customer to walk by. Get serious and knock this out of the park and be the best kiosk salesman in the mall by using ALL of the tools that you have available to you.

But more than anything, don't get depressed and give up. You have to be 100% everyday that you are out there...fun, smiles, customer service, say "Hi" to everyone that walks or looks in your general direction. Not in a creepy sales way, but just because you're genuinely saying "Hi. How are you today?". You'd be surprised how many people will stop or at least pay a few seconds more attention to what you have just because you're nice and greet them.

I used to do this when catering NASCAR and Golf events. Start saying "Hi" to people walking by early in the morning to get the ball rolling. People will see the bar, but will walk by it if they don't see other people buying drinks early in the morn. We'd just say Hi to everyone, and half would slow down long enough for us to say something like "Thinking about a Bloody Mary? We make them from scratch." Bam! Sold. Then others start asking them "Were did you get that Bloody Mary?".

Of course these are suggestions. I'm not saying to do what I say, I'm just laying out the kind of mind set and marketing opportunities you need to be taking advantage of.

The worst thing in the world isn't failure. Failure means you actually tried something. Most people NEVER do that. The worst thing is not trying or giving it 110% and later wondering if you could have been successful.

[LogansWalk]

Keep your head-up and take the advice from the posters above. Christmas is coming very soon and people will be shopping early so your sales will pick-up but as Harold Mansfield said, knock this out of the park and be the best kiosk salesman out there. Good luck with everything and keep us posted.

[Paul]

It has already been said but it is ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS especially with "toy" products!
Every retailer struggles leading up to it.

In the mean time $ 25 seems just a little expensive for a kids impulse item. Until the season starts you may want to get it down to $ 19.99 or do a 2 for something promo. It has to be an easy decision price wise for parents. Lose some margin and get as many bears in the hands of kids in the mall as possible..it will attract attention from other kids.

[Fulcrum]

Whatever you do, don't let your discouragement (or from others) get the better of you. Always have a smile on your face, be friendly, start conversations, allow parents/kids to fold the bear into a ball. Presentation, both the kiosk and yourself, is everything. Post some pictures of your setup and maybe some of our retail sales people can pitch in.

One advantage you have over many other businesses is that you can figure out your costs (like you've done) almost to the dollar before you even setup the kiosk. The best part with this is that you can almost forget about these costs and focus solely on the sales. Keep a journal and take notes of traffic, sales, weather, the people, pitches, etc. Run a daily competition against the previous day's sales.

Finally, start some advertising focusing on customers getting their Christmas shopping done early.