Looking for a secondary business/revenue for shop w/ upper middle class customers

[andy_ric]

My uncle owns a shoe shop that has a decent-to-heavy stream of upper middle class customers. Whenever I visit the shop, I observe that most of his customers drive very expensive cars. Also a good bit of his customers are local celebrities, politicians, etc...

I am currently brainstorming on small or large in-store ventures that will do well for his customer base. I was thinking of going the vending machine route, but that is not quite what I wanted. I would appreciate any suggestions that will help me brainstorm.

Thanks,

[Harold Mansfield]

It would help to know what area of the country you are in. what your experience and back ground is. what interest you have, and if you have any funding.
Is this retail? Hospitality? Services? Tech? What field are you looking into?

[vangogh]

Some information about your uncle's store would also help since it could gives us more clues about who his customers are and what they might be interested in. Given what you have told us about them I'm not sure vending machine would be the right in-store business anyway. Not that the upper middle class never uses a vending machine, but it's not something you typically associated with them.

[tylerhutchinson]

I agree that vending machine is not the way to go.

I would love to learn more though about the company. Is it his brand, or does he sell other brands? Is it something he can franchise or sell to other stores to carry his lines and shoes at a cost? Is it something you can expand online, or does he have an online presence currently?

[andy_ric]

More information is needed indeed....

He has a shoe repair shop in North Carolina, he mainly repairs and shines shoes. He also repairs luggage, book bags, etc...

I have operated an online retail store for about three years (Specialty Health & Beauty Aid products). I have also recently started an online t-shirt company (college demographic).

As far as funding it will all come from myself; therefore, a larger venture would take longer for me to start. However, I am open to ideas of all monetary ranges.

[nrygiel]

Based on the clientele, could you estimate their average age range? is there any way of gathering additional information, such as how many have children/average ages? I realize this may not be feasible but if you are already operating an online retail store and t-shirts for the college demographic maybe you can look at another complimentary online business?

[Joeb50]

A lot of shoe repair places in my area (Los Angeles) also offer key duplication services, maybe that could be your first step?