How small Independent retails making profit

jamesy81

Hi,
I have been working in Dublin city centre for last few months and have noticed how many independent stores in the City centre get so few customers through the doors.For example the gifts stores in Ilac Centre, and the stores around Mary Street selling eveything and anything.Im fully aware retail is a difficult industry. But assume these stores have sales of 200kpa with a 60% margin. Expenses 1 p.t staff 10k, rent +rates 40k,Vat 20k. That leaves 50k to pay for the numerous other expenses before any profit is made. Am I grossly underestimating turnover of these types of stores? Or overestimating costs? It just doesn't add up to me, can anybody shed any light

porsche boy

cant comment on the specifics of small businesses like you mentioned but I can say that if I could have my own business that turned enough profit to match my cutrent wage I'd be all over that.

porsche boy

cant comment on the specifics of small businesses like you mentioned but I can say that if I could have my own business that turned enough profit to match my cutrent wage I'd be all over that.

Mick Murdock

200k sounds very low to me for a shop in the city centre. I don't know the shops you are referring to but often the owner will be making a living wage from it if they're lucky and little else.

delahuntv

one word CHRISTMAS.

A store I had in a prominent centre a few years ago would take in about 40-50k a month, but it took in 600k - 700k in the 7 weeks up to Dec 24th.

Also, during the week, you may take in 200, 300, 400 a day, but on Saturday / Sunday the store doing those midweek figures could take in 2k+ on both days.

jimmii

I own one of those stores we are a little more off the beaten track than that but I think you would be surprised at their turnover especially the iliac shops even moreso now with tkmaxx and dealz opening. Having said that I often wonder how they survive as we have a few things that really set us apart I'm not sure how they are able to survive but some how they do! In our first 6 months having a shop no one shopped in was by far the most depressing thing I had ever done so doubt they would be doing it if it wasn't working!!

The whole it being about the weekend seems to have disappeared talking with older retailers it used to be the case that you could almost take Monday to Friday off and then just rake it in over the weekend but that doesn't happen any more.

makeandcreate

jimmii wrote: »

I own one of those stores we are a little more off the beaten track than that but I think you would be surprised at their turnover especially the iliac shops even moreso now with tkmaxx and dealz opening. Having said that I often wonder how they survive as we have a few things that really set us apart I'm not sure how they are able to survive but some how they do! In our first 6 months having a shop no one shopped in was by far the most depressing thing I had ever done so doubt they would be doing it if it wasn't working!!

The whole it being about the weekend seems to have disappeared talking with older retailers it used to be the case that you could almost take Monday to Friday off and then just rake it in over the weekend but that doesn't happen any more.

I think that's partly due to us all having so much more to do with our weekends than years ago. When I was a kid (oh so long ago!) Saturday was the day to go to town - man, woman and child and do all the non food type shopping we might need.
Now I find it easier to find what I want online and then run in to pick up things while the kids are at school or in the evening. But any shop worth its salt has me hooked as soon as I walk in and I end up with more than I went in for :rolleyes:
There are a couple of shops here that I see selling all kinds of everything with little difference to Dealz - just higher prices & wonder how they survive and there are more and more generic home style shops opened by interior designers that seem to get a Heaven Sends and a Leonardo delivery every 6 months - how many more variations on a cream lantern/birdcage can there be?
Great to hear your shop is still going strong.
To the OP - I'm often up at Toughers Business Park and there's a homestyle shop there, often seems quiet to me but the girl is doing really well - selling out of things and having things on pre order for occasional furniture pieces. She reckons Facebook is a huge traffic driver for her - so she has less bodies through the door but still great sales.

jimmii

Yeh the junk some shops seem to be able to pump out astounds me one of the things customers always tell us is how annoying it is to only be able to buy stuff in beige! One of the things we do is help them change that!!

Online definitely seems to be a weekend thing people seem to do these days over half our online sales comes on Saturday & Sunday.