You know I was thinking about this a while back until I talked to Mall management
on the price of having a cart, but over the weekend I saw a guy at the local
outlet mall working Mr. Fuzzie (thats what he called it). He also was "pitching"
these splat creatures...

I was curious how much he was charging so I had to ask; and he mentioned 12.00.
I was thinking to myself, "shoot, he probably has to charge that much to cover
the cost of that cart...". Plus, just around the corner you have the "ToysRUs"
outlet selling them for 4.00....

Not sure how that would work unless he is a really good pitchman...

What do you think?

My own feeling is that anything over $100/day for a spot is very risky financially. At that price you are being partners with the owner, and who needs a partner? I also think $12 for a worm is way too much.

But I've never worked a mall, so what do I know? There are folks who do this and apparently are pretty successful. I'm sure the foot traffic would be good, at least on weekends, and you'd probably be able to pull some pretty nice tips very easily. But the math has to work out, otherwise I'd forget it. SETH

Malls today are way too risky.They want like $12,000 for this month till Christmas and some aslo want part of your gross over a certim amount above the high rent.Malls aren't that busy anymore even this month before Christmas.They have priced themselves out of the rental bussiness if you ask me.

Later,Don

My threshold for a spot is around $200 a day or 25% of gross sales. I only do a percentage deal if it is a really good spot and hard to get into.

IMHO.
I think you get what you pay for, crap location will allways be cheap, but very busy high footfall locations are worth paying extra for.

Steve

I have thought about doing percentage deals. But by my math, 20% is about as high as I could afford to go without raising my present prices.

With 10% of the price going to state sales tax and Federal income tax, and another 20% going to the wholesaler, and probably another 10-15% to cover insurance, travel costs, shipping and whatnot, I can't afford to give too much of the gross away.

However, I have never actually discussed or tried a percentage deal, so it's all speculative at this point. SETH

I have spoken to the guys selling 'Mr. Fuzzy' at the mall once. They tried to demo to me and I said 'I have cases of them at home.' They were confused and asked if I sell them, and how much. The guy almost fell off his seat when I said $4. They were selling them for $15.

The packaging looks great but the type of packaging stinks for the product. When I sell them, I want kids to be walking around playing with the worm. These are plastic with heat sealed edges. I did contact Mr. Fuzzie to find out how much they cost, and you do have to sell them for $12 to make money.

As far as a percent deal, I will only do one that is 10%. I had a church wanting $10 plus 20% of your profits. If it was not a good event, I would just be burning through stock.

Sounds like Mr. Fuzzie is the only one making money in that setup. SETH