So I opened an Sweet Shop (Part 1) - Conference Pick N Mix
Just over two years ago I decided to get some Pick N Mix at my conference, our event has always been known for doing things a little different and I thought it would be interesting to see what the reaction from people would be.
They Loved It!
At this point I should probably mention that I’ve always wanted a shop, I never knew what I wanted to sell or even the first thing about running a shop but I’ve always wanted something offline that wasn’t 100% dependant on the internet.
During the course of my work in online marketing for the previous years I came to the realisation that when it came down to it, all I was doing was changing 1’s and 0’s on a server somewhere and that it didn’t really have much impact in the real world.
So I researched “Pick N Mix Hire” online and found it to be, a lot more expensive than I had assumed, sometimes you have to pay for travel and staffing, sometimes you have to pay for the sweets separately and it all seemed a bit dodgey.
“It doesn’t matter, we will just buy the boxes and scoops and do it ourselves” I said to Heather one afternoon.
DO YOU REALISE HOW EXPENSIVE THOSE THINGS ARE??
Bloody acrylic is WAY expensive and because I wanted the proper style Pick N Mix boxes with the lid and everything, I was looking about £90-£150 each! and I wanted 10 of them..
So that idea sort of went out the window until one afternoon an eBay alert of mine was set off, I have these set up for all sorts of things (LEGO WHOLESALE / JOB LOT < £50).
The alert that went off was (PICK N MIX BOXES JOB LOT WITHIN 50 MILES), it turned out a newsagents in Preston had decided not to do Pick N Mix anymore and were selling the boxes off at a vastly reduced rate.. So I bought 10.
At this point I should probably point out that I don’t drive, my girlfriend doesn’t drive and my housemate who does drive, wasn’t in the county at that point..
So I had a challenge, I had to find someone near Preston who could pick up the boxes at a time convenient to both parties, deliver them to my house at a time when someone is in and ask the person to pickup the boxes without telling them publicly what they are picking up (we like to keep #thinkvis things secret).
Luckily I have some fantastic friends in the guise of Kat & Kian who came to my rescue and delivered the boxes within a day or so…
So there we have part one of how I came to start an online sweet shop, there is still a few parts to go and I hope this provides entertaining if not informative to my fellow internet folk.