Brick And Mortar Pen Store - What Items Go Along With Pens?

[TheRealMikeDr]

My wife and I are always talking about what type of jobs we would like to get in retirement - which is about 15 years away.

 

One of the recurring themes has always been starting a little store to sell fun stuff - which has usually been knitting stuff per my wife. It got me to thinking about a Pen Store. Now - before I go much further I fully understand there are ZERO pen stores in my area for a reason. I'm not naive. But - just for fun - I decided to give it some thought. Which lead to the discussion about what items would work in conjunction with Pens - in order to make a little store at least break-even with maybe a little profit.

 

Pens (fountain, rollerball,)

Paper - FP friendly notebooks of various shapes and sizes and types of paper.

Ink

Writing accessories - padfolio's etc etc.

 

I'm thinking maybe small bags. Pen rolls and cases. Maybe pipes and tobacco.

 

What say you - what types of items would we purchase when we're visiting a pen store?

Edited April 25, 2017 by TheRealMikeDr

[AG_ORD]

Definitely neat correspondence supplies like: writing/stationary papers and envelopes, wax seals, even some antique writing box or two and blotters. Would be nice to also carry some pen repair items, (silicon grease, brass shims, ink flush, lupes etc.)

 

Best of luck....one can always dream lol!

[tgoto]

More pens, papers,inks, pen cases...you name it

 

To have a successful business, you might want to think about your specialities...vintage pens, certain brands one cannot get online too easily, handmade pen cases that you and your wife make, etc...

 

One thing that's cool about your situation is that you have 15 years.

You can also get some training and experience to build speciality too...for an example, you can become a nib meister that will attract all pen users in your area...

 

Just a thought.

 

It will be cool when you make your dream real!

[TheRealMikeDr]

More pens, papers,inks, pen cases...you name it

 

To have a successful business, you might want to think about your specialities...vintage pens, certain brands one cannot get online too easily, handmade pen cases that you and your wife make, etc...

 

One thing that's cool about your situation is that you have 15 years.

You can also get some training and experience to build speciality too...for an example, you can become a nib meister that will attract all pen users in your area...

 

Just a thought.

 

It will be cool when you make your dream real!

 

Thanks - good stuff!

 

We were thinking of a coffee bar - so people could gather and talk about pens while sipping an espresso. Make it a social place.

 

I like the idea of selling original stuff - I can make some fun items with a 3D printer. Maybe some custom wooden pen cases.

[Tasmith]

Fountain pen friendly envelopes in various greeting card sizes. It is always a pain to buy a card and then discover later that the envelope won't take fountain pen ink.

[ac12]

First you NEED to make a business plan. Including:

• What is your target market and who are your potential customers?
• How can you expand the customer base?
• What are they likely to buy in a store vs. online?
• Who are your competition? The internet is your biggest competition.
• How will you advertise?
• Finances
  • What is your expenses, and what is the burn rate each month? Then project it for several years.
    • setup: shelves and counters, carpentry, cash register, credit card setup, signs.
    • ongoing: store rental, insurance, inventory loan, utilities, advertising, credit card fees, alarm service, etc, etc.
  • How much revenue will you bring in; pessimistic, most likely and optimistic. And be REAL here, no pie in the sky dreaming.
  • How long will it take you to break even? How much longer to make up the losses from the beginning years?
  • Do you have the finances to get you through?
  • Look into a small business loan for seed money. But you got to pay it back, so add that to your expenses.

Here are some inventory ideas.

• pens (fountain, gel, roller ball, ball pen)
  • You need to cover the range from cheap/beginner pens (less than $40) to mid level pens (less than $125)
  • I would stay away from the more expensive pens ($125+), but who knows, it may sell well as gifts.
  • You want RELIABLE pens that will not result in returns. IOW forget Noodler's pens.
• ink/refills. Although most of the gel and roller balls that I see are disposable.
  • You should carry the ink/refill for all the pens you carry. Although I have seen some stores that made the decision to carry the pen, such as a roller ball, but not the matching refills.
  • For fountain pens, you need the matching cartridge ink for the fountain pens you carry. For this reason you may want to limit the number of brands of fountain pens you carry by their cartridge type, international giving you the most flexibility. Most people will want cartridge ink. The artists and pen people may/would go for bottle ink.
  • For bottle ink, you need at least the standard inks; Parker and/or Sheaffer for the basic blue, black and blue-black. Maybe also Waterman and/or Pelikan. I would not sell Noodler's ink as "standard ink."
  • For bottle ink, a real ink sample on paper has more effect than looking at the color on a computer monitor.
• pencils (traditional wood and mechanical)
• pencil sharpeners
• calligraphy supplies; pens, dip pen holders, dip pen nibs, ink, books, etc.
• rulers, T-squares, triangles
• drawing boards
• other stationary supplies
• paper
  • You could make half and quarter reams. So a person does not have to buy a whole ream of paper. Of course you have to add a markup for breaking down a ream. So a half ream might be 70 to 75% the cost of a whole ream, and a quarater ream might be 50% the cost of of a whole ream. If you do this, you need to have to have a FAST way to break down the ream, NOT COUNTING each sheet of paper (too slow).

• COLORING BOOKS (seems to be a new fad)
  • coloring books (though if you are close to a Barns & Nobel, they will under cut you)
  • colored markers/pencils
• Stickers and washi tape

The problem is, much of that stuff can be bought on-line, and you are also competing against the big box stores (Staples and Office Depot).

The local Hallmark store used to have a section for nice stationary (paper and matching envelopes), and that has disappeared. All the wedding and similar stationary has gone on-line via a computer in the store.

 

One problem you will face is some distributors may want you to commit to stocking $X of their inventory and/or buying $Y per month. And that number may be rather high for a small shop.

 

Is there a local school that you can link up with their art teacher, to carry basic art supplies for them? Maybe give the students a 5 or 10% student discount.

 

Maybe connect with the local recreation center or adult education group to do a writing/penmanship class. Then give your students a 5-10% student discount.

 

To reduce your cost, you could make the above discount "cash only." But the agreement with the credit card company may not allow cash only discount.

 

gud luk

[ac12]

 

Thanks - good stuff!

 

We were thinking of a coffee bar - so people could gather and talk about pens while sipping an espresso. Make it a social place.

 

I like the idea of selling original stuff - I can make some fun items with a 3D printer. Maybe some custom wooden pen cases.

 

Coffee bar is a good idea,

• You get into health department rules and regs.
• The commercial coffee gear is EXPENSIVE. And you have to plumb water and drainage which can be expensive, and cutting the concrete floor may require approval from the landlord.
• You need to have space for the tables. Table space vs inventory space is a difficult balance.
• Depending on where the shop is located, the climate might work for outside/sidwalk tables (though might be restricted by business zoning laws)
• Will you have free WiFi ? More expense. And you NEED to keep it totally separate from your business internet connection (for security).
• You do NOT want to be anywhere near a Starbucks, too much competition.

 

What you do NOT want is, for someone to come in sit down, plug in their computer, connect to your WiFi, and occupy the table for half a day, and not buy anything. I've seen it at my local Barns and Noble. I've even seen where people will bring their own extension cord, to reach a distant power outlet, where there isn't an outlet near the tables, and that becomes a tripping/injury hazard to the customers.

Edited April 24, 2017 by ac12

[Maurizio]

Keep the dream alive

Good advice and suggestions above.

 

My 2 cents:

A selection of nice stationary such as Crane's, Royal Crown Mill, - other? in correspondence card sizes.

 

A small well-chosen selection of books about corresponding and handwriting improvement such as:

 

The Art of the Handwritten Note by Margaret Shepard

Business Notes by Florence Isaacs

 

And books on handwriting repair and cursive italic. I will post again with some specific titles.

 

Some well-chosen calligraphy supplies such as the Pilot Parallel Pen & some calligraphy books, not a full-blown art store type thing, but enough selection to make browsing fun and get people interested in the manual writing arts.

 

Ink wells, desk accessories.

Start attending the annual stationary supplier vendor conference held every year somewhere in the US.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Maurizio

[Mech-for-i]

OK let me retold my two story regarding ; one with stores and one with pens, one happen quite some years ago and the other just a couple of days earlier. The latter one first. I was on the hunt for a refill for my pen, not something special, just a Parker G2 type refill but I want a Gel ink refill. this is again nothing special, many brand use the old Jotter refill as a standard and there are many reputable brand doing all kind of refill for that. But after visiting 9 different stationary supply including very big names and supposing to be carrying all the big name stuffs. I end up with only an offer for a genuine Parker BP refill which I do not want and at a price that's kind of ridicule ( it was almost half the price of a new Jotter ). And none of the young staff these days even understand when I ask for a G2 refill, I had to guide them what it is. End up I had to goto the local Gift Store, those that sell greeting cards, girly stuff, and cute stuff animals .. you know the kind .. well guess what, the not too young attendant there certainly have no idea what I was talking about when mentioned G2 but she do know where her store's Pen selection and supply are and eagerly direct me to the area and politely ask me to just had a go checking up all the stuff and lo ho there's a set of brand new Gel refill in G2 sized there and at a price much more reasonable .... you can guess who got my money

 

The old story, is about the time when I co-own run my own hobby supply store ( no longer around ) , over time I got a bunch of regulars and they would come in to chat, look around but mostly I noted that they would come in asking for help with regard to info and reference they simply cannot find elsewhere. Not being smug but I was then known locally as the guy to goto when dealing with historical references when we deal with these hobby ( military scale modelling ) and I had a stash of very difficult or even unable to find reference material. I was even approached and asked to write articles on the hobby quite a few times and actually do get some published.

 

What's the motto of both, well, if you want to run your own hobby related store, you need to made yourself a living knowledge base of the matter as you will be expected to be able to answer questions whether they apply or not, whether they concern simple matters like if certain refill will match certain pen model or difficult one like where to find parts for some odd job need. And ultimately its your customer that dictate the stock but its you the store operator that need to direct where the business goes. Sometime you do need to figure if certain goods still would be needed even if they are not at all sounding popular or important or if some that sound so just do not match your store's clientèle

Edited April 24, 2017 by Mech-for-i

[zaddick]

Here is a whole store full of ideas. I am not affiliated, but do like to pop in once in a while.

 

https://www.castleintheair.biz/

[ac12]

Mech-for-i gave the example for what I referenced. A store may decide to NOT carry the refill for a certain pen, because almost no one comes in looking for refills. People are used to disposable pens, and just throw the pen away and buy a new pen. When they can buy a pack of 12 Pilot G2s for $15, why bother with refills. This becomes a business decision. Put $ into inventory that won't sell, or put $ into inventory that will sell.

 

Now the refill for a $25+ pen makes sense to carry. People generally won't be throwing those pens away.

 

You will make inventory mistakes, and in the first year you will find out what does not sell. Then you have to discount them (at a loss), to get some of your money back, to put into inventory that will sell. This also has to be in your business plan.

Edited April 24, 2017 by ac12

[Moonshae]

I used to make jewelry for a hobby, and really enjoyed it; I'd spend hours each day working on whatever project I had going. I got laid off from my job, and through my jewelry connections found a designer who was looking for an employee. I went to work for her, and quickly found that creating one-off items was fun, but churning out 25 or 50 copies of the same couple dozen things was not fun at all, and I didn't have to deal with the business side of things. I haven't made jewelry since.

 

My point is, you have to more than enjoy your hobby if you're going to turn it into a business. It has to be your passion in order to get you through the struggles, and you may still fail. Depending on how much of your retirement savings you tie up in the business, would you accept having to go back to work if the business didn't succeed? It sounds like you're looking forward to retirement...this will be more work than fun in a niche market that may be shrinking.

 

That said, it can be fun to dream, and dreaming costs nothing...but if it moves toward reality, do your homework and take some business courses.

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi RealMikeDr.,

 

You may want to call it the Old Geezer Supply Co. and sell all kinds of retro items. Such as retro candy and soda pop in bottles, Pinaud after shave lotions, fedora and straw hats, railroad themed items, classic car themed items, '40s/'50s/'60s themed clothing items, industrial revolution themed art prints, etc. Kind of tap into a combination retro/steampunk theme.

 

Start out with a small, manageable multi-layered inventory, (to attract as many varied - but centrally themed interests - as possible and work up from there).

 

Best of luck.

 

- Anthony

Edited April 24, 2017 by ParkerDuofold

[BillH]

"Old Geezer Supply Co. :D"

 

The kids call those "Antique Malls"...

 

Seriously though, every time I see someone on the threads suggest "find a B&M and try out the nibs", I finish the sentence in my head "then go buy it online". There is a reason for the tremendous losses of even big name retailers the past couple years which I believe will only get worse. And in our own hobby, there is a reason Pen Paradise is gone, and MB boutiques are rare. Someone has already mentioned how difficult competing with Bezos is, much less eBay, Goulet, et al. Used to be a good business model to become a retailer to wealthy folks... I think that strategy needs rethinking these days.

 

Plan B: begin now amassing all the fine, LE, and SE pens you can now. Retire. Make the pen show circuit.

 

Plan C: learn to flyfish, buy an RV, Google the locations of all the knitting, sewing, and quilting shops in close proximity to first class fly fishing spots

[corgicoupe]

My local B&M pen store owner told me that his biggest competitor is Amazon. His father started the office supply business in 1964. I think that part of the business is online, but the pen store remains B&M.

 

You might consider contacting B&M stores and asking what not to do. They might be more willing to tell you that than to tell you how to be successful if you might be competition.

[Moonshae]

My local B&M pen store owner told me that his biggest competitor is Amazon. His father started the office supply business in 1964. I think that part of the business is online, but the pen store remains B&M.

 

You might consider contacting B&M stores and asking what not to do. They might be more willing to tell you that than to tell you how to be successful if you might be competition.

This is good advice. Also, seeking out people who own businesses in other niche markets in which you won't be competing will also free some tongues.

[inkstainedruth]

My grandmother was very craft-sy. She did all sorts of stuff, knitting, making dollhouse furniture, etc. At one point she started making apple-headed dolls (my mother had the first set, and I'm sorry now that I didn't take them when my parents were downsizing). Mom told me that my grandmother had even considered making them to sell at crafts fairs and such, to the point of talking to someone at the Small Business Administration. And that person told her that if she couldn't sell them for enough money to pay herself minimum wage, it wasn't worth her even trying....

My husband started a sideline business. It's not a brick and mortar store; we were only doing one or maybe two shows a year. It was a LOT of work, and IMO not worth the effort for the small amount of profit we were making (and at a couple of events, including the one we did last summer -- which we were specifically asked to do, because the organization's Board of Directors asked our friend, one of the organizers -- if we'd be there, we did NOT make money; in fact, I'm not sure but what we lost money... . After the show we did last month (our 11th year doing that specific event), I told my husband "This is not MY midlife crisis -- I'm not doing this any more...." Maybe if we had started this in our 20s or 30s. But now? We're both in our late 50s. I don't have the stamina any more. He has a bad knee. At last year's event there were tornado warnings (including a confirmed tornado about 5 miles south), and this spring the lows one night was below freezing. One day at the show last summer I didn't go over to the site at all -- I spent half the day sleeping in because the heat and humidity had gotten to me (and because he was at the site, I couldn't even have gone anyplace had I wanted to because he had the van...).

Sorry for being such a downer. But running a business is really hard work -- it sounds lovely on paper until you start crunching numbers, and dealing with taxing authorities and inspectors and making sure you can afford to pay the utility bills. And we were *food* vendors; you're talking about a niche business (I think my cousin had the same sort of idea for when he retired, only in his case it was model trains).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ac12]

Ruth

I used to work for a small train shop.

Our cost for a train set was more than what Toys-R-Us was selling it for.

A small shop just cannot compete on price.

 

I heard the same from a small camera shop, who has since shut down. He can and did buy photo stuff, to sell in the store, cheaper from a major on-line competitor, than from his distributor.

 

I heard a comment from someone that went into a local store. He got to see and handle the item, then asked them to match internet price. When they said they could not, he walked out. Probably to order it from the internet store. So the local store did the demo and sales for their online competition.

[ManofKent]

I seriously looked into opening a secondhand bookshop a few years back (something I'd always fancied doing) and quickly realised that the costs of running your own business vs the potential income made it just a dream. It's a lovely idea but there's a good reason why small independent shops are vanishing.

 

Realistically you can't rely just on footfall, you'd have to sell through the internet targeting enthusiasts as well as having the bricks and mortar presence. People will still pay a small premium for excellent service/knowledge but you're prices have to be within the same ball park of the big boys, and that's very hard.

 

You need repeat customers - it's small profit on the ink, paper etc. that would keep it going rather than the sale of a single pen.

 

A cafe/coffeehouse alongside your sales could help provide that regular small profit, or consider a secondary niche market alongside pens - traditional shaving equipment? Think about what type of things someone who is interested in pens might also be tempted to try.

[TennesseeTrash]

Calligraphy supplies and hosting some sort of calligraphy training night may be a way to get some customers. In Tennessee there are some statutes in place allowing you to serve wine at art events without the normal liquor license hassle.

 

Additionally, you can get in contact with the art department at local schools or universities and see if you can do a calligraphy demonstration. I'm confident you'd rope in a few girls who want that kind of thing for their birthday or Christmas.

 

Expanding into some of these higher end art supplies like copic markers might also help, but you're competing with amazon.com which has 2 day shipping. What you can offer over them is the ability to try some of this stuff out beforehand, but that's not cheap and you still have people who come in, waste your time all day, and then buy from amazon.

 

You may have more fun and less headache by selling a few pens on ebay and traveling the country selling at pen shows instead of going the store route.