How would one go about getting a kiosk in the mall? Also how much generally would it cost? And any other vital information would be great.. thanks

Just contact mall management and they'll give you any info you need. The cost will depend on the mall. Last year we looked at getting a little push cart in a mall a couple hours south of us. They wanted $1500/month for January through October. November and December went up to $8000/month plus a % if we sold over a certain dollar amount. We declined their outrageous offer.

How does rent go from $1500 to $8000, that is outrageous.

As someone who has been in a mall for years, that is exactly how it goes. In fact, it can be worse. For one thing, you can't get just November or just December. You take them both, or do without. And that is exactly how they put it to you.

I paid $ 9,750 per month for Nov & Dec last year. Here's the figures for those 2 months - Sales $ 84296.64 Cost of Sales $ 28,820.10 Gross Profit $ 51,427.82 at 64%.

Yoy tell me - did I get a good return on my $ 19,500 rent? No utilities, no heat, no trash, no nothing, except a $ 60 a month phone line, mainly for running credit cards.

Like everything, you get what you pay for.

Of course, you do need a unique productr that will sell. If you're selling ho-hum stuff that they can by at Wal-Mart and the grocery store, forget it.

Quick question, What are you selling, sdsusanne?

During Christmas I has 3 carts. One selling Perfect Petzzz (http://www,perfectpetzzz.com) One selling Mist Fountains, fragrance oils and electric candle warmers (http://www.pleasant-living-gifts.com) and one selling knick knacks, figurines, incense, oils, oil burners and other fragrance kind of stuff.

I guess it is not as bad a deal as it sounds if you have stuff that people want.

You have to remember... at that time of the year, the mall brings huge numbers of people. You must pay to get that captive audience.

Simply the price of the kiosks tells me that most merchandise sold at these kiosks during November and December is going to be fairly high gross profit merchandise. Probably most is at about 60 percent, but some as high as 75 percent or more.

If nobody made money at it, nobody would be doing it!

If I can't "triple up" I don't want it! There are days this time of year when things are really slow, but many of the slow days end up with an 80% gross profit, which sort of eases the sting.

I'll always end the month in the 70% range for gross profit.

I have a real problem with the malls pricing. They don't do anything differently during November and December than they do the other ten months of the year. Yet, they jack up the rent for those two months. Why should they when I don't jack up my prices during those months. Then if I sell too much they take a % of that. As the saying goes...there is no f in way!

Another thing to keep in mind is that not everybody in retail has the kind of markup that Pete has. Pete, good job on finding those items.

If you can make it work all the power to you. It's just not for me personally. Free enterprise...they're free to charge whatever they want and I'm free not to pay it.