With the first Self Mart store open and operationally for one week we are being proved that the business concept works and I can’t wait to get the ball rolling on the other stores!
Opening the shop is a first for me and it was another first that I allowed the store to open in my absence, all of my staff were happy about this as it enabled them to cover up any f&^* ups that were made!
With a planned opening date of Monday 11 June, it was decided to do a test run for a couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon, as the store was ready to go, the all new singing and dancing till systems worked and people came in through the doors for the two hours that were open and spent their money!
The doors were then closed to get the store ready for the official opening on Monday morning!
Monday the doors were opened to the eagerly awaiting public and it proved to be a nice steady day, the store is taking the kind of money that I was expecting, and that is just with only half of the retail sales space maximised, we have room in the store for at least 50% more stock.
We have the right amount of footfall coming into the store what we need to work on is the number of customers that are leaving with a purchase, at the moment we have approximately 1 in 10 people leaving the store with a purchase and once we get a larger range of stock we can improve these figures to 4 in 10, making profits phenomenal, proving that the concept works and making us different from all the other stores in the centre!
I am very pleased so far and with more customers coming in through the door than there is spending this is something that we can work on, I don’t have to drag them in!