[NewStart2012]

Hi everyone,

Please could we ask you for some advice, based on your knowledge and experience of living in Cyprus.

We are a family, 2 adults and 3 children (6, 4 and 9 months). My partner is from a Greek/Cypriot family and we came to visit in Feb of this year.

While we were there we couldn't get over the price of everyday items...especially for our littlest one! Anyways, to cut a long story short (!) we are both in love with Cyprus, my partner obviously as that is where his family is from and I have visited a few times and always just felt like it was 'home', and we would love to move over to the Protaras/Kapparis area to open up a shop that focuses on toiletries, everyday household goods (bin bags, foil, clingfilm, energy lightbulbs, kitchen utensils etc). Along with this we would like to stock a large range of baby goods, from toiletries to nappies, to baby food, wipes etc, as well as rattles, bottles etc.

We would not be selling many general food items as from what we saw there were quite a few discount stores that were based on this. We have researched all the items that we would like to sell and we believe that we could sell the vast majority at very reasonable prices...most 2 euros or under.

As people who live in Cyprus, please could you give us your opinion on whether or not you think this would be a viable venture? Is it something that you could make use of and would help you?? :confused2:

Our thoughts and aim is to make everyday living in Cyprus a bit cheaper for tourists and locals alike.

Obviously as we have a family, we want to make sure that we are doing the right thing as it is a big step for them as well.

Any thoughts on this would be welcomed with open arms.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Kate

 

[NewStart2012]

There are several shops like that in the Paphos area and they are quite popular with Expats and locals alike.
I would recommend that you make sure that there are not already several such shops in the area you have in mind or you might struggle to make it work.

Thank you for your quick reply, while we were there we were aware of 3 maybe 4 shops in about a 12 mile radius of Protaras, however these were selling mainly food items. We did spot a couple of 'Pound Shop' style shops in Dherynia - but thought that this would be far enough away not to affect our business - and vice versa.

If anyone lives in the Protaras/Kapparis areas please could you advise if there a quite a few of these style shops in the local vicinity or if there's a bit of traveling required to get to the nearest one?

Many Thanks again!

Kate

 

[NewStart2012]

I sincerely hope that your choice of words was unfortunate and you are not planning to open a business just based on items you would like to sell.

You are opening a business in ultra challenging times and need to ensure that there is a viable demand for your products and that you can market your business in order to reach your potential customers.

It is irrelevant whether you like your products. I have seen too many businesses fail because the owners were obsessed with how good they thought their product was rather than concentrating on how they were going to close sales.

I'm sorry if this seems harsh but no sales = no business, no food on the table and a lot of product that you'd still like to sell.

Pete

Thank you Pete for your answer, like I said, any feedback is welcomed and we of course would rather hear the truth than just what we 'want' to hear!

I think I used the wrong phrase when I said what we'd 'like' to sell. What I meant to say is we have researched items that we believe would be useful to homeowners and people on self catering holidays whilst there?
Mainly household items, like bin liners, foil/clingfilm, toiletries, baby items, hand tools - things like that. Like I said previously - we wouldn't be doing a lot of food items, as there seems to be a few discount stores that focus on groceries.

In your honest opinion, would you say that the items I have mentioned above would be things that people like yourselves would say are lacking in demand at decent prices in the Protaras/Kapparis area?

We are considering different loyalty schemes to encourage our potential customers to return and we are also looking at different ways of reaching potential customers who may have difficulty in getting to the shop (through having no transport, young kids etc).

Our main aim is to try and reduce the cost of everyday items for people living and staying in Cyprus.

As before - any input would be greatly appreciated! Many Thanks for your time

 

[NewStart2012]

I'm glad to hear that you've done some relevant research. As I live on the other side of Cyprus I could not comment on the need in your area. The are lots of shops selling those sort of goods with a maximum €2/€2.50 price tag in Paphos but they sell a wide range of other goods. I think you would need to have a large range of goods to attract people into the shop and to build a reputation for specialisation. For example one of the busiest shops here is known for cosmetics and toiletries. I can't see items like bin liners being attractors, after all they're not personal, you can't save much money on them and you don't buy that many of them.

By the way I'll also take issue with your main aim. Reducing the cost of everyday items is your mission statement, one of the more pointless and idiotic things companies seem to have to state nowadays. Your main aim, like all other businesses is to make enough profit, at least to live on.

Pete

Dear Pete,

Thank you again for your reply - from what we have researched so far we would be able to make enough profit to live off of. We aren't looking to make a fortune. Just being in Cyprus and our children living that lifestyle is enough for us. From our calculations we would have enough to rent a place to live and pay the bills etc. That is taking into consideration the VAT and the shipping costs on all items.
As for having attractors to the shop...I completely agree again. No-one is going to get excited over bin liners or foil! We do have various ideas on what these attractors could be. Not wanting to say too much for everyone to see haha.
I understand where you are coming from though and really appreciate the points you have raised. It has given us food for thought.
Many Thanks again.
Kate