Update to MiniMall

On the advice of my 5-year-old, I should not report this on my blog. But, I think you’re all honest readers — he thinks if I tell his brother made $227 today from mini-mall, someone reading this might steal the money. I am proud of them. Sales the first day were around $70, and they have one day left to sell. Start-up costs for the business, including loans and interests are around $90.

A mass of students poured into the tables, where different student businesses were set up. Many of the younger ones didn’t know a quarter from a dime — and I marveled at the patience of all the student business owners who carefully made change, explained the prices, and answered questions to the horde of students all asking questions at once. You can see a bit of it here. (It’s less than 30 seconds.) And, they calmly made change without getting flustered, as dollar bills and quarters (over $200!) were stuffed into their hands.

The first day, however, things did not look so good for the Shark Bites. Only six were sold the first day. The beach globes were the number one seller, followed by the turtles and then the slingshots. However, the slingshots are very popular. The problem with them, is that they cost about $1 to make — so they selling price, $2 is high. But 126 shark bites are sitting in my freezer. I explained to my son and his business partner, that they need to come up with a plan to purge those sharks out of my freezer.

So, the plan was to knock the price down to $.75, and to add a can of whipped cream to incite potential buyers with a squirt. We also spent a lot of time the first day explaining what a shark bite was — so, on the second day, we opened up the bags and stuck spoons in them as part of the merchandising plan. The result — 40 shark bites sold the second day.

We have one day left. The turtles are sold out. We have 6 or 7 beach globes left, 20 sling shots, and of course, around 80 shark bites. We can start fire sales tomorrow — as long as they don’t go below $.25 cents a shark, they will break just above even on the sharks.

Here’s some more pictures from the day … Chocolate-candy covered pretzels.
One business made and bagged popcorn trail mix. Funny face tennis balls. More beach globes.The set-up.Some great mom-of-the-year sewed frogs and snakes — of course she was paid!Balloon water bombs.

More:

• What is Mini Mall?
• Making Shark Bites: The Ants Came Marching In
• Benefits of Mini Mall