Plinky asked, “If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell? Food? Clothing? Books?”
Books and needlework items! My former partner and I used to dream about opening a combination book/stitching/gaming/coffee shop.
Of course, independent bookstores are nearly dead, and even Borders is dead now thanks to Amazon.
Little needlework shops have almost totally disappeared because they can’t compete with the prices Michael’s and Joann Crafts can offer, or provide the same range of products that internet shops can provide.
I’d need a partner to run the gaming side, and I doubt there’s a whole lot of profit for that. The one gaming shop I ever visited regularly was The WarRoom in Norcross, and it is long gone. The people who ran that place certainly seemed to know what they were doing.
Coffee shops have to compete with Starbucks, but that part was less for itself than as an adjunct to the rest. They only seem to have any hope of success if they have some kind of special draw, like live music (which I love anyway)
We talked about combining our passions knowing that any one of those things wouldn’t stand alone, and thinking that perhaps they could make it in combination.
We knew it was a dream, though – just a dream, nothing more. It would take a lot of capital to even start such a thing, much less keep it going. Then there was the little matter of me being 1) disabled, and not up to working even a part-time job, much less putting in the hours it takes to make a go of a small business; and 2) an introvert who doesn’t deal with a lot of people well.
It’s good to have dreams, though.
