Mall kiosk
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A retail kiosk (also referred to as a mall kiosk or retail merchandising unit, RMU) is a store operated out of a
merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
-supplied
kiosk Historically, a kiosk () was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Iran, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist ...
of varying size and shapes, which is typically enclosed with the operator located in the center and
customers In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for m ...
approaching the vendor across a
counter Counter may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Counter machine, a subclass of register machines * Counter (digital), an electronic device, mechanical device, or computer program for counting * Loop counter, the variable that controls the iter ...
.


History

The first mall kiosk opened in Boston's
Faneuil Hall Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others ...
in 1976. As proprietors and shopping mall design space has become more sophisticated, the model of mall
income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
generation has been adapted to suit, with kiosks evolving to accommodate this transition. They are considered as part of the specialty retail industry, which is worth over 12 billion annually. Retail spending has remained strong through economic ups and downs (according to the
U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, it totaled about 3.58 trillion in 2002). Placement in
walkways In American English, walkway is a composite or umbrella term for all engineered surfaces or structures which support the use of trails. ''The New Oxford American Dictionary'' also defines a walkway as "a passage or path for walking along, esp. a ...
guarantees high foot traffic from shoppers, offering opportunities for impulse sales. Many carts are franchised, which provides more support for new
entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
s. Leases or rents are often monthly, but may range in length from a weekend to a year. The short leases allow larger retailers to test the market temporarily before committing to a location, and lower costs for new business owners.


Design and functionality

These units are best exemplified by jewelry-style cases forming a variable size
perimeter A perimeter is a closed path that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two dimensional shape or a one-dimensional length. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference. Calculating the perimeter has several pract ...
footprint, perhaps by . These units are located in
shopping malls A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
,
airports An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
, at
sporting events Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
, or inside larger stores (occasionally as "
concession stands A concession stand (American English, Canadian English), snack kiosk or snack bar (British English, Irish English) is a place where patrons can purchase snacks or food at a cinema, amusement park, zoo, aquarium, circus, fair, stadium, bea ...
"). Modern functionalities such as lighting, wireless payment, and seamless aesthetics have developed the kiosk model from a standard wooden cart into a sub-section of the mall
commercialization Commercialization or commercialisation is the process of introducing a new product or production method into commerce—making it available on the market. The term often connotes especially entry into the mass market (as opposed to entry into ear ...
model, referred to as "in-line retail". The industry term for smaller units is RMU (retail merchandising unit). These smaller units were created to avoid
lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
conflicts with existing stores that had
contractual A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
"kiosk" exclusions and local fire codes requiring greater distance between units by placing them on wheels.


Usage


Costs


Leasing

Most commonly, mall proprietors and operators of
commercial real estate Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or rental income. Commercial property includes office bu ...
make kiosks available for short-term lease to mall retailers. In the UK, leases are largely available on three-month rolling contracts, often through commercialization specialists who broker the rental lease on behalf of the landlord of the space and/or the kiosk. Alternatively, kiosks can be operated under longer leases of up to ten years. Some consider this more appropriate due to the expense of the kiosk (which often starts at 20,000 and is capable of exceeding 100,000).


Licensing

RMUs are usually supplied by the property owner and licensed rather than leased, with much looser language allowing the property owner to revoke operational rights overnight or relocate the unit within the center upon notice. Kiosks are also available under the same conditions and may even be supplied by the property owner when they have been abandoned by former tenants; occasionally these units are built specific to a property and supplied by the property owner. Rents vary by market conditions and mall traffic.
Holiday A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...
rents are generally term rents that encompass both November and December with a combined sales
breakpoint In software development, a breakpoint is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program, put in place for debugging purposes. It is also sometimes simply referred to as a pause. More generally, a breakpoint is a means of acquiring knowle ...
for the holiday term on short-term agreements or annual sales breakpoints on permanent agreements. Property owners benefit from this rent structure by capturing all rent prior to the peak sales period, yet soften the full impact of what is a very unbalanced sales window by splitting the considerable rent increases into a two-month period. It is generally possible to rent spaces for a month or even a weekend, but most
businesses Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separat ...
would not be able to turn a
profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory intere ...
in such a short period. The costs of running a kiosk vary by season (with rents ranging from 4000 and up per month during the holiday season, depending on the locations), and license agreements are short and usually renewed every month up to one year. The rent during the winter holiday season usually is the highest. Startup costs are lower because the smaller space requires less product to fill. Retailers also have the option of changing products with the season or to match trends.


Efficiency

Due to the high visibility of these units, which are most often located in the common areas of malls, these businesses can often gain a relatively high monthly sales figure after a three or four-month trial. Many other benefits exist, such as the low overhead, small
inventories Inventory (American English) or stock (British English) refers to the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying the shap ...
, and low or non-existent
CAM Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...
, tax, utility, and
marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
fees, as compared to their in-line storefront counterparts, which can often have fees equal to or in excess of the rents themselves. The primary key to success in a kiosk or RMU is low product margin. This is quite different from the traditional "keystone" (doubling) of product costs, which is normally found in an in-line store with thousands of SKUs and higher transaction totals. Due to their efficiency, these retail options serve as an opportunity for start-ups and
small businesses Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...
.


References

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External links


Mall Kiosk
Mall Kiosk Manufacturers
Mall Kiosk Business Guide
Jewelry Mall Kiosk Business Guide Kiosks Shopping mall facilities 1976 introductions Retail formats