Thinking about this – the inner Briton likes nothing more than setting up a small shop selling stuff to other people. It hardly pays, you live off bank finance, and it's risky. And yet, so many aspire to doing it.

Me – I'm boring – a bookshop with tea and coffee facilities that's open in the evening, and a large selection of imported books. I'd do fast ordering and home delivery by bicycle.

So, if you were to run a single shop (i.e. not a chain), what would you sell and why?

I'd love to run either a cafe selling plenty of home baking, or a bike shop. In the right location I think the two could be combined.

Ohh, a sandwich shop with a cafe for tea and scones.
I'd sell the best sandwiches ever seen ever!

Food theme here. Speaking of which, it's lunchtime..!

I'd love to have a little cafe with literary pretensions, bookshelves and snugs. I'd sell my cakes and homemade bread sandwiches, and it would have secure bike storage and wooden floorboards painted white.

It would be bright and people would come in and talk about travel and adventure and environmentalism and literature.
Oh, oh, oh!

Let me guess Black Books is your inspiration OMITN?

Fundamentally a useless shop (like Grot in the Fall & Rise of Reggie Perrin) as I like the concept of running a shop, except for the dealing with customers and making a profit….

bunkhouse/tearoom/hostel/cake shop/surf shop/activity centre in PembrokshireNorthWalesLakesNorthumberlandSkye 🙂

clock repairs.my mate has a place he took over from his dad,i love the mellow pace of it all.

I'm another for the cafe option, also with a literary element, e.g. dedicated library/reading area. Home-made produce sourced as locally as possible. Might also have a deli area too.

Would seriously consider it if I suddenly found myself cash-rich enough to "retire."

Anne Summers or a medical lab shop.

Sports Shop.

I am not that sporty & I have never run a shop but I live in a town of about 80,000 and there isnt anywhere to buy a badminton/tennis/squich bat or things to hit …there is a (great) bike shop & lots of phone shops, banks / building societies, cafes/coffee shops but no where… you want kit or trainers, other than from next & you are knackered… how do the powers that be expect the next generation not to be obese?

samwidge shop.

a shop shop, where people can buy quaint little shops and have a chat over tea and cake

or a shop that sells hammers to NASA or the CIA

Let me guess Black Books is your inspiration OMITN?

Actually, no. Never seen it.

bunkhouse/tearoom/hostel/cake shop/surf shop/activity centre in PembrokshireNorthWalesLakesNorthumberlandSkye

Like the Dales Biking Centre? I have met Stuart, though not yet visited. Friends of mine have. They all rave about it.

Do it. In fact, given that my parents now live in Ceredigion, I might just come down and help you. What do you say?

right you are, just got to find a large farm complex near the beach but not in the national park selling for about £100k. should be easy…and we'll need to get Brechfa moved further west.

It hardly pays, you live off bank finance, and it's risky

I have a small LBS and wifey has a bakery. The above is very true but it's the only job I've stuck for more than four years and I dread the thought of ever having to change.

I'd be tempted by a small "country store" type place with horse riding, shooting, fishing and pet stuff. I could sell expensive kit to the polo set and the people with kids in the pony club, but then favour locals with a good discount for being local.

Pet food and supplies would be a good market round my way and I could seriously make a dent in the market for Pets@Home.

Lister – you're coming at it from the wrong angle. Start small and grow bigger.

Honestly, it's a truly great idea. You really should do it.

I have a small LBS and wifey has a bakery. The above is very true but it's the only job I've stuck for more than four years and I dread the thought of ever having to change.

There has to be something in this. Mrs North has always wanted to run a "cake" shop (by which I think she means cake based café). I used to put her off with my lawyer-ly "it's all a risk", but now see completely where she's coming from.

And i see where you're coming from. Good on you; both of you.

Let me guess Black Books is your inspiration OMITN

Surely you mean Barter Books in Alnwick. Positively THE best s/h book shop there is.

Does it have to be legal?

Good profits in drugs

Knocking.

Surely you mean Barter Books in Alnwick. Positively THE best s/h book shop there is.

Ooh. Will have to visit next time I'm up there.

You mean you've never been to Barter Books? You haven't lived. They seem to have taken over the old railway station, filled in the tracks, but you can still see the platform edges. The old buildings are there, quite magical. Tea and coffee on the boil and you can just sit and read all day long. No pressure to buy. And their stock list is absolutely enormous.

Just what a book shop should be like.

You haven't lived.

Evidently not.

Next rip up there (I live in Manchester), and I'll go.

And I need to pass by miketually's to inspect his hoooooge garden and shoot some rats, but that's another story for another day.

Diversify

I like shops that sell two incongruous product lines. The was one at the top of Leith Walk that used to sell 2nd Hand TVs and Darts. There was one in Cessnock that used to sell army surplus and haberdashery, and one in Tradeston called Smoke'n'Time that sold Tabacco and Clocks.

I would sell trouser presses and huge paninis

I like your thinking. I couldn't decide between a crack den and high-end lingerie. Maybe I'll combine them?

'nation of shop keepers'. The source of this is Cherry Aspley Garrad, in 'The Worst Journey in the World' unless anyone knows of an earlier place it's written.

Nice literary link there!

Or perhaps chainmail gloves and half size waxworks of TV's Tony Robinson?

Napoleon said it…he was quoting Adam Smith in 1777 ish

Apsley Cherry-Garrard, in 'The Worst Journey in the World'

And a very fine, if somewhat heavy going, read. (PS corrected his name..!)

I like the diversification – camping stoves and bow ties. 😀

half size waxworks of TV's Tony Robinson?

Half size? You're getting into quantum territory

An Oyster and Heel Bar

'nation of shop keepers'.

Always thought that originated with Napoleon Buonaparte. You know, the Frenchie who kept losing.

And a very fine, if somewhat heavy going, read.

Agreed, but easier than Scott's diaries of the same expedition.

I run a shop (for some-one else). It's not idyllic and it certainly doesn't pay. At the moment all I can think about is retraining to get out of the bloody place!
😕

a florist's

A coffeehouse with a record shop and bookshop inside.

A gallery & picture framers, or a homebrew / speciality tea & coffee shop (not a cafe, I'd sell tea leaves and coffee beans).

Newbury has a shop that sells knitting stuff and metal detectors.