Chocoholics unite: The long-awaited opening of Bethesda Chocolates is finally here. They will open today, and be open all this week, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, shorter than the hours printed on the door. Bethesda Chocolates is located at 8003 Woodmont Avenue.
I was just thinking how they were missing out on the holiday sales. Glad to see they have finally opened.
ReplyDeleteThey'll be closed again soon and for good.
ReplyDeleteThey'll be closed again soon and for good.
ReplyDeleteStay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.
ReplyDeleteHow bout realistic people? This store cannot, will not survive. The only saving grace is that the owner of the shop is also the owner of the building. When the store fails, she'll make millions on the sale of the land. Not sorry for her at all. She's smart. I'll try the store but you can't serve that much candy and hot chocolate to make it worthwhile
DeleteMust be some wealthy person's pet project for "fun" money.
ReplyDeleteI will never understand retail stores that are only open when the rest of us are at work.
ReplyDeleteNo need to be nasty about it. You can be realistic without being a douche.
ReplyDeleteReality:
The majority of businesses fail, with some type of "incompetence" the main reason.
Not being nasty at all by asking about realistic people. Businesses fail for all kinds of reasons. This one won't survive but I don't yet know why. I can predict things like, it's the wrong location, unwanted concept, outrageous price. Whatever it is, it's no cause for a pity party. They own the building which is no small financial feat. They are gonna make millions but it won't be from chocolates.
DeleteThe reason they won't do well is it's not an everyday purchase, and the average purchase probably isn't that high, and margins aren't great.
ReplyDeleteFirst, how often do you say: "Hey, let's go to a chocolate store to buy some chocolates"? Not very often -- there are decent substitutes both in terms of other types of desserts and also of slightly inferior chocolate available at a place you already visit -- your grocery store.
Next, even when you do go, you're unlikely to spend $100 on chocolates. $20, maybe. So they need to sell a bunch of it just to cover their variable costs like labor, and remember we're in the county where they want to raise minimum wage to $15/hour.
Then there's margins. Good chocolates require good ingredients, so on a $10 sale, their raw goods costs are probably $3-4 at least.
Where they can make some money is on selling beverages like coffee, since the margins on that are phenomenal. But.. to make that work, you need to do high volume since a coffee costs $3-4, so you need to sell a lot per hour.
One way they could possibly make this work is to offer some brand of coffee that may be rare in Bethesda, like Illy or Lavazza. I know people who seek out those brands.
The no rent will be a big help, but it's still going to be a struggle.
(My specialty is advising entrepreneurs so that's why I know a tiny bit about this.)
Could not agree more and it was said better than I did. Another thought you may agree with is about the concept itself. Meaning, what research was done to try and determine if this idea filled in a gap and did that research determine that this area would be ripe for an upscale chocolate shop? You can't just open a place because you want to and expect it to do well without doing your homework. What's more, that entire area will be blown up soon and more in the future. How does impending major construction affect a new business? What if that open lot gets jackhammered? There's little parking for your customers. A downtown Bethesda reality in general but needs to be taken into account. This may indeed be just a pet project as the owner is clearly financially stable from other sources.
ReplyDeleteFor heaven's sake.
ReplyDeleteSaying a place will be closed again and for good, just as it opens, is mean-spirited.
And warrants my post at 6:42.
You are assuming that the business was opened to be profitable.
ReplyDeleteI offer it wasn't. If it makes money, great. If not, someone got a chance to do what they wanted to do. Which, just likely, was the point to begin with.
So what products are they offering? Hopefully Nestle's Crunch. That's always been my favorite.
ReplyDeleteMeamwhile, Melania Trump is in MoCo Machine Circuit Court, denying allegations that she's a ho.
ReplyDeleteShe isn't. It's all a lie and she'll win that case mark my words.
DeleteRobert, did you try any of the chocolate? I am looking forward to trying some, but I don't think I will even remember it is there.
ReplyDelete