New Colchester family baby and child social shopping store

Before you read on, please note we have had a really brilliant and enthusiastic response to our offer and we are set to fill all available spaces soon...

It is proposed that a Family/Baby/Child Centre will open in Colchester in late 2008/2009, just off a major arterial road into Colchester town centre. We are looking for a select number of like-minded businesses to join us on site. There is free parking on site for a number of vehicles and plentiful overflow paid car parking close by.

 

The centre will cater for the needs of families with babies and children, carers, grandparents, parents-to-be etc in a social shopping/experience environment and as such, only such businesses will be invited to participate.

 

It is important to consider that the businesses participating in the centre will compliment each other and that as such there is likely to be automatic mutual custom by attraction.

 

FACILITIES

1. Classroom space will be available on a shared hire basis @ 2 hourly intervals, so that 20 standard hire sessions will be available per week/4 sessions a day.  Weekends can also be catered for, in addition.  For example, you may wish to operate your business every Wednesday morning, so should hire the 2 sessions available to give you the 1/2 day, or wish to take more than one session per week.  This will be ideally suited to businesses that offer services such as baby massage, baby signing, ante-natal related, children's music, children's parties and so on...  

 

2. Retail business space is extremely expensive to come by in Colchester and the costs 'to stand still' / before you even open your doors can give you a sizeable headache.  The Internet is undoubtedly a popular way to shop and you may have a website, but people still like to see, feel and experience what they are buying.  We know this first hand, as we ran a physical shop alongside the website until recently when our landlord decided to redevelop.  We aim to tackle the issues 'head on' because we feel the products and services available from smaller unique businesses remain highly important to consumers and to the UK economy.  It will be our aim to achieve the most competitive pricing structure possible. Our own business will be present in the centre and will honour exclusivity agreements with other occupiers.  For example if your whole business is about selling nappy cakes or organic skin care products or cloth nappies etc, we will not sell such items within our retail space.  You can take a look at us at www.shopatchild.co.uk where a lot (but not all) of our product lines feature.

 

The retail spaces will be available on competitively priced, inclusive of lighting and rates, 'easy in, easy out' license terms; thus security of tenure will not exist. 

 

Retail space will be available on a full unserviced space basis for businesses that need a reasonable square footage, or on smaller 'unserviced stall/display' - or finally on smaller 'serviced stall/display' basis.  'Serviced' means we will take care of your sales for you, so you do not have to physically 'man' your setting at all times; this will also allow you the ability to accept payments by credit and debit cards as well as cash. We will allow only '2 of each' to be present in the centre and '1 of each' for certain activities and a waiting list will be in place. All must agree to open the business during the centre opening times.

 

Additional storage space is available on the same easy in, easy out terms, available for retailers or classroom users that have an additional storage requirement.  

 

Occupants may include, however are not limited to the following:

A mixture of retailers will be welcome, offering products that will be of interest to parents, carers, grandparents etc of babies and children.  For example maternity clothing, toys, gifts, books, nursery items, shoe shop, clothing** etc.  **We extensively retail clothing, particularly special occasion wear and this will continue, however brand exclusivity does allow for wider ranges to be offered.  If you wish to retail an own brand designer range, or a brand we do not retail, there will not be conflict and the range offered to parents etc will be more varied and appealing.

A photography business would be welcome; we consider a 'take away' service would prove very popular.

Showcase businesses will be welcome - advertise your business on site by showing samples of your work for later discussion/completion. 

A lounge/cafe business, subject to planning, would be welcome.  This would serve beverages and simply prepared food i.e. not hot cooked meals, but instead baked potatoes, sandwiches, paninis, desserts etc.

A children's hairdressing salon would be welcome, operational for children predominantly and family members, then hairdressers existing clients. 

Parent, baby and child services - demonstrating a wide variety, will be welcome and will be provided within the classroom.

 

We intend to advertise the centre ourselves in topical publications available to the Colchester area. As we will, you will probably opt to enhance the impact gained by the general advertising with individual advertisements for your business alongside.  Joint venture advertising can be proposed between occupants 'as and when'.

 

The facility to showcase and sell your products on the www.shopatchild.co.uk  website will also be available.   This domain has been in existence since 2005 and is extensively marketed as a retail children's store with consumers now visiting the site using 4000 different search engine terms that we have optimised. 

 

Please contact us for further details, confirming your requirements in principal, subject to terms and conditions (sq footage requirements for retail space/ separate storage space / or whether classroom hire only is required (with days/times specified).  Please tell us about your business and the products you would like to sell if applicable. 

 

Whether you only need a 6ft x 2ft display, or larger, we will aim to accommodate.  (The prices for all services are really reasonable - we're finalising to get them as low as possible!)

 

If you know of any other businesses that may be interested, do please spread the word, or send us contact details/addresses.

 

Space will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, subject to acceptance and exclusivity criteria being met and we very much look forward to hearing from you.  Reply to our email, if we emailed you or contact us via the website's contact us tab.