Why? Two reasons. First, location is almost everything when talking about retail sales. Second, of course, is product.

Prime locations in the common-area hallways of shopping malls throughout the country are always reserved for kiosks. The standard size of most kiosks is 12 by 12 feet, enclosing an area of 144 square feet. Open to shoppers on all sides, kiosk locations can have the highest sales volume per square foot of any store in a mall. Add to that the selling power of an airbrush operation with an experienced artist, and you have all the ingredients necessary for success.

Kiosks are normally leased on a temporary basis by the mall management. Leasing periods of four days to one year are typical, with $450 a week being the average rent during the ten months of the year excluding the Christmas season.

The mall in many cases will supply the basic kiosk structure. Then it is up to the operators to merchandise their particular products. At other malls, no kiosk is supplied, and you will have to come up with a design that functions well as an airbrush setup and is aesthetically pleasing to customers.

Most mall managers will have great concern as to how clean the kiosk is kept. All business setups in the common-area hallways of a mall are expected to be spotlessly clean. An airbrush operation is not exempt from this rule.

At West Coast Airbrush, we've been setting up kiosks and carts in shopping malls for 20 years. From the experience we've gained, we know the critical factors that are necessary in the design of a successful kiosk.

First, the working area must be large enough to accommodate two artists with room for setup and painting. Our design features 16 feet of easel space (8 feet for each artist).

Second, you will need a small sales area that is both effective and efficient. The design shown here provides two salescounters for order taking, with a selection of T-shirts displayed below them for easy access and storage. A center island holds the air compressor inside also serves as a countertop on which the heat-press and cash register sit.

Third, the layout of the display must be carefully considered. This is often the hardest part of merchandising a kiosk. Here we have covered two of the outside walls of the kiosk with 2-by-6- foot panels of metal grid wall, which serves as both backdrop and support for our displayed portfolio of standard airbrush designs.

You can comfortably show 72 15-by-15-inch design panels in this area. You can also add a counter flip rack that allows you to display an additional 120 designs to complement your portfolio of standard designs.

Full custom shirt work can be displayed above the two easels on shirt forms that are hung from the overhead bar that surrounds the booth at the back.

CONSTRUCTION
The quality of craftsmanship and materials that go into the con- struction of the kiosk is essential to its longevity and its looks. The four pillars are made of high-density wooden pressboard with a laminated surface. The crossbars are steel with an enamel surface.

Grid wall, available from any retail- store-fixture company in 2-by-6-foot pieces, is joined together with clips to form the rear display walls.

Our counters are built of high-density wooden pressboard with laminated surfaces. For safety reasons, we used Plexiglas in place of glass for the display. The easels have a high-gloss laminated surface for easy cleaning.

Before the kiosk is set up, the floor is covered with a thin layer of plywood that is painted black. The kiosk is set directly on top of this protective layer so that the floor under the kiosk is not damaged by dripped paint or spray adhesive residue. This is very important!

EARLY PLANNING IS THE KEY
If you are planning a kiosk setup for Christmas, getting started early is critical. Most malls lease space to Christmas vendors in mid-July, so if you do not have space rented by then, maybe you should plan for other gift-giving holidays such as a one-month stay around Mother's Day or Valentine's Day. Large sporting events offer good opportunities to operate an airbrushing kiosk in malls near those venues.

Remember, all of the plans for kiosk setups come under the review of the mall management, and ample time is necessary for revisions to your plans.

Planning a budget for the build-out of the kiosk is necessary. An estimate of $1,000 to personalize an existing kiosk in a mall is in line with West Coast's experience; it might cost $3,500 to $10,000 to build a kiosk from scratch, A professional cabinetmaker should be employed to build any components used in the common area of a mall. Again, airbrush shops are no exception to this rule.

RENT
Space in a common area or hallway of a mall demands the highest per-square-foot rent of any space in the mall. It is considered prime space, and floor space that is capable of producing the highest sales per square foot demands high rent.

Your lease will start with a base rent, which is due for each leasing period regardless of sales. The lease will state a breakpoint for your gross sales. During negotiations on the terms of your lease, it is important to set your breakpoint on gross sales as high as possible. After you get to this predetermined gross sales figure, you are required to pay a percent- age of any money over that amount in additional rent. That may sound like a bum deal, but that is how it works! If you do well, you pay more rent; the mall has you coming and going. The percentage that you pay on any excess gross sales is called percentage rent. In an average temporary lease, this percentage rent will be around 13 percent, but it should not exceed 20 percent.

ARE YOU READY?
Considering the outlays we've mentioned so far, you may be skeptical of our claim that you can make "big bucks" in a kiosk. With construction and rents as high as this, how can an artist make any profit? It is possible! On average, a full-fledged airbrush operation in a shopping mall will normally take in gross sales of $50,000 for the Christmas season (November I through December 31). That yields, on average, a net profit of $28,000 for the two-month lease, based on a renot of $6500 for a two month stay(holiday season rent being higher than other months) and also accounting for other expenses such as shirt stock and employee salaries. To make 50,000 in gross sales in just 54 days, the following conditions and criteria must be met.

1. You need to be housed in a good, busy mall that attracts lots of customers.

2. The location of your kiosk needs to be front and center for maximum customer traffic.

3. You must have an eyecatching display of standard designs at $3 to $15. This is the price range in which most shoppers seek holiday gifts.

4. You must be an artist who is able to accommodate the customer who wants custom work. Custom automobile portraits are usually big sellers around the holidays.

5. Only one artist is needed for the month of November until Thanksgiving. An additional artist can come on board for the month of December. Each artist needs to be capable of producing an average of $1,000 a day in artwork.

6. A competent salescounter attendant and a "shirt nurse" or helper who can free the artists up to paint nonstop are essential during the rush of the two weeks before Christmas.

7. You need a good supplier of shirts and other blank goods for airbrushing. If you don't have it, you can't sell it!

8. Finally, you must have the confidence in yourself to make the monetary commitments needed to bring it all together. You have to spend money to make money!

Great profits can be made it you've got the right stuff to be successful in a shopping mall's Christmas marketplace. If you feel that you fall short in any aspect listed here, you need to get a little more experience. Work a kiosk at a mall during the lower-rent periods of Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. Sales are still strong, but overhead is lower.

A kiosk is basically the type of setup used at most large indoor flea markets, though earning potential may not be as high there. The costs of doing business are proportionally lower, and the demands on your painting ability are not as high. Whatever the venue of your kiosk setup, it offers great retail sales potential. WCA