Thoughts or Commets on opening a new knife store?

Jamboi

Jamboi

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I have been interested in knives since I can remember. I love buying, selling, trading, modifying and collecting knives. The problem is that in my area, there are hardly any stores that carry any real knife selection. I mean we have Walmart, Target, Academy, Gander Mountain (which downsized it's knife stock to the equalevent of Walmart), and a store that specializes in LE equiptment (but only has one Benchmade auto and 2 Kershaws right now, WTH?). I have to drive 2 hours to find a cutlery store in another state when I want to feel or see a particular knife I am interested in. Let's face it, most of us would like to feel a knife before we purchase it, especially if it is over a certain dollar amount. My other option is to wait for the next gun and knife show to come to town. That really irritates me because they are steadily increasing the admission to enter. It was $2, 4, 5, and the last one was 7 and normally there are very few actual knife vendors.

The whole point of my ramblings is this, I want to open a brick and mortar knife store here. Having watched several go out of business I am very skeptical of weather I would be able to earn enough to make a living doing it. My wife suggested I also carry a full line of kitchen cutlery to bring in a more varied customer base. I am also very skeptical of selling any band of knife at the manufacturers set price. We all know we can get the same knives for 20 to 30% less online than we can at a local retail store. I do it myself sometimes.

So my question is what do you think? Would you go to a local knife dealer and knowingly spend more for an item? Have any of you opened a store and succeeded, or failed? Really, any info would be good. Thanks!!!!!!!!! :D
 
I support my local knife shop for CRK knives, since the prices are set and the only extra cost is tax. That is a hard business to start and support yourself on, maybe if you sold guns too???
 
I getting out of the knife selling business myself, but I would like to point out a couple of things:

Knives are small, so even with a small store (low rent) you could display and stock a lot of knives.

You could sell for less than full MSRP retail at a B/M store. Nothing really bounds you to MSRP. Some brands have restrictions on advertised pricing, but not sell pricing.

Ditto on the guns (and ammo). You'd make a killing (if you could find any to stock).
 
How about this...find a local gun shop you trust and see if you can convince them to let you partner with them to sell your knives. Basically renting space from them, ect. but being a seperate business still.
 
I only have one local knife shop but their main seller isn't knives, it's handle materials and they sell online too.
I guess I'm saying, I agree with being as varied as possible. If you don't live in an area populated with enough knife-nuts, you may need to resort to selling online too.
 
Online sales is killing BM specialty stores. So much money goes in to the rent and decor etc etc your prices end up not being able to compete with an online store with a worldwide market.

I would suggest doing a TON of market research and unless you can get cheap retail space in the right market I would reconsider.
 
I think the fundamental problem is that the profit margins on both knives and guns are very small. I remember years ago I looked into becoming a CRK dealer, and the margins back then were just too small for me to even bother with. In the jewelry business, generally they are doubling or tripling their money on most of their inventory (called 'keystone' which is doubling your money, triple-keystone is 3 times cost). High-end watches are close to doubling their money. That's the kind of profit you need to make a good business. This 30% markup over cost stuff is a loser's game.

Also, the fact that the big stores are not selling knives should be a warning signal to you. Walmart knows how to make money - for damn sure, so don't forget that. If it was profitable, they'd have more of them in their stores. If you see any of those stores reducing their inventory, you can be sure it's because there isn't any demand for it, or the profit is junk.
 
I would suggest you need to include services, such as knife and sheath repair. Knife and tool sharpening might bring in customers.:cool:
 
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” napoleon hill

Go for it, you can do it. That would be awesome
 
To answer your question if I would you go to a local knife dealer and knowingly spend more for an item the answer is yes! however the real question is how much more.

Unfortunately because of where I live I never have an opportunity to handle a knife before I buy it. The exception is if someone I know has one and I get to see it. Besides that I'm completely dependant on reviews, utube, BFC, magazines and on-line research.

I have to say I've been disappointed many times. Not that the knife was not as described but because once in hand it wasn't quite what I had hoped for. So, for that reason I would absolutely support a local knife shop if I could but I also wouldn't pay full MSRP either. If the prices were reasonable, I would have no problem paying more for the chance to handle a knife before I buy it.

Best of luck!
 
Thanks for the ideas and information. I had thought about selling guns too, but honestly I don't know squat about guns other than the 4 or 5 I have shot or owned.


I had thought I was on to something a little while back. I was going to try to partner with a popular MMA studio that opened in town. I had been told about what a great guy he was, then he dicked over our group that paid for a session with him. There is no way I could partner with someone that treats his customers with such disrespect. So it was back to the drawing board.

This is something I have been thinking about for over a year. I have just gotta make sure it is something I can make work before I go all in.
 
If you have a large enough population base, it can work. We just opened one and it is doing ok. I wouldn't plan on eating from the income for a bit. :)
 
Faiaoga said:
I would suggest you need to include services, such as knife and sheath repair. Knife and tool sharpening might bring in customers.:cool:
Click to expand...

This^

Expect lotsa window shopping, people wanna fondle your goods so they know what they are buying for likely less online.
Is your time valuable to you? Lots of people with no $ will have lots of knife stories to tell ya.
Everyone is gonna want a deal.
Taxes.
Possibly Required to buy healthcare soon as a business owner? At least my accountant mentioned such our last visit.
If you are already well off with lots of free time I'd say go for it.
 
If youre looking at investing thousands in a business it is worth first spending $100 on some good business books. Do your research, develop a business model and see what it looks like. You will need to address how you will generate cashflow, how you can compete (as you have already mentioned you cant compete on price) and a ton of other things. If you decide not to go ahead with your idea yet you will have learned a lot, which will help you with the next idea.

I am currently going through this research and assessment process myself...I feel your pain :)

The idea of having some kitchen knives isnt a bad one; a lot more people buy kitchen knives than utility/edc etc knives. But you will need to decide who youre targeting and what you want to sell them. You wont have the buying power or cashflow of major stores so if you stock the same items they will beat you on price. One solution may be to stock higher quality items; does your area have a customer base for high end knives though? Do you have a market for it?

Offering other services like sharpening may help with cashflow but the trade off is time; if this is a one-man show how will you sell to customers if you are busy providing another service? Will you have help in the store to handle one task while you do another?

The idea of piggy-backing off another shop could work in the short term, as long as the store owner has integrity it might not be a bad way to see if youre idea has potential.

First though, buy the best business books you can and read them, do your research and write up your business model.

End of rant :) I would love to know how it goes for you
 
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I have been there and done that. I set up a knife store at the local Flemarket Saturdays and Sundays only and I still worked as a electrician Monday thru Friday. I did really good at it too. I made my own knife sharpeners and made a killing at it too. I also sold the add on's for knifes and multi-tools. I also sold on the net too. As many web sites as I could find that let me sell switchblades. You need to have some of the junk/crappy knifes too but get the one’s that are made in the USA. The people will come out of the wood works to look at what you got and buy what they want. See if you can sell ammo at your local flemarket and If you start selling guns too you better get a lawyer to look into what the local law says about it. You don’t want to go to jail over something stupid. By the way I did this a very long time ago. because of my health I am no longer there. today time if a very different from when I was doing it. I would walk the flemarket and just look at how many people are carrying bags of stuff that they bought there. Down here in Florida flemarket went to the dogs big time. It is so bad they are not worth setting up at.
 
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Blade hq is local to me. I would think you would need a business model like there's to be successful. Online store first and brick and mortar second. Actually there "store" is really small but big enough to display knives. It's attached to the warehouse so they have all of there inventory on hand to look at it. It's awesome!
 
Most of the advice is clear and I won't add to that. I would like to point out another stark fact: if you do not have other sources of income and your family depends on you, make sure you have plan B. Don't let your family starve for your love of knives. Unfair.

Also the current mentality seems to be: check out in the store and order it online. If the price is more than $50, definitely get it online, as amazon also offers free shipping. It means you will have more sale of gerbers and byrd, than benchmade/spyderco. And you will have 30 people fondle knives and only 3 maybe buying them from you. Time is very expensive, so you also need to work out if you are willing to accept this fact.

The only brick store here, on the pier is We Be Knives. I doubt if he ever sells his bm and spyderco, but I routinely see people walk out with tons of gerber wicked looking knives. You also may want to check with a few friendly folk on bf who own stores, about the stats on the brands that sell most in the store.

And good luck. It takes a lot of courage to even decide having a business, you are halfway there. A sound plan and plan B will help you fulfil your dream.
 
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