Hi Folks:
Ben and I are opening up a combined retail manufacturing storefront location in Cambridge, Ontario very shortly. The retail side will cater to the needs of the hand tool crowd, and we would like to know what people would like to see in this type of facility?
As a starting point, we are located in an old factory (170 Water Street) backing onto the Grand River with major streetfront exposure. We have cleared out the front section of the 600 ft^2 facility, sanded floors and painted walls. We have four prominent antique tool dealers from four different parts of the province stocking our shelves on consignment. It is a place where you should expect to find clean #7's, #8's, #4 1/2's, #112's, #45's, etc. in quantity and quality, along with a pile of other useable tools. We are proximate to a well-known exotic hardwoods supplier. We are also directly on the primary route to Southworks (a 200 dealer antique mall with an outlet mall in an old stone factory). In order to drive foot traffic, we plan to offer a limited range of similar products, such as clocks, ironworks, occupational photos, etc. As well, through a number of resources we plan to offer weekend seminars on hand-cut dovetails, use of wooden moulders, etc.
We are asking folks for ideas to improve the range of our offering and provide us with ideas for seminars, etc. The intent is to become a hand tool resource centre.
Any help would be most appreciated.
Sincerely,
Doug