Tokyo Bike
How to make a shop – take a few large cardboard boxes, some brown tape, empty olive oil bottles, some magnetic plastic leaves, four designer lamps and wooden poles and a little string. Put some weights in the boxes, wrap the tape around them to make your service desk and display plinths. String up your wooden poles and hang the lights from them. Use the bottles to display a ornamental grasses and stick the magnetic leaves on the ceiling air ducts to add a bit of theatre and there you have it! You now have a pop-up shop. All you now need is to fill it with your merchandise and maybe put a sign outside.
Just before Christmas Tokyo Bike did just that. They opened their Popup Gallery for six weeks in an empty shop in Llankelly Place just off Macleay Street in Sydney’s Kings Cross. They sell simple bicycles designed for city riding. They already have a permanent ...
The Things We Desire
Have you ever walked down the high street or in the mall with your wife and turned around to find she’s gone, vanished into thin air in a split second? It turns out she’s spotted something in a shop window across the road or through the sea of people floating up and down the shopping mall. From a distance of more than 50 metres a pair of shoes or a silk scarf have caught her eye and she’s off.
Is this an advanced visual sense developed thousands of years ago to spot charging beasts on the plains of Africa and now used to seek out things she likes in the modern world, or is it the powerful effects of a cleverly merchandised shop window? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. In fact it isn’t true to say only women have this ability to see things they like, we can all do it. Put me in a busy street and I’ll spot the latest Scott mountain bike across the pavement before I see the ...
Passion
Passion is a small word with a big meaning. For such a powerful word it is surprising how often it is used. If you want to know its true meaning, visit Quattro Passi and talk to Vikki and Robbie. They own and run a café and wine bar on the corner Yurong and Liverpool streets in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. They are truly passionate about what they do. They have an equal love for food and people. It’s not something they have learnt or set out to achieve, it’s something they have in them, it’s in the heart and that’s essential if you’re running a café.
So here’s what you should do if you want to start your own café business.
First decide if you’re the right person for the job.
How many people have thought about opening a café or restaurant? Damn it, I have! How nice would it be to hang out in a café all day? ...
Food For Thought*
If you want to do well in business don’t over-complicate things – it’s that simple!
In fact, according to MissChu, to do even better, make things simpler, but, she says, that can only be done if you are confident in your idea, your product and your look.
Perched on the corner of Bourke and William in Sydney’s Darlinghurst is the Queen of Rice Paper Rolls, a different kind of queen from what you are used to seeing hanging out on the streets around there. The Queen of Rice Paper Rolls, or MissChu as the sign says above her ‘tuckshop’ window, creates mouth-watering Vietnamese rice paper rolls, vermicelli salad and steamed dumplings and sells them to a growing number of loyal customers.
MissChu has taken a simple product, turned it into a simple lunch and dinner experience, added her own brand with a simple grey and white look and sells it at a price that makes her...
