Starting Your First Food Kiosk Location in a Mall

Kind of Food

First, a Food Kiosk business owner needs to make several preliminary decisions. After these preliminary decisions are made there are others that depend upon these. At the top of the list of preliminaries is what kind of food will be sold. Answering this question is essential.

Will your food item be pre-packaged or packaged in front of the customer? Example: peanuts by the pound or homemade fruit preserves? Will your food item be served hot or cold? Example: Hot Dogs, hamburgers, pretzels or snow cones and ice cream?

Once decided upon the kinds of food items, and possible combinations, there are several other questions that are also preliminary. The importance of this decision is it shows you have to know your geographical area and what are possible marketable items.

food kiosk in mall. image c/o uniquekiosk.com
food kiosk in mall. image c/o uniquekiosk.com

Target market

Who is your target market? Children, teenagers, adults or a combination? This decision is important because it will depend upon where you place your business. A business needs to go where his target market is located and the target market is large enough to sustain your business model.

Is the core of your food kiosk business dependent upon one or several food items? What will your service offer that is competitive with a similar item sold in another location in the city you operate? Do you have a manufacturer that will customize your food kiosk?

Business hours

What will your business hours? Will your employees need specialty training to prepare special food items like making candied apples or fresh cinnamon buns? Will your employees need training in working equipment that is not easily understood to operate? Deep fryers or Cotton Candy machines? If someone falls sick or cannot be at work do you have a backup plan?

Dress and behavior codes for employees

Will you require a dress code for your employees or will it be casual? This decision is very important because it reflects the image of your business, especially if you intend to build a brand name in your food kiosk business. Will you have a logo, a business card or literature your employees will hand out to market your food kiosk thru your customers? Will you have your logo on your customer bags or product wrappers?

Choosing Location

Now that you have chosen your kiosk food item, your target audience, your employees and hiring staff, you can now choose your location, obtain your licenses, and negotiate your rental space, according to all the data you have collected thus far.

Melissa Thompson

Melissa Thompson writes about a wide range of topics, revealing interesting things we didn’t know before. She is a freelance USA Today producer, and a Technorati contributor.