Is this a service you would use?

[wildwildsouth]

I've inherited quite a bit of money and am planning to open my own business within the next couple of years. I have a few ideas but this one I feel is genius. However, people I speak to in real life about it don't seem that impressed.

My idea is a shop that does wrapping. It would sell lots of wrapping paper, sellotape, scissors etc but on top of that it would offer a wrapping service.

So someone could come in one gift and ask to have it wrapped really nicely with ribbons and bows etc. Or someone could come in with their full Christmas presents needing wrapped. Maybe the ones they have for their kids from Santa, they might choose just a basic wrap which would cost less etc.

There would be trolleys etc near the entrance for people with lots of things needing wrapped.

Is that a service you would use?

Against the grain but I would totally use this.

However your issue is that, I would also use any wrapping service from say amazon or whatever.

Nope would never waste my money on this. And I'm probably your target market, as
I'm a terrible present wrapper
I'm well off
I outsource a lot of household chores

But really? Hardly a "genius" idea. I suppose it'd be nice to "play shop" for a bit, and if you've got shedloads of money I guess you can spend it as you wish.

Surely, there's something more productive you could do with a bit of capital?? - endow a research laboratory or something which might help people.

I hate wrapping presents, but I think the problem is that the faff of getting the presents to you to wrap would outweigh the faff of just wrapping presents!

John Lewis and Thortons used to do this (still do?), which was great for presents. Not for kids though. Be worth investigating linking up with up-market stores to see if you could work together.

No I think it would take the persona touch out of the experience

No.

On similar lines to @JesusInTheCabbageVan's idea...

When I see flyers for art & craft days for kids ('Make your own insect out of a wire coat hanger, glitzy fabrics & a ton of glitter!' sort of thing) I wish they'd do them for adults. Adult art days cost a bomb, need expensive equipment & are so very worthy that it sucks all the fun out of it. Pay £5-10 a go, have an hour's messy fun with someone else's stuff & go home & never do it again - that's how I'd organise it.

I try to wrap nothing and have not since the 1970s due to not liking waste and thinking of the planet etc. Sometimes I put silver foil on if I really have to and the family laugh that unlike other families I am useless at wrapping anything.

I would have said the trend was to move away from wrapping. I also try not to buy physical stuff as it goes into landfill anyway and things do not make people happy.

The problem with this plan is that people don't have the time to send or take things to be wrapped. It could be a concession store inside Harrods I suppose where you could take very expensive goods and they are wrapped up downstairs - you would own the concession and might even get rights in lots of other up market shops perhaps? Make sure you only use about a third of the inheritance and put the other in something safe however as you are likely to end up with not a penny of it left.

Also you have now given everyone your idea which is not very confidential! Get a solicitor to draw up an NDA for you for any future ideas.

Maybe you could approach a local garden centre or somesuch and do a 'pop up' at christmas. Offer a wrapping service for goods purchased there, and any other gift that your customers bring back once they have seen you there

No I wouldn't spend money on something like that and even if I liked the idea there's no way I'd cart a load of gifts to you to be wrapped. It also sounds like an insurance nightmare.
I'm a bit last minute with buying gifts too so if I wanted it wrapped I'd select that option when ordering and get it sent straight to the recipient.

I would never use a service like this. Sounds like a real hassle carting presents around to be wrapped up.

Don't waste your inheritance!

no and it's terrible environmentally unfriendly as well.

Right decision to think again imo

I for one just couldn't be arsed to schlep my packages round there. It just seems like a right faff for very little benefit and an unnecessary expense.

I would use it online not in "real life". I'd like to order something online and at the checkout there's an option for "fancy wrapping by wildwildsouth" and maybe a picture of the wrapped item, maybe different options, and a place to type my message for the gift card. I pay for the wrapping and present together. (A bit like Amazon gift bags/wrapping but a lot nicer!) The vendor sends it to wildwildsouth and then it goes to the recipient.

For a wedding present I'd pay more for lovely wrapping that say Xmas or birthday.

The downside is what if the item takes a long time to deliver or gets lost, who is resposnible?

If i got an inheritance i would be guarding it very closely. As many pp said, you wouldn't make any money. Lots of shops and companies offer gift wrapping, and you can buy lovely boxes very cheaply. A small percentage of people would pay a small amount for this service, not a good business model.

I wouldn't worry about having given everyone your idea OP. I don't think they'll be a rush to start similar businesses!

If you're certain that you want to start a new business, I would have a look around forums/webinars etc to get a better understanding of the whole process.

If I had a present special enough to hand over for amazing wrapping I'd worry about the breakages if you dropped it, you'd have to have excellent insurance. Some CF would bring you a broken something then claim you'd done it and make you replace. 😱

A local charity does this in our shopping centre and its always popular- but I think the logistics of bringing them to you after already shopping would put me off- I might do it if it was a little shop in the same shopping centre I was in. Or if you offered a collect and wrap option- so for example, in my town during Covid, all the small independent shops signed up to this charity volunteer group- customers ordered their goods, and the charity went shop to shop gathering all the things you had ordered, putting them in a tote bag and then you collected them all from a central point to your car. If there had been a gift wrap add on I would have done that too as it meant I could support local businesses, but have it all collected and given to me. It was very popular.

Yes I would especially Christmas because I can’t be bothered but I think you’ll find it very sessional business

I think this might be the sort of thing that could start as an Instagram business first- family and friends etc then some local toy shops might link with you especially around Christmas- you may not even need a premises.

I would come to purchase fancy paper and ribbons. I LOVE wrapping paper. But I wouldnt pay you to do it. However I would possibly go on a christmas afternoon wrapping and bow making course or similar if that was offered.

I'm in Australia and one of our local shopping centres offers a Christmas wrapping service. I have no idea how much it costs, as I wouldn't do it, but they do seem to be busy whenever I go past. I think the idea is that you're there shopping for the gifts anyway, so this service wraps them before you even get them home!

But it is only at Christmas.

So I'm sorry OP but I don't think this one will work out for you.

Nope - would not make a special trip to a "wrapping shop". This is surely something that people can very easily do themselves.

Admittedly I am a bit mean - I would never spend £5 etc to wrap a gift as this is just going to end up in the bin. If you do decide to go for it though, you could call your shop Wrap Stars - you can have that for free

No one is going to come in with armfuls of presents to be wrapped. They can get them wrapped at the point of buying if they need that service. You will go out of business in a month!

In theory I would love to use a service like that. I hate wrapping presents and I always seem to end up with a night where I'm wrapping 100s of present (reality nothing like 100!). And I'm not good at wrapping. The last few tend to be scrunched together and shoved in random pieces of wrapping paper.

In practice. No I never would, not unless you were doing it for pennies. I might have a couple of awkward shaped things done for charity, but I really wouldn't be prepared to pay anything like what you'd want for it.
And getting the presents to you would be a hassle, plus I then have to pick them up and hide them...

And you'd need to be aware that if it did take off, you'd spend most of the year doing 1-2 a day and Christmas eve you'd have 100k parcels, and lots of people outside demanding you do theirs in an hour or their children's Christmas will be ruined by you.