twins89
Western New York
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Friends of ours are opening a new campground next season in the Finger Lakes/Rochester area. What items do you find are absolutely necessary for a camp store. There is a Wal-mart within 1/4 mile but folks in a motorhome would have to uproot to get there. Include your supplies and food items, etc. I will send your thoughts to them.
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rk911
Wheaton IL
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we almost never shop or buy anything at a camp store. exceptions might be the occasional ice cream cone.
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rich, n9dko
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2112
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Movie rentals
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Biker1mike
Gallatin, NY
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A small emergency supply area is nice. Electrical tape, string, sewer fitting and such.
Wife likes to see local crafts and last minute food stuffs, like marshmellows.
I gravitate with the grand kid to the campground tee shirts and stuff.
Hot coffee for arriving guest or early risers.
A decent ice machine with block and cubes for us campers that live out of coolers.
Mike
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Bucky Badger
Madison, WI
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rk911 wrote:we almost never shop or buy anything at a camp store. exceptions might be the occasional ice cream cone.
Same here...for the few items they buy, they have a hefty mark up.
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downtheroad
Pacific Northwest
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Tell your friends that most RVers don't care about the camping store, we care most about the quality and size of the sites in a campground.
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westernrvparkowner
montana
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I have to agree with most of the posters, no one really needs anything from a campstore.
Location has everything to do with what you carry. If you are close to shopping, like we are in our parks, you cannot compete with those stores.
We do the best with a few emergency items as described. Sewer hoses, water hoses, cables for cable TV. Soft drinks, candy, ice cream as far as food goes. We sell a whole lot of higher end gifts. We don't mark them up as much as the competition, since our idea is we are primarily an RV park, the store is just there to fill out the space. The desk help is already there, so we have no labor costs. We can price local artwork, quality souvenir clothing and the like for less than the competition. You cannot compete at the cheap end, and you will just end up looking junky. Being higher end and quality will make everything look better.
If you are isolated, carry much more and price with higher margins since you will be the only game in town, but I doubt that will be the case near the finger lakes.
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1775
NY
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We don't have RV stores near home and when I go into a campground store I always look at what they have in terms of RV "supplies" and add ons. Your friends should go into that local Walmart and see what they are selling specifically for RVs and then decide what items they could sell that would be helpful to RVers that the Walmart does not have. I have bought several things like this at campground shops including a black tank flush wand and an anode rod. Things that may break or be forgotten for hook up are also good to have. Their shop might also carry some basic snack items, maybe milk, and anything that can be used at the campground for recreation. One campground we go to has a stream that can one can go fishing in and the campground store sells some basic fishing equipment and bait.
And to add to the above responder, they should contact local craftspeople and sell some locally made handcrafts which cannot be found at the retail stores. These make great souvenir items. Often the craftspeople will put their work in the shop on consignment and the shop owner has no investment but space allocation - and gets a piece of the sale. As a craftsperson, myself, I would be thrilled for the sales opportunity.
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fandango49
Severna Park, Maryland
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Beer and ice, what else would one need?
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Queens Carriage
Treasure Coast, FLorida
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With Wal-mart so close I don't think having things for the rv would help much. But I like the thought of the creature comfort things. Noce to gather around for coffee,icecream,candy,balloons,crackerjacks, ect.
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