Flower kiosk: how a small flower stand at a station or market works

A flower kiosk is a small stand of 4–20 m² at a station, a bus interchange, a market square or inside a shopping centre that sells to people on their way home and lives off the evening rush and the holidays. It costs less to open than a neighbourhood shop, but it has three problems of its own: the right to the pitch depends on the municipality, the station operator or the landlord; it is cold inside in winter and hot in summer; and waste quickly eats the markup if buying does not match footfall.

Flower kiosk, market stall or mall unit: the difference

All small formats sell to passing trade, but they are set up differently, and that drives costs.

At a closed kiosk or a mall unit, the customer often sees the flowers only through glass or from the walkway, so the display and lighting decide everything: what cannot be seen does not sell. At a stand where people can step in, they can pick roses by the stem and wait while a bouquet is made, so the average sale is usually higher.

How a kiosk differs from a neighbourhood shop and a studio is covered in our guide on how to open a flower shop. Here we look at what is different for a small street format.

Pros and cons of a small flower stand

Pros. A kiosk stands where people are already walking: to the train, the tram, the market. It needs little advertising in the usual sense, because the lit display does the work. Rent per square metre is often lower than in a shopping centre, and a station or street kiosk can sometimes trade later than shops nearby, depending on local opening-hours rules. Fitting out is minimal and launch is faster than for a shop.

Cons. The first is uncertainty about the pitch. A municipality can redraw its street-trading plan, a station can be redeveloped, a square can close for works, and a concession can go to another bidder when it is re-tendered. The second is climate: a structure of glass and panels freezes in winter and overheats in summer, and you pay for that in electricity and waste. The third is space: there is nowhere to keep weekend stock and wrapping, and a cooler takes a third of the floor.

There is also a point about customers. A flower kiosk by a station sells an impulse purchase on the way somewhere, so it lives in the evenings and around holidays. On weekdays there are hours when nobody stops, and the seller is still on shift. Build that idle time into your calculation instead of hoping the spot is always busy.

The pitch and permits: what to check before you invest

Who decides on a pitch depends on where it is. On public land it is usually the municipality: some issue street-trading permits, some award kiosk sites through tenders, some allow only a display outside an existing shop. Market pitches come from the municipality or the market operator, sometimes with a waiting list. Station sites are usually let as concessions by the rail operator or the company that manages station retail. Find out how it works in your town before you order a structure.

What to check before you sign:

• The basis for the pitch. A permit, a concession agreement, a land lease or renting a ready-made kiosk from its owner. Each has its own term and its own risks.
• The term. One year and five years are different investments. If the term is shorter than the time needed to earn back the investment, the kiosk is working on borrowed time.
• Design requirements. Many towns and station operators prescribe size, colours and signage. A structure "like the one next door" may not be approved.
• Electricity. Heating, cooling, the display cooler and lighting run at the same time. Confirm the available capacity and who pays for the connection.
• Water. Kiosks often have none, and buckets are filled at a neighbouring business. Sort this out before opening, not on the first shift.

You also need a way to take payment: in practice a card terminal is expected, and in some countries, Germany and France among them, electronic tills must meet certification rules. Check registration, VAT and till requirements with an accountant; the basics are in our article on flower shop legal structure and VAT.

Buying a ready-made flower kiosk

"Buying a kiosk" usually means one of two things: buying the structure or buying a running business. A structure without a pitch is worth only its walls. With a running kiosk you are mainly buying the permit or concession and its remaining term, then the footfall and the equipment. Check whether the right to the pitch can be transferred to you at all and how many years remain, and ask to see real sales by day. A wider checklist is in our guide to buying a flower shop.

Cold and heat: the kiosk in winter and summer

Cut flowers hold their condition at +2 to +8 °C, while the seller needs at least around 16 °C. The kiosk has to provide both in one small space, and this is the most common cause of waste in the format.

For a market stall the rules are simpler and harsher: in frost, keep flowers in a closed box or van and bring out only what you are selling; in summer, work in the shade and change the water more often.

Cooling for a flower kiosk is sized by the amount you buy. With two small deliveries a week, a refrigerated display is usually enough. If you buy heavily for weekends and holidays, add a small cold cabinet for stock. How to choose equipment without paying for capacity you do not use is covered in our article on the flower cooler.

In frost, flowers carried from the van to the kiosk are wrapped in paper and moved quickly. A few minutes in the open cold and rose heads darken the next day.

A product range for passing trade

A kiosk customer decides in a minute and wants to leave with flowers straight away. So the range is built around ready-to-go products.

• Ready-made bouquets at several price points, so there is a "quick and affordable" option and a "for an occasion" option. Make them up for the evening, not first thing in the morning.
• Roses by the stem in two or three lengths and colours. They sell most often, and the price per stem should be visible from the street.
• Single-variety bunches: spray chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, tulips in season. Easy to wrap while the customer waits.
• Two or three seasonal flowers that make the display stand out: tulips in spring, peonies in early summer, chrysanthemums for All Saints' Day where it is marked.
• Small add-ons: cards, wrapping, sometimes a small potted plant. They are bought together with a bouquet.

Exotic flowers and rare varieties do badly in a kiosk: they do not sell within 3–4 days and end up as waste. How to lay out the display and which lines to keep in stock at all times is covered in our article on flower shop product range.

Good evening photos of a lit flower stand are also useful for your map listing: many people search for flowers nearby while they are already walking to the station.

Sales by day of the week and buying

Kiosk sales are distributed unevenly, and buying should follow that pattern, not an average week. Below is an example for a station kiosk, a starting point for your own calculation rather than market statistics. After a month of trading, put in your own figures.

With this pattern two deliveries work well: Tuesday for the weekdays and Friday morning for the weekend. Say you buy €2,000 of flowers a week. Then roughly €850 goes on Tuesday and €1,150 on Friday, because more than half of sales happen from Friday to Sunday. Buying for 3–4 days of sales rather than a whole week keeps waste under control.

Holidays are planned separately. Around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day a station kiosk sells several times its normal daily volume, and the extra stock is reserved with the wholesaler well in advance. Mother's Day falls on different dates across Europe, in March in the UK and Ireland and in May in most other countries, so check yours; how to prepare for the biggest peak is in our article on the Valentine's Day flower shop.

Stock and waste records, even with one kiosk

It seems a 15 m² kiosk needs no records: you can see everything. In practice, money is lost most quietly in small outlets. The seller works alone, counts stock at the end of the shift from memory, writes waste down "roughly", and a month later there are sales but not enough money to restock.

The minimum to keep from the first delivery:

1. Goods received against the supplier's invoice: variety, length, quantity, price.
2. Sales by transaction, not a daily total.
3. Waste with a reason: frost, overblown, broken, used in a discounted bouquet.
4. Evening stock of the main lines, compared with what should be left.

Say over two weeks you bought €4,000 of flowers and €600 went in the bin. That is 15% of purchases. If roses are written off more than anything else week after week, you are buying too many on Friday or they stand too close to the door. The causes of losses are covered in detail in our article on flower waste.

You do not have to keep these records by hand. In the Petala CRM the warehouse shows how much is in stock and how much was written off, purchases are recorded with supplier, invoice, delivery day and sum, and the profit and loss and sales reports are calculated for any period. It does not replace your till or card terminal.