Mens Tuxedo

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Luc

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Nov 1, 2002
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Elliot Lake
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I have the chance to Rent Tuxedo in my flower shop.
No cost to me, no shipping ro send them back out, no cleaning, etc. THe only thing is that I need to take the orders, measure the guys to the size they need and select the assescories they need.
My cut is 30% from the total sale.

There is no one else in my town that has this...most people would have to go to the next town which is 45 minutes away.

Does anyone else have this in their flower shop.

My thinking is that I would find outwho is getting married, prom etc
Maybe it may bring in more people in that I would not see.

Your opinion please!
Luc
 
We do tux rentals. It is a great $$ maker. The wholesaler we work with gave us older style coats, pants & shoes for the guys to try on. Works great if your not sure of the size after measuring. ( we only do outseam measuring for pants) Usually for prom the kids get flowers & tuxes both. Just be sure you have someone who can do some alterations such as shortening. Brides love to get it all done in one place. Pm me if you want more info.
 
Luc, a now defunct florist in Hamilton did tux rentals, and made a very good income from it!!
Once you get the "hang" of measuring the boys, in the appropriate places, 30% is pretty decent money.
The HUGE "drawback" is space...I don't think you've got it buddy!!.....it is very "unwise" NOT to have a change room to "try on"......you'll have a ton of "mis-measure" complaints.
 
Well I do have a Bathroom and Several coolers....One of them with a window and I can charge a Peep fee for the ladies.
You know me Mikey....JUst gathering information and work from there.

Luc
 
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Luc, our FCer, Vikki, rents tuxedos, or she did at one time.
 
Luc:
We did do Tux rentals for several years while our store was in an indoor shopping mall.

You will need 2 changing booths. We set this up very easily with curtains and screens, but it does require floor space.

We also had a display area and a counter devoted to the tux business.

Yes, it was very profitable!!

Wedding parties - girls liked the fact that we were a one stop shop. -- they could do flowers, invitations, tuxes all at one place.

Proms - we offered a deal on flowers (free bout) if they placed they tux order and flower order at the same time.

Tuxes will need to be measured for, check in properly (make sure that all the pieces and parts are what was ordered, and the proper size) & then the orderer called with a pick time.

We did minor alternations in my store. If it was major, we got them a new coat or vest or pants.

We INSISTED that the garmet be tried on at the time of pick up, in our store, to insure that it fit properly.

And by the way, you don't have to measure an inseam....just a waist and and out-seam on tux pants!

Call me or PM me if you need anything else. It is a good side business if you have the room to do it.

Cheryl
 
Darn, I have always had the desire to measure the inseam. Now, I know I will never rent them.

I have never dealt with renting tuxes and one reason is because, I assumed that the times people need a tux are when a florist is the busiest.....ie. proms and Mother's Day, Valentine's banquets, etc.

I must be wrong about this because, I know several florist that do rent tux. but, I am curious if it is a factor.

Carol Bice
 
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Hey Luc, having worked in the men's wear industry for a number of years there are a few things to consider....
You really need properly trained staff for measuring and style recommendations. Storage is also a factor? Depending on your floor space for storing the rentals when they are coming and going. Also, what happens when you get a call in a busy Saturday that their tux is missing pieces or does not fit? You will have to have staff on board to handle that. It is no doubt a great opportunity as there is no one else in town providing the service, but you will certainly have to weigh the cost/profit ratio.
 
Carol,
Yes, the times can be hectic.

Tuxs arrived on Wednesday afternoon (generally) & had to be picked up on Wed night or thursday. Pickup times/dates were fixed, so that if there was a problem, we could get a replacement before the Friday event. They had to try everything on before it left my store, so that I knew that it fit.

If Prom was Friday, they had to get it back to me my Saturday close of business.
If event was Saturday, they had to return by Sunday close of business.

Tux company picked up from me on Monday -- early morning.

Coats & Pants that needed exchanging because of improper sizing could sometimes be an issue. Missy is correct that staff needed to be trained properly to measure -- and sell properly (there is a difference, for instance, in a regular cut coat and a "stout" or portly cut". This was not a job that my college kids or high school kids did alone, without supervision. (the tux company sent a trainor into my store at no charge for full sales and measuring training.) (Miss-fits were generally the fault of poor measuring.)

The thing was that it created an opportunity to get people in our door. We made it easy for them to buy something -- and that included flowers. We would cut off orders for the Mothers Day proms at least 2 weeks prior to the prom. Word on deadlines spreads pretty quickly thru the schools -- without any effort on my part.

We also kept our prices fair and reasonable. (some of our tux shopes have been known to gouge kids at Prom time).

I, as well as one of my staff people, are pretty fair seamstresses. Simple alternations were done without much problem.
We were open until 9:30 pm.....so it made getting the kids up & getting stuff tried on pretty effective and did not interupt the flower operation very much.

We had some big rolling racks to hand the garmet bags on. Name was shown on the outside of the bag & we added the order to it.

Deposits were required -- payment was made in full at the time of the order -- especially with prom orders.

We also sold a lot of top hats, canes, and fancy broaches.

It was actually fun -- and seeing what all the kids picked and gravitated to & helped us keep up with the trends also.

Cheryl
 
Joe:
We used 1 company based out of Harrisburg, Pa & another based in eastern Ohio.

The thing about Tux companies is that they need to be within about 3 to 5 hours driving distance from your store to service you well.

that's part of the reason why it worked so well for us.

For instance. guy comes in on Wed night, before 7, and we try on his outfit. Both coat & pants are way wrong sized. I call in a replacement immediately. It is on the Wed night truck from harrisburg, and I have the replacement by 2 pm next day (thursday.).

customer service was what it was all about.

Cheryl
 
Cheryl

Do I read correct that you no longer rent tuxes? If so why not? thanks
 
Kristine,
I no longer rent tuxedos because I moved my store from the mall location we were in for 20 years, to a more "warehouse" type location. We are a retail storefront -- however.

We were tight on space when we first moved.....and could not find a way to fit the dressing rooms in & accomodate the flower coolers, etc. something had to give, and unfortunately, it was the tux part.

We have since doubled our sq footage -- but we are on 2 floors. While it is perfect for private wedding consulations, and meetings, and building gift baskets, it is again, not user friendly for the tux business.

Tuxes were a side business -- it worked well as long as we had the space to do it. When the space becomes an issue, it had to go. Also, consider that the majority of your tux rentals happen at prom time (late april, May & early June for us) and heavy wedding season (may-June; heavy Sept-oct.)

The rest of the year, you are using up vaulable sq footage that is not generating revenue dollars. When we expanded to the 2nd floor, this also was a consideration in our thinking.

If you have the space, try it out for a year. However, you need to heavily promote that you are doing it. Kids start shopping for Prom tuxes in Jan-Feb. Wedding start shopping NOW for next year.

Cheryl
 
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