Anyone that has worked in or owned an esoteric shop, what was your experience?

[Swampdweller900]

I'm super curious what it's like to be on the other side of the counter. I do love a good apothecary shop, crystal and rock shop, or something in between, but they're so few and far between. I've also seen a few that were just charlatan shops selling "spooky merch" that casuals would buy and place on a shelf and nothing more.

 

[HellenaHex]

Were you thinking of having a physical shop or an online one? I have an online shop and design pagan statues for another. In the past I also worked at a witch supply shop that sold occult books, statues, incense, herbs, tarot cards, jewelry, and offered some spiritual services. It was owned by Lawren Leo and his brother in FL.

As for what it’s like… well usually nice but shop location will really effect how busy you are or not. It’s definitely important to make sure you have a big enough market for the niche you want to fill before committing if you want a physical shop. Costumer wise you’ll get all types and that can be fun when a more serious practitioner comes in but the main customers will usually be novices. Every now and again you’ll get nonbelievers in the shop that are just being dumb but that doesn’t happen to often that it should put you off. As a whole working in the shop was a pleasant peaceful experience. Running one comes with normal store owner stress, even online ones. But if the quality of your goods is sound, fair prices (Not low just fair. You definitely need to make a living wage.), a nice atmosphere, and friendly knowledgeable staff will help you be successful.

A good test run for owning an online shop is Etsy or a similar place. It gives you experience that will let you see how in demand what you want to sell is, how to deal with customer service issues (good communication is important.), what shipping and restocking schedule you’ll need to keep, and other technical things for running a business. This way you don’t have to spend a large amount of money to buy a domain name and pay other online fees until you’ve established yourself and hopefully gotten loyal customers. Also be aware of your states requirements for business licenses, and at what point you would have to list your online shop on taxes. Usually there is a monthly price point that dictates whether or not it needs to be listed.

With any shop the first sale is the most difficult. It helps to have someone you know order/buy something and then leave a five star review. When other customers see it will give them peace of mind and encourage future sales. Consider advertising too. Etsy has a way you can as well as FB or instagram. This will help draw you even more customers.

 

[Asteriskos]

I'm super curious what it's like to be on the other side of the counter. I do love a good apothecary shop, crystal and rock shop, or something in between, but they're so few and far between. I've also seen a few that were just charlatan shops selling "spooky merch" that casuals would buy and place on a shelf and nothing more.

I remember when there were Three (brick & mortar) shops within 15-20 minute driving time in our area. All full service with "readers", supplies, book signings, classes, you name it! There are still Two left, but they still struggle to recover from that damned covid "planned-demic".
They've had to cut back on services because business barley keeps the doors open now really sad but true.

I suppose it depends a lot on your location but a physical shop in this economy would be challenging, which really sucks. The net has played a big part here too. @HellenaHex 's post puts it into solid advice! Some people even go to "Catholic" supply stores for good resin incense and charcoal blocks, because it's the path of least resistance.

Post automatically merged: Friday at 11:48 AM

I should qualify my statements here, One of the shops I mentioned is owned by close friends of my wife and I, the other observations are from the outside looking in, but not inaccurate.

 

[Swampdweller900]

Thanks @HellenaHex and @Asteriskos !!! Lovely to hear your experiences. I'm glad to hear the clientele was nice, I wasn't sure how that would go. Everyone was always chill any time I've been in an esoteric shop, glad that's the usual vibe and not just being overrun with novices for 4 weeks in October.

It's funny, the nice part about the brick and mortal shops is that you can immediately feel when a place is right or not. There was one I walked into and just did a loop and walked right out. Funny enough, also went to a church supply shop a couple times as well, and hadn't even thought about it in those terms.

It was really more of a "what if" conversation my spouse and I had. We were in the small tourist town next to the Delphi ruins, and the views were amazing. So over some wine we had the 99% hypothetical conversation of "OK, if we moved here, what would we do for money?" and I immediately thought that a tiny, dark, little herbalist shop named Yaya's Apothecary would be a solid option. There's already enough trinket and crystal shops, so I figured selling mugwort and moon water to people would pay the bills if the atmosphere felt right.

I appreciate the advice on the Etsy store as well. I'm definitely not in a position to do that, but I had also never thought about it, either...

 

[Asteriskos]

A related phenomenon is that in the heyday of these shops there were quite a few Psychic Fairs at various points in the WotY.
The stores of course were big promoters of the Fairs with Booths set up. The stores were good for the Fairs and the Fairs helped the stores, a real Symbiotic relationship there. All that's greatly diminished as well right now. What the answer might well be is a concerted act of magic/k to overcome all the negative factors, it's in discussion locally.

 

[Kepler]

The shop I worked in briefly was run by a pagan who just bought it as a new age store a few months before. Got the job shortly after my self-initiation. I was there about 6 months.
Met a variety of people. Most were seekers and not a threat to anyone. There were a few odd ones..speaking of which...

A few months into working there a person the owner got involved with romantically who didn't like me for whatever reason. I didn't care, nor did I inquire. Although, that didn't stop him from inquiring of me. Even psychic probing. It was my first encounter with someone that strong. He got power from pact magic but that's deeper into the story and connected to his fate I believe... anyways I was sitting at the counter one day soon after they met and got the sense someone was trying to get into my mind so I grabbed some sodalite and made a little circle around me for meditation.
Dude comes storming out the backroom and asking me a bunch of rapid fire conspiracy like questions... "who do you work for?!" type thing. Told him he was making no sense after saying I work at the store. That seemed frustrating to him.
I ended up leaving the store a couple months later due to my boss being pressured by him. When I returned a few years later I saw him outside the store as I was walking by and I told him about the successes on my journey that wouldn't have happened if I stayed. He was dead by the next day. It was like his story was over.