CROWDED # POTENTIAL

(Series: Secrets of the Roadside Shops)

There's a common misconception I've seen many shop owners, even those who have opened several stores, fall into: that if it's on a busy street with lots of traffic and people passing by, then sales are guaranteed.

I used to think the same way. That was until I went with a chain store owner to survey a prime location on a very beautiful street in Ho Chi Minh City. The traffic was incredibly heavy, cars were constantly moving, and it looked "top-notch" to the naked eye. He almost wanted to close the deal immediately because he felt it was a golden location. But when we stayed a little longer and observed more closely, I realized the opposite: the cars were moving fast, the flow was constant, and very few cars slowed down. To turn in, you had to brake suddenly, and the entrance was rather narrow. In other words… you could see it, but it wasn't easy to get there.

Ultimately, we advised them to stop. The owner was very regretful at the time. But a few months later, someone else rented the space and closed it down quite quickly. It wasn't that they did a bad job. It's just that from the beginning they gambled on something that wasn't a real advantage.

I've realized something: high traffic is only a necessary condition. The sufficient condition is whether customers want to and dare to turn in.

Many people opening a shop look at the location as if it were a static picture: a busy area, a large storefront, and an attractive brand name are enough to reassure them. But in reality, a roadside shop is a dynamic setting. Drivers only have a few seconds to observe, understand, and decide. Just a small inconvenience, such as difficulty turning, difficulty stopping, or fear of getting stuck in traffic behind, can instantly ruin that decision.

I've seen quite a few similar cases while working with business owners. Some locations might seem unremarkable at first glance, but because they're easy to access, have convenient parking, and are easy to get out of, customers naturally flock to them. Conversely, there are locations that everyone praises as beautiful, but they quietly lose customers every day, and the owners don't understand why.

That's why I always say: roadside shops don't sell coffee, they don't sell products; they're selling a change of direction that happens in a matter of seconds.

Looking back, I realize that many of the wrong decisions didn't stem from a lack of money or experience, but from a misunderstanding of the true nature of the position.

This article is just the beginning of a series about roadside stores. In the next article, I will delve deeper into something many people overlook but which determines the survival of a store: customers see you… but will they actually visit? This is also the work I do with business owners, analyzing data, customer behavior, and operational realities before making final decisions in the training and support package for opening a store, with a very simple goal: to reduce the risk of making a mistake right from the location selection stage.

In the next post, I'll talk about something very interesting: many stores fail not because customers don't see them… but because customers see them but can't bring themselves to visit.