Market saturation - candles

[Nodtveidt]

Where we run our operation, there are very few choices for candles...pretty much only the department stores and the grocery stores. Craft shops are almost non-existent. Buying wax? We had to drive over an hour to find a shop that was merely selling "candle wax" but had NO idea what kind of wax they were even selling! Forget about additives or even dyes...non-existent. (Needless to say, we didn't spend a penny there.) Chandlers here are extremely rare. Think candlemaking in the US is expensive? Try here! Absurdly high shipping costs make it tough to get a foothold in the craft, and that's one of the major reasons why there are so few chandlers on this island. What you can buy here is equally pathetic though...you pretty much have a choice between the "mainstays" candles (I believe this is Walmart's brand...and they cheat HARDCORE...I don't even want to get into how many shortcuts their "candlemakers" use) and this REALLY poor-quality brand that's imported from the Dominican Republic. There are a couple of odds-and-ends candle brands that sometimes make it down here, and of course, you've got the third-party stuff (such as Betty Crocker's attempts) that you can find in places like Walgreens. Market saturation? Not a chance in hell. Opportunity? Prime, if you can swing the cost (which we fortunately can).

When I did my candlemaking in Vermont about 12 years ago, they were EVERYWHERE...you could buy candles on just about every city block where I lived (Burlington), there was even a Yankee (Yankme?) Candle store (you could smell it a block away). There was so much market saturation that it made me wonder how anyone stayed afloat! And from what I've heard from my friends still in Vermont, it's gotten worse, not better.

So, how about everyone else? How's the market saturation level where you are? Any problems with penetration? In saturated markets, how do you go about establishing presence?

[KristinesShower]

I am in a town of 1,000 and almost every little shop here sells candles. I've counted (in my head) 6 of them and they are not even a block away.

I sell B&B items and to my knowledge, there is only two other places in town that do - one is actually selling my things and the other is pretty far out of town next to the interstate.

I think I establish myself because everything is actually "made" here and people like to see that. Actually since I've started back working here again, I can't believe the people who come up to the windows and look in at the production area.

As for candles, I don't know really. I am a candle person myself and even though I make them, I still buy from other places and online as well. Doesn't seem like I can have enough and I know there are others out there just like me lol