Interview with Marc Arribas – Director of Club Opera

Interview with Marc Arribas – Director of Club Opera

We conducted an interview with the director of a new club in Barcelona called Opera to ask him about his thoughts on our business idea was and if he would agree on adding a vending machine in his club if our business idea was to be created.

Just like most males, when we presented the idea of providing a solution to girls who are tired form wearing high heels while dancing in clubs, he was surprised about the idea and quickly became quite supportive about implementing the business into his club because ‘it made sense’. He understood and agreed to the idea immediately because he himself was thinking about creating something for the girls to ‘rest their feet’ in his club, his idea was to separate out a section of the club’s floor and add a big sponge and people can dance without shoes on it. (I commented on his idea that the sponge floor might become dirty if drinks spill and also you would not want all the girls to leave the dance floor and go there.)

·      His club has a large restroom (plus area for makeup) and he said it would be possible to add the machine outside or inside the restroom.

·      He suggested to add chairs for girls to sit down when changing their shoes

Sales Prediction

We asked him to give an estimate of the number of girls who will buy from the vending machine and he suggested that the best way to answer this is if you put an actual machine into the club, offered the ballerinas at cost price, and measure the result because this is a new product so we don’t any historical statistics to compare with.

Vending Machine

He also suggested that instead of buying a vending machine customized to your product, there are vending machines for rent that suits to a fixed product size. It is much cheaper than ordering 1 or 5 special ones just to test out your product. Examples can be found in metro stations in Barcelona, where they sell mobile phone covers and USB sticks.

Where and how to produce Ballerinas

A typical minimum order for shoes in China is 500 pairs+. This would be impossible for us to afford at the beginning of the business and especially when we have to repeat the same ballerinas in different sizes – 36,37,38,39,40 just for ONE DESIGN.

Marc suggested producing the first ‘show case’ ballerinas locally in Catalonia in Spain. This was you can produce in small quantities in shorter time and better communication between us and the suppliers.