Good areas to setup a computer shop?

[ATLTJL]

Speaking as a person who spent his teens playing video games at arcades, I would say that your target market is kids who are old enough to drive, but not old enough to drink.

I know things have changed quite a bit since those days, but assuming a few core things haven't, my suggestions would be as follows:

1) I'd look around the North Point area, where you can tap into Alpharetta teens, but it's still central enough that you could get influx from Johns Creek, Kennesaw, etc.

2) I would make sure to stay open late, at least midnight on weekends. That's when kids are out looking for stuff to do, especially when they can't get into bars.

[tikigod311]

Serve the older crowd if repair will be the primary source of income. I used to do this work and they are great customers. Everyone else knows how to Google and are buying "disposable" computers/devices. Small business is also a great source of income, but that is shrinking all the time with so many programs being sold as a service.

If you want to sell IT service, you definitely want to be mobile and serve a region. Plenty of places that fit that description around the metro, Cobb as a whole seems like it would be good, Forsyth, northern Gwinnett, probably a ton more places that would be great. I would look at where money and a older age residents reside and make that my target.

[jeoff]

Maybe North Dekalb Mall. Judging from the stores there, the overhead may not be that bad--especially with Macy's closing. But, there is a comic shop with a different type of gaming, a movie theater and a food court, that might work well with the gaming crowd. The inflatables place from City of Decatur just moved in--so it must be perceived as safe. It is close to a lot of areas with high incomes. Assuming that your model is workable at all (per Larry X), it could work there.