New business in La Crosse,WI (Onalaska, Holmen: home, weddings, colleges)

[bebin]

I am moving to La Crosse and I want to open a european quality french pastry and bakery shop.with home made chocolates.chocolate candies,cakes,breads,petit fours,tarts,wedding cakes,fresh crossiants and danish,ice cream and more.What do you think guys about this kind of business in La Crosse area.Thank you

[JoshB]

I know La Crosse has a vibrant downtown. With the UW there I would think that you would attract a younger crowd. I think La Crosse would be a great location. Good Luck!

[MidwesternBookWorm]

La Crosse is a nice community, and a business such as you describe could well enjoy considerable success there. The city has about 50K people, and the UW-L has about 8K students, so the younger crowd is definitely a significant factor there. That has an impact on your labor, of course: you'll be able to get lower cost labor, but they'll be more transient.

La Crosse also has a good reputation as a vacation destination, and if you pitch your business to tourists, you could enhance your revenue considerably that way.

Good luck to you; we'll look for your place the next time we visit the La Crosse branch of the family!

[KateDaum]

I think a bakery like you are describing would be a wonderful addition. We would stop when we are in the area. Good luck!

[huggybear28]

What a great idea! I would definitely suggest downtown as a location for such a place as one does not really exist. There are many weddings that occur near downtown which will help the wedding cake business. There are a few more bridal shops moving downtown in the last few years due to an increase in weddings down there. There is not really a chocolate shop besides finotties(I have no idea how to spell it). The problem is they do not have the best hours, well at least a year ago they did not. They closed at 5PM. There is the pearl downtown, but their ice cream and candy are really expensive. As for the bakery shop La Crosse does not really have a good bakery shop. People like the bread from Fayzes downtown but I know most people who go there because of the restaurant rather than the bread. The combination of all of those would be great. I also want to point out the mall area may be good. The problem is there you would rely on the local population as you would not get the students from the colleges or the tourists who go downtown. The downside of downtown is you may miss out on attracting a lot of the upper and middle class customers from Onalaska and Holmen. Although many of them do work in La Crosse so you may catch them as they head home from work.

[JoshB]

Originally Posted by bebin

I am moving to La Crosse and I want to open a european quality french pastry and bakery shop.with home made chocolates.chocolate candies,cakes,breads,petit fours,tarts,wedding cakes,fresh crossiants and danish,ice cream and more.What do you think guys about this kind of business in La Crosse area.Thank you

You may also factor in that La Crosse is one of the 33 towns along the Great Wisconsin River Road. I'm sure people would be coming off the highway to check out downtown area of La Crosse. La Crosse is the biggest city along highway 35 aka The River Road. So you have many advantages.

[Jeeperrick]

Don't forget a really good coffee, some steamers, and wireless! You'll have people in there all day long!

[tvdxer]

Sounds like it'd fit the Downtown area well.

I was in La Crosse for the first time in October 2007, just for a few hours, but was very impressed by the downtown area. I don't remember seeing very many, if any, vacant storefronts, traffic was very heavy through downtown, and it just gave off a very active, vibrant vibe (I don't care if that's a pun).

[WISTOMOVE]

This is in response to tvdxr...there are plenty of vacant store fronts downtown.
To the OP, pick your location very carefully. La Crosse would really benefit from a shop like the one you described, but parking downtown in horrendous.

[DSMWXMAN]

I worked for 2 restaurants in downtown La Crosse, and both closed because of lack of business and sky high rent. Be careful where you put your business, as the La Crosse Center does not get even close to the amount of activity it used to when the Catbirds were there. I would try to get a location that is closer to the Bodega so that you are in the heart of activity there. La Crosse is not a town that can support fancy, high-priced food and beverage, so keep that in mind when setting your business up. One of the restaurants I worked at tried that approach and it did not take.

Downtown La Crosse is world famous for its bar scene, so keep that in mind as well.

Good Luck!