Gaff’s: Too big to fail?

Gaff’s is not only an off-licence but a brand, selling it’s own t-shirts, possessing a unique range of products and even at one time trialing its own club night. For a shop to inspire the level of devotion from students as it does, the owners must be doing at least the basics right. Basics that any student with an interest in entrepreneurship would do well to learn from.

Their success is mostly built on one thing, in the words of an employee who wished not to be named, “we provide anything that the students want.” In other words, the customer is always right. Gaff’s has a clearly defined target market, being first year Fallowfield campus students, and will bend over backwards to make sure they stock everything a first year could possibly want.

From snacks, event tickets and video entertainment to cheap alcohol and cigarettes, their range of stock aimed at students is unrivalled and more extensive than any of the chains in the area such as Sainsbury’s or Tesco. They also operate at the more student friendly hours of about 1pm to 3am. Even after 3am on busy nights, an efficient service still operates through the loading hatch. In spite of Gaff’s smaller size, by tailoring their service entirely towards the needs of students they out-compete their supermarket rivals by offering a customized student service.

Gaff’s also benefits from extremely low operating costs. By not wasting money on unnecessary new signs, decorations or cleaning they can keep profit margins high whilst keeping prices low. They also employ low cost yet extremely effective forms of advertising. By running word of mouth campaigns amongst students in Fallowfield for offers such as the infamous £1 wine or free t-shirt promotion, students come flocking to get the latest deals.

They have also become increasingly active in social media with almost 4000 friends on Facebook compared to Paz from Kebab King’s comparatively unsuccessful 923. Gaff’s aggressive cost cutting has also been cleverly used to construct their brand image. Relishing in their business’s wheeler-dealer reputation, they know that for every outlandish story that circulates around Fallowfield they simultaneously increase their legendary status amongst students and their customer base.

Lastly Gaff’s is extremely entrepreneurial for a family run business of its type, expanding into more profitable areas and cutting services that don’t make the grade. In 2010 inspired by Dominoes’ success Gaffs started running a late night snack delivery service which has proved popular with students.

Although occasionally running into various regulatory difficulties, Gaff’s continues to innovate and although perhaps their business model is not scalable, it demonstrates how successful a small business can be just by sticking to the basics.