Suggestions for popular products to sell at a kiosk?

[anomolies]

Long story short, my family is in a bad spot right now like most people, younger siblings going through school, (dad lost job, etc), and while I'm finishing my last year of college and worrying about the job market, I've been thinking a lot about how I could cut down my living costs and how to increase my income flow.

I've been thinking about renting a kiosk with the money I have saved up. don't believe that I'll find a job that I'm interested in right away so I think a kiosk has a good shot at turning a profit while being low maintenance as I can hire someone to watch it for me, while I attend class or work another job, or focus on my hobbies/passion.

From what I've found out, rent is anywhere from $3000 -10,000 / month depending on area and time of year. Month to month. Even at $10,000 it is still profitable, but only for the few kiosks that stock the right products. But of course, I would choose the least expensive month if I was just starting out to test the water.

The most popular products seem to be things teenagers would like and can afford, such as toys / keychains / jewelry / etc, or cosmetics. The least popular I've seen are monavie (wtf), chinese herbal stuff (wtf), and kiosks that stock only single products, (clothes iron, helicopters). Basically things that the average shopper isn't looking for at a mall.

I can't understand why people would pay such high rent to sell bland products, and why someone would open up a belt / cell phone case kiosk when there are already several in the same mall and furthermore sell the same exact products.

Anyway, my idea right now is to sell japanese toys / plush toys / maybe shirts like Domo, doraemon, torotoro, things from Japanese cartoons, while catering to both genders/ I was talking to one guy who stocked similar stuff, and claimed to have been there 2 years, pulling $1,000 in sales every single day. That's a pretty decent profit margin even with the high rent. It's believable as well, given the high traffic I witnessed, and the price of his goods ($5 - $20 mostly), assuming the average person spent $10, he would only need 100 customers, and there were at least 100 people passing by every minute.

I want to stock products that are not easily accessible in mall stores / United States, something that is currently popular and will continue to be popular at least for the next few years.

Anyway, if anyone has any experience or ideas on cool products feel free to share.

btw is pokemon still popular with kids? lol

Edited January 3, 2012 by anomolies