Starting a Grocery Store Business

Summary: This article briefly discusses the grocery store business. Find out some of the things you need to know in order to start your own grocery store business.

The grocery store concept, which is a descendant of the turn of the century general store, belongs to the retail industry.

The retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries today and is considered as a vital part of our economy. The chief purpose of this industry is to provide goods and merchandise to the consumers. They get their products straight from the manufacturer or via a wholesaler or distributor. Ultimately, these products are sold to customers for consumption.

These goods are vast and varied. Retailers may sell anything and everything from food to apparel to electronics and so on. A grocery store for the most part offers food (both fresh and dry) and other household essentials.

Starting a grocery store business may pose as a challenge if you are not equipped with the proper information. The business has several aspects that you need to focus on and study if you want your efforts to yield results.

Begin with yourself. You don’t need to have prior retailing experience. All you need is the right attitude and the ‘customer-first’ mindset. An effective grocery store owner knows how to multitask. He is able to make swift yet calculated decisions. He is hard working and is not afraid to work long hours.

Planning is essential as you begin to stock up your store. This keeps you form buying items that at first may seem like a good idea until you notice that they’re just gathering dust on the shelves. Unless you have experience to back you up, there is no way you can be 100% correct in your inventory forecasting that is why you need to plan and at the very least conduct a market research. With adequate planning and research, you will be able determine what you need to buy and how much. If need be, conduct a survey. You can also ask the manufacturers themselves for their most popular product. Be keen though for they may not always give you a straight answer.

Exercise diligence in scouting for the best possible resource for your products. See to it that you get the lowest deal thereby allowing you to give the best mark-up price.

Enticing your shoppers with the products you have on hand is difficult if you have limited space. Therefore, you need to be crafty. Make sure that impulse items (magazines, sweets, etc) and high priced items are allocated in an area within your store where there is heavy customer traffic. See to it that your fast moving products (milk, bread etc) are displayed near the back of the store space. The idea here being, your shoppers will have to pass through several aisle of products they may not have considered on buying had they not seen it.

A final note. In light of the number of grocery stores and supermarkets out there, is there room for more? Most definitely! The key is to create your own market niche. To do this, you need to have a unique selling point. You may want to sell hard-to-find premium products that most supermarkets don’t have on stock. Use your creativity. Think of a distinct concept that is entirely yours. Or you can improve on what’s already out there. The key is to offer something that customers cannot get anywhere else.

1. shivan (4/18/2008)

it is good to know about this but i wanted clear answer that how i start

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2. Admin (4/18/2008)

[Shivan]: There are many factors involved in starting a grocery store. You have to prepare a set of questions and answer them before you approach anyone for a business plan. I can only write down few for you to start with but thumb rule is more homework, never start a business without a homework. Remember, no contractor can produce a business plan without getting an answer to these questions.
1. What kind of grocery store? (indian, chinese, mexican)
2. Where you want to start it?
3. Will it be a franchised one or your own brand?
4. Do you won a place where you want to start this grocery store?
5. Will you hire or run yourself?

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3. KBG (4/19/2008)

Thanks Shivan, you and I are the same track. I want to do my homework, I would like to have a community market, I have my site on a location and it was once a market. It is currently empty, I have been looking for more information about starting up a market, this won't be a franchise, too small. More of a community market with basic good and produce. Any suggestions?

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4. JT (4/21/2008)

I've also have been searching for more information concerning opening up a new grocery store. Loans, start up costs, location research, etc. After 6 Months I still have issues on locating the sort of information that is required, most grocery stores now are operated by big business and they are not willing to share any information. I would like to open a small family business, anyone have any suggestions?

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5. TBW (4/26/2008)

I have a location, it actually was a grocery store before. How do I determine the start up costs? Is there grant money available for this? How would I go about obatining a loan with F grade credit. I went through a bad divorce & currently disabled, hence the bad credit rating. There is a need in this area. Just need to know about how much money is required to get started.

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6. John (5/2/2008)

Where, can I find info on grocery margins

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7. Quan (6/9/2008)

Hi everyone, I'm about to open a grocery store soon near my house. And I'm just like everyone here looking for the information, and I have collected some tips, hope these tips would help.

Things you need to do before open a grocery store:
- Know how much money you have and need to open a store. (I found a small place for rent with $300/month, deposit for 3 months: $900; I need a cash register:$150-$200; a small refrigerator: $800-$1000; shelves: $100up; and a license for $200up, so total for start up cost is: $2500-$3000, and I didn't calculate the money you need for buying products for sale, it's up to you for how many and how much you want to sell)

- If you find a place, negotiate with the owner and get the deal done. Ask them to give you a week or two free to clean and prepare the place before moving in.

- Go apply for your license at your state. Call the Health department and Fire department to inspect the store.

- Set up the store, buy products at wholesale prices (you have to search for wholesale dealers in your area, and negotiate the prices), stock up your products and prepare for grand opening day.

- Last, remember to always...smile to your customers. Wish everyone the best in opening their stores. Btw, my total cost for opening my small grocery store was about $6000.

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8. HARI (7/5/2008)

Good but still I need more information.

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9. Andy (7/11/2008)

Ya, that above solutions are useful but not enough at all. Most thing is that operating cost, means how much the annual cost. That includes insurance of store, annual tax, and mortgage. So do you have any idea about this, please share your thinking. That might be helpful to someone. thanks

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10. stacey (7/18/2008)

very good comments

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