Posted by Kurt M. on 6/24/2004, 12:06 pm Inventory start-up cost for this type of business is hard to find. Thats simply because there is no one answer. It depends on size of the store and the type of inventory you will specialize in. Then there are the fixed assets, such as coolers, shelving, registers and so on. Again, the cost of all this depends on how and where you purchase this stuff from. Much of it you could find out for yourself by visiting other stores and taking notes. Compare their layout and inventory with what you plan to do. Then go off and find the cost for these items. For fixed assets this is easy. For alcoholic items you may want to contact your states alcohol/liquor office. They are usually located within the states treasury department. If you live in a state where wholesalers have to register their pricelists (what they charge a retailer) you could probably obtain a copy. As far as what to stock it depends on the type of customers you expect to serve. In an area where single bottles of beer are predominant it would make not much sense to store many different high-valued wines. Again, you need to visit other stores and see what their inventory looks like. There is a good chance that yours will be similar. You might hear from others that for a certain size store there is a certain amount of investment required. This is not true. It depends completely on the things I mentioned here.
I have not been able to find a website that provides information regarding starting a liquor store. I would recommend that you go out the Small Business Administration website and look around there. The SBA has an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you. While not directly addressing liquor stores, keep in mind that a liquor store is not much different from other retail stores. Administrations, management, inventory control, employment practices and so on are more or less the same across retail stores.
Good luck.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread