Convenience Store

Einstein

My family are after coming into a great oppurtunity to open a much needed convenience store in our locality. It's something thats been needed for a very long time, and I have no doubts about it doing very well, but my question is, what really makes a convenience store successful? What little things make the biggest differences?
Any advice appreciated!

D

gibo_ie

a guy done this in my local village and after a year ended up building a larger store and gettign a mace franchise. I think what done it for him was a few things.
1. Friendly staff who smile and dont growl
2. keep prices resonable, people will drive to town for shopping if you try to screw them over, they may stop for bread and milk but that will be it.
3. Keep the place clean , inside and out, good impressions...
4. Ask customers for thoughts/advice. does someone like a particular brand or product that may be worth stocking?
5. Offer older people or people with kids a lift back home on occasion, most will say no , some will say yes, but trust me, everyone in the area will hear of how polite you are to customers very quickly

Just a few thoughts, best of luck with the venture

Einstein

Thanks Gibo,
Thats an interesting thought about lifts home etc. A lot of the people in the locality are quite elderly, so the small things like politeness and keeping them coming back will be a big thing!!

davidoco

I grew up in a family business (convenience store) in a small town and I recommend that you take a drive and find a similar sized locality and speak to the owners of a shop there. They will tell you about long hours, knocks on the door at all hours for cigs, pilfering, dishonest staff, security fears if you are living attached to the premises, inability to invest due to threat of competition wiping you out. I think that the only other self employment opportunity out there that is more disruptful to your life is a pub.

It's just very difficult being there ALL the time and I doubt that more than one family unit (for example husband and wife) could make a living out of any regular sized vivo or spar. You will never find this sort of business being run by brothers and sisters unless it is a very well established place.

People have the idea that shops make a fortune. Take a visit to a Cash and Carry, look at the price of a box of Mars bars, multiply the selling price by the number in the box and you make about 5 euro selling the whole box. It's fair enough when you see convenience shops in shopping centres and the like turning over a lot of money.

tom-thebox

A sush puppy machine!

antoinolachtnai

I'm not a retail guy, but I've learned a bit about it along the way.

It is obviously important to have a site where there is good footfall and passing traffic and where the shop is visible from the roadway. The rest of the investment is a waste of money unless the site is a good one. If you are depending on walking traffic, make sure there are actually enough people living in your area to support your business. There is a good reason why many areas of Dublin are poorly served with shops - the population density is just too low.

You need to spend the money to make the shop look the brightest and most impressive in the neighbourhood. This is obviously expensive, especially if you have a food preparation component.

You need 'draws' into the shop, such as Lotto and top-ups.

After that, I think it's largely a question of accounting. You have to keep the cost base low, keep the service decent and have the prices high enough to make a profit.

It's basically all about your pricing. You need to price high enough to make money, but not so high as to drive people away. Depending on where you're located, people may or may not be price-sensitive.

Keeping the salary bill under control and managing the staff well (avoiding things like shrinkage, no-shows, illness and so on) is also very important.

Everybody likes to say that service is important, and it is. You should do your best, but it's hard to deliver on the promise on a 16-hour-a-day basis.

Elderly people are certainly a great target market for convenience stores, because they are unwilling or unable to travel a distance to the larger shops.

Einstein

Hi guys, thanks for the responses,

Davidoco,
I must admit you do seem very negative towards the whole thing, possibly because your experience was from a small town?
I'm lucky in that the shopfront faces onto probably one of the busiest roads on the northside of Dublin's suburbia, which lets me have plenty of passing trade i.e someone steps of the bus, and the first they see will be the shop . There's also quite a substantial sized estate very close by. There are two secondary schools in walking distance, and a church across the road. So i'm lucky that location is definitly in our favour.
We will be looking for the lotto, phone top ups etc, the thnigs that there is a high demand for. I'd just like to able to have something that would be different than everyone else.

D

fintan

I know a shop that will deliver stuff to elderly people...... not only does help the old people in the community but the shop has such a good reputation because of it.

Einstein

yeah fintan,
that's definitly on the cards! Will really give a good name!

dahamsta

One Centra franchisee near me throws freebies at me every now and then, which makes me feel very welcome. Nothing big, just things like mince pies at christmas and the occasional newspaper (which are usually partly sponsored by the paper company), but it's the little things that count. Of course their genuine friendliness and helpfulness is another big factor that makes me go back.

adam

Newaglish

Well, the first thing of course that you have to do is to research the market and so forth; are there enough customers, who are your competitors, what exactly are you expecting and what is it you're going to get? The worst thing to do is go in with false ideas as to how it's going to run

Assuming you've done all that, there's alot of good ideas here which would give you a great advantage; personally I thought the idea of offering lifts to elderly people and so on was excellent. But if it's a small sized town, and a small shop, the personal touch is really vital. Make sure the staff are friendly and competent - there's nothing people like less than going into a shop and being served by a pair of glaring teenagers who don't have a clue what they're doing, and being made to feel that all you're doing when you go into the shop is disrupting their all-important chatting time!

Concentrate on things like giving lifts to people, delivering shopping, knowing the names of regulars & making regulars feel like regulars, having exactly what people want and not lots of rubbish like beetroot and organic plastic bags. Also, think of lots of other things to make shopping there comfortable and unique, so that it stands out, even for a minor reason. Give away free stuff periodically, maybe have a stand with free cakes & buns or something simple like that.

I also read that you're within walking distance of two secondary schools? A small deli counter would be something well worth considering!

Hope even a little of that helps

antoinolachtnai

Is the planning permission straightforward? It's in current use as retail, right? Not too close to residential?

RainyDay

If you really want to understand the business, go work in someone else's shop for 3-6 months before invest your own money.

Note that Lotto don't give out terminals to just anyone - they will have a limited number of terminals in any area, so you may not qualify if there are other Lotto outlets close by.

Einstein

RainyDay wrote:

If you really want to understand the business, go work in someone else's shop for 3-6 months before invest your own money.

Note that Lotto don't give out terminals to just anyone - they will have a limited number of terminals in any area, so you may not qualify if there are other Lotto outlets close by.

Worked in a spar for 5-6 years, some of that time I was partly managing too. So have enough experience. The last shop that was there a few years ago had a lotto terminal, I realise that not everyone qualifies, but would be hopeful since the previous place had one.