Liquor Store owners???

[KENNYO]

Any owners on line? Three licenses are coming up in my town and wondered what initial start up cost and expected profit margins would be.

[Sea-Dated]

Even in a depression, people are still going to drink. I have known a couple people who owned liquor stores and they did pretty well. Like anything else, location and selection seem to be the big fctors.

[Trim'd Up]

Just don't drink all of your profits! ;)

[MidnightRider]

There is alot to consider, I think a major thing is the state of the economy and the ability to have or borrow the money. Location, traffic, demographic, to own or lease. How much time do you have to personally get it off the ground, or are you taking over an existing store. Existing stores are figured at three years gross profit, plus owners benefits, along with property and fixtures. If you are starting a new store as I did, non franchise, don't do what I did. KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. We way over built our place, notty pine walls and ceiling, granite counter tops, new coolers, rediculous. If I were to do over again I would really shop around. There is a ton of used equipment out there. Find yourself a good HVAC guy that won't rip you off to help put the stuff together. Really, really consider your demographic, build to suit. You wonder why there are alot of dumpy party stores, I now know. If you sell it, they will come, because my store is very nice, has no bearing on sales, I found this out. I could ramble on forever, so if you have something specific, just ask.

Licensing is based on your state. We are in Michgan where beer, wine, and lliquor is completely state controlled. The state determines your vendors, product cost, and minimum product retail pricing. This business is alot less profitable than I was led to believe. Most would say overall 35%, but it's less. Yes, you can double and triple your money on things, but that is on cheap items, lighters, candy ect. Where you can not make a high margin is on the expensive items, beer, wine liquor, smokes, so as a dollar amount that brings down your overall margins. Those items accounted for 75% of sales yesterday. I would recommend POS, a point of sale computer system, the numbers don't lie. And let no one kid you, these are not recession proof business', the numbers don't lie. We are down at least 30% since "Black Monday". People are at the point in my area they can not even afford to drink, I mean they have no money! And Obama is just going to F@ck us small business' over. Raise our taxes, make us provide health care, we are struggling as it is.

My $.02 It is not a good time to be opening or buying a small business. But I would gladly answer any question you may have. MR

[boatme]

chad i have never seen your place post a pic or tow and a location I qould love to swing in to see

[MarylandMark]

Good info MR!

I worked for a Bud distributor for a few years- owning a booze store didn't look like much fun. Have to buy in quantity to get the discounts- 2K cases for like 50 cents off per case- and were selling them for like 2 bucks a case more than they paid for them. Add in what it cost to keep it cold, counter help, lease, etc and didn't seem like much profit to me.

Obviously MR owns a joint and can tell you much more but IMHO I wouldn't want to do it. The $$ would be location where you can charge what you want (not state run)- like an on the water store. Add 25% to cost for a case, triple the cost for ice, etc but a local corner shop where people have other choices you have to complete with those other choices.

[getchasum111]

holy crap i have a hang over and the first thing i see is you talking about a liquor store....uuhhhh....

[MidnightRider]

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[MidnightRider]

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[MidnightRider]

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[boatme]

looks nice

[getchasum111]

looks like a nice place....but i still don't feel good....i'll bet a big glass of vodka would help...i'll bet our boys in KW are having beers by now....whatcha think...

[KENNYO]

Thanks MR. I managed a store 20 years ago and the guy who is wanting to do this needed some info. Our economy is still pretty strong down here. You made some good points which I agree with. I'm always overly cautious and thought about most of what you mentioned. The trick here is to actually "GET" the license.
We'll see how it goes. Thanks.

[sanger rat]

I've seen your store just can't remember where.

[MidnightRider]

Sanger- Our store is in North Wayland, MI. MR

[sanger rat]

The closest I've been to NW is when I went to Gun Lake this summer. Maybe I've seen one of your advertisements. I just know I've seen that sign somewhere before.

[Twin27Advantage]

Sanger, if you were at hot boat this year you may have seen a bunch of us sporting his shirts with a big logo on the back.

[sanger rat]

That could be it. I'm there every year. I didn't run the hydro much this year. I was having to much fun riding shotgun in the pink&white HTM and the 25 Warlock.