Looking to open a homebrew store

[lgraham]

My current location is lacking in a good homebrew store. There's one in the area but it's very poorly managed. A friend and I are thinking about opening one up. Does anyone have any advice for me? Any store owners out there who'd be willing to give me some tips?

Thanks!

 

[Arizona Dave]

As a previous store investor, don't quit your day job, have a good complete business plan and enough capital to run the store for at least 1 year. In the Tucson area, there used to be 4 homebrew supply stores, now there is one! The internet has made the price of ingredients fungable and the only thing a local store can offer beyond the virtual store is brewing expertise and "I need it now" supplies.

Hope I am not too negative, but the statistics on small storefront businesses are not good. Checkout the Small Business Administration web site to see for your self.

Dave

My current location is lacking in a good homebrew store. There's one in the area but it's very poorly managed. A friend and I are thinking about opening one up. Does anyone have any advice for me? Any store owners out there who'd be willing to give me some tips?

Thanks!

 

[Janx]

Wanna make a million bucks running a homebrew shop?

Start with two million...

 

[seven77]

If there was a homebrew store anywhere near here, I'd go there instead of buying off of the internet. I absolutely HATE buying stuff off the internet... probably due to the fact that I do it all the time . It's just living in ND, there isn't much up here.

But I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way as me. Maybe it's different if you don't live in the country.

 

[masondelux]

My current location is lacking in a good homebrew store. There's one in the area but it's very poorly managed. A friend and I are thinking about opening one up. Does anyone have any advice for me? Any store owners out there who'd be willing to give me some tips?

Thanks!

: If you open a porn shop with it youll make a ton of money!! Make sure you have a pretty blonde with no experince in brewing and alot of experince in Porn. :

 

[Roy Boy]

If there was a homebrew store anywhere near here, I'd go there instead of buying off of the internet. I absolutely HATE buying stuff off the internet...

I hate doing it too, its just so dicey! Here in brisbane there was only two shops about 14 months ago, now they've expanded to 5 in the general metropolitan area...I never really thought about it before, but live within walking distance of one of the original stores, very very lucky indeed

 

[Uncle Fat]

Wanna make a million bucks running a homebrew shop?

Start with two million...

Reminds me of the old joke.. What does a musician do after winning the lottery?

Keeps on gigging until the money runs out...


As far as the local store vs internet thing.... It's really hard to be the consumer. I try to split it down the middle. I support my local HBS (I think I'm putting the owner's kids through college). But I also buy online when the disparity in cost is too high. If your local market is not saturated, I think you can still make it with a store. You just have to market in different ways than other businesses. Sponsor or even hold events for your local homebrew club... The HBS in my area hosts a monthly meeting for the brew crew. Can you think of better advertising than that?? Almost every homebrewer in town is in their store at least once a month. The thing about homebrewers is that it's almost as much about the community as it is about the hobby (why else would we all come here to read and post). If your HBS is there to help the local homebrew community, they'll be there to help you.


$.02

 

[OSUmoney83]

Reminds me of the old joke.. What does a musician do after winning the lottery?

Keeps on gigging until the money runs out...

along those same lines.....Whats the difference between a musician and a large pizza?.....The large pizza can feed a family of four