New brew shop

[jeff0001]

A friend of mine is a few months away from opening a brew shop. Besides the basics, he asked me to post looking for suggestions and any advice you all may have. He's a younger guy with a passion for beer just like all of us. All posts will greatly be appreciated!

 

[ktblunden]

• Carry as wide a selection as you can. If you don't carry what the customer wants, be willing to figure out some way to order it for them in a timely manner.
• Make sure you are knowledgeable enough to answer a broad range of questions. If you don't know the answer to a question, honestly admit you don't know. Then research it! If the same person comes back and you still don't know the answer it reflects poorly on you.
• Always be courteous and ready to answer the exact same beginner questions over and over and over. A lot of the people who come in the door are just starting out, if you give them a bad first impression you will probably never see them again.
• Do your best to price competitively to online suppliers.
• Offering a discount to members of a local homebrew club or AHA members is a good way to get people in the store. These people are your potential repeat customers on day 1.
• Scheduling brewing demonstrations is a good way to entice people to try homebrewing. Offer a special deal on a starter kit to anyone who attends a demonstration.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. I've been to a few mediocre homebrew shops and I am lucky enough to have an excellent one a few miles away from me. Most of the points I listed are why my local shop is so much better than a lot of others.

 

[Pugnax88]

The demonstration sounds like an awesome idea

Sent from my Torque using Home Brew mobile app

 

[jeff0001]

That is an awesome idea. Is there any laws that he would have to worry about? I would assume not.

 

[ktblunden]

That is an awesome idea. Is there any laws that he would have to worry about? I would assume not.

Fire code is all I can think of. I think most places that do demonstrations set up a propane burner in their parking lot. As long as that is ok with the property owner I don't think there would be an issue.