How to open a grocery store from scratch: step-by-step instructions

Selling food is always a sought-after and stable business. Even in difficult times of crisis, people will buy food, saving on other expenses. Step-by-step instructions will help to open a successful business from scratch, while taking into account all the risks and unforeseen expenses of the future owner of the enterprise.

Before answering the question of how to open a grocery store, you should decide on the size of the room. Now many are trying to pick up food for a week in large supermarkets, regardless of their location, and make small daily purchases in stores located within walking distance from their home or office. Especially popular are those that work on the principle of self-service. To open such a point will require a large amount of money. Small grocery supermarkets that serve small areas in the city, remote from the center, are also very popular with customers.

Pros and cons of opening a store

Even after studying step-by-step instructions in detail, opening a grocery store from scratch is not easy. You need to know all the nuances of this business.

Advantages of the grocery store:

• Small outlets within walking distance attract the attention of consumers. You can be sure that the entrepreneur will have regular customers who are satisfied with the proximity to residential buildings, the quality of the goods and affordable prices.
• It will be easy to sell products because they are affordable.
• Easy calculations of the cost and profitability of the store in the future.
• This business is considered stable and sustainable, since the entrepreneur sells essential goods for a person.
• Despite the large number of competitors, you can open a promising store that generates profit. It is important that the outlet always has a wide range of fresh goods, prices must be attractive, staff should be polite.

Negative factors:

• A huge number of competitors. They have one or more points, regular customers come to them every day for shopping. In order for the new grocery store to have the same popularity, a lot of money should be spent on advertising.
• To open a supermarket that will interest the general public, you will need to think about a wide range. For this, it is also necessary to spend substantial cash. You can successfully enter this market by making significant initial investments.
• It is necessary to carefully monitor the expiration dates of the goods. As a rule, in products it is quite short. Entrepreneurs constantly incur losses due to goods not sold on time.
• To open a grocery store, you will need to collect a number of documents. This will take a lot of time; coordination with several authorities will be required.

Business Registration

Many people wonder what action to take to open a grocery store. First you need to register a business, and this is a very lengthy process. It is necessary to find out what documents a beginner needs. You can collect them yourself or contact this company in special companies. They will do all the work in a short time, taking into account the requirements of the law.

Registration IP. Collection of documents

Any process is easier to carry out by studying the step-by-step instructions. You can open a grocery store, having decided on the choice of how its owner will be registered. As an individual entrepreneur? How is a legal entity? The first option is the most popular for opening a small grocery point. To register an IP, a number of documents will be required:

• INN
• Certificate confirming registration of individual entrepreneurs.
• The current contract for the removal of garbage from the outlet.
• Permission received by the fire department. To get this document, you need to equip the premises, in accordance with fire safety standards.
• Permission from SES.
• A certificate confirming that the entrepreneur is included in the general register of trade.
• A valid lease agreement or documentation confirming that the entrepreneur is the owner of a building equipped for the store.

Additional documentation

Trading is a profitable business. Every citizen who has enough money and does not give up on difficulties can open a grocery store. The future owner of the outlet will need to collect additional documents. These include:

• An approved list of the assortment of goods that is planned to be sold.
• The current contract with companies involved in the transport of goods from factories and warehouses.
• A document that allows you to sell products.
• Accompanying documentation for all goods together with a certificate of their quality.
• Delivery notes, where delivery dates, sales dates, and other important information about the goods sold should be indicated.
• Current medical books for all the staff of the outlet.

To open a small grocery store you do not have to get a special certificate or license. It is also worth remembering that an individual entrepreneur should not sell alcoholic beverages. If the store is registered to a legal entity, you can sell such goods, but it is worth remembering that strong drinks are divided into strong and low alcohol. For each type of such products you will need to obtain different licenses. The owner of the point should warn the staff in advance that it is strictly forbidden to sell alcohol at night, as well as to minors.

Location selection

Novice entrepreneurs often wonder how to open a grocery store. A good choice of location will be the key to the success of this type of business. The most successful place to open your first point is the central part of the city, a site near densely populated business districts, near shopping centers, on walking routes, where there is always a large crowd of people. Small outlets are also popular in remote sleeping areas. When choosing, you need to consider that the rent in the city center is several times higher than on the outskirts. For example, in the capital of our country, rents near the metro in the central part start at 4 thousand dollars per year per square meter. When choosing a place, it should be borne in mind that the fee for a rented place should not exceed 1% of the monthly turnover without VAT.

To answer the question of how to open a grocery store in the village, you should know that in this case the entrepreneur will have to pay much less for rent than in large cities. However, patency will be small. It is necessary to take into account the fact that old shops have been working in the villages for a long time, which residents of the surroundings are happy to visit. It is reasonable to open the point near the road. On sale should be not only food, but also essential goods (matches and toiletries).

When choosing a place for your business, be guided by the following important factors:

• The point should be located in places where there are residential premises, large transport hubs or business centers.
• The facade of the building should be visible from the highway.
• It should be possible to place advertising banners outside the building.
• The area of ​​the building should be spacious, because it will have to accommodate commercial equipment, while there should be enough space for buyers.
• The supermarket should have 2 outlets (main and spare).
• The room should have utility rooms for warehouses.

Business Space

How to open a grocery store step by step? It is very important to calculate in advance how much space is required for this business. To open a supermarket within walking distance of residential buildings, you will need to rent an area ranging in size from 200 to 500 square meters. If you plan to open a smaller food store, it’s enough to buy or rent a room about 50 square meters in size.

When answering the question of how to open a grocery store, you need to know that choosing a place in the center, you need to focus on an audience with an income above the average. Such people are much more demanding on the interior of the premises and on the quality of the products sold. Based on this, the owner of the supermarket will have to spend money on quality repairs, design organization. With the opening of a point of sale near houses in residential areas, it is not worth allocating large funds for repairs, it will be enough to spend about 10 thousand rubles per square meter. This money is enough for roughing and finishing, replacing or installing electrics from scratch. Also, workers must make good ventilation, heating and sewage in the room.

Equipment

Novice businessmen are wondering what it takes to open a grocery store. The entrepreneur will need to purchase cash register equipment, shelves for storing bakery products, shelves for fruits and vegetables, display cases, refrigerators and freezers. To open a small specialized supermarket, you will need to purchase equipment and furniture for about 300 thousand rubles.

Before you open a grocery store from scratch, you must find a reliable supplier and make the first bulk purchase. Now it’s not difficult to do this, there are a lot of offers on the market for the delivery and sale of products in bulk at very attractive prices. There are suppliers who fulfill orders made through an online site. Many deliver goods on credit.

For your own savings, it is more profitable to take a lot of goods at once. If possible, it is better to deliver to the store yourself. When looking for suppliers, it is not always important to consider only the price offered. It is advisable to take into account the proposed system of bonuses, discounts, as well as the location of the warehouses.

Recruitment

Before opening a grocery store, an item regarding future employees should be added to the business plan. It is necessary to calculate in advance the costs of their salary. At the beginning of the activity, it is enough to collect several cashiers, an administrator, a loader and security. A small shop can be served by 1-2 sellers. If necessary, they can take on additional responsibilities, for example, unload the goods or conduct an audit. Naturally, they will require additional cash rewards for their work.

Before you open a grocery store and start accepting new employees, it is worth considering that employees work better if they receive bonuses after a job well done, and also if the supermarket owner is present at the point.

Do not forget that sellers must have experience. They need to learn the range of products, they must be polite with customers. The revenue of a food outlet depends on the correct approach of personnel to customers.

New employees also need to be trained to work with cash registers in order to avoid shortages and other financial problems.

Advertising

Before you open a grocery store from scratch, take care of advertising. During the arrangement of the outlet, you must hang a colorful poster outside with information about the planned opening date. It will be useful to send unobtrusive booklets to mailboxes.

In order for buyers to choose your store, you need to conduct an adequate price policy, arrange delivery of products to your home, constantly conduct promotions and sales. Even a symbolic discount of 5-10% will increase the permeability at the point at times.

Franchise

Before you open a grocery store from scratch, familiarize yourself with the terms of the franchise provided in your area. This option will significantly save money on advertising, will provide the newly opened store with a stream of customers. Using this option, the entrepreneur will not need to look for suppliers. Also, some franchises provide ready-made equipment for doing business.

Selection of products for sale

Before opening a grocery store, keep in mind that it is important for any buyer that there is a wide selection of goods at the outlet. The owner needs to pre-fill the shelves with a wide range of food products.

It is important to remember that the margin on certain types of goods may exceed their cost by 2-3 times, however, prices for essential products cannot be inflated. The state has established strict rules for these categories of goods.

The provided assortment of products should be correctly located on the shelf.

Store interior

People asking the question how to open a grocery store so that it is successful among consumers should take care of the interior of the opening outlet. The appearance of the building plays an important role in winning new customers, the name should be memorable and easy to pronounce. The sign in front of the store should be colorful, decorated in positive colors.

The interior space of the outlet must be equipped with roomy and reliable equipment. Attractive signboards with information about promotions that need to be hung all over the trading floor will not interfere.

Doing Business

Organization of trade in the store also implies some nuances that are listed in the list below:

• It is necessary to constantly monitor their subordinates located in the trading floor. To do this, it is necessary to equip the building with hidden video cameras.
• The entrepreneur must constantly conduct analysis and research of doing business. It is necessary to calculate how much the flow of customers has increased (decreased) over the past month. At the end of the study, it is necessary to conclude what influenced the current situation.
• The administrator or owner should look for new, more profitable suppliers of products for sale. It is important for the store to constantly expand its range. This will attract new buyers.
• It is necessary not only to monitor the expiration dates of the goods, it is important to periodically arrange sales. You should also fill the store shelves with new seasonal goods.

Calculation of income and expenses

To open any business, including in the field of trade, a business plan should be developed. It should contain calculations of the costs of opening and conducting business, the expected income. It is also worth considering unforeseen expenses.

As an example, we compile a table of capital expenditures for the organization of a trading business:

The following table is necessary for calculating upcoming expenses after the opening of the store. Let's call it “Monthly Compulsory Expenses”:

If we take into account that the average mark-up on the assortment will be 40%, then the income will be 1610 thousand rubles a month. The payback period of this business is approximately 1.5-2 years.

Having made the calculation, we can conclude that opening a point of sale for the sale of food products is considered a profitable and effective type of business if you know what documents are needed to open a store, where to locate it, who to hire and what range to create.

The conduct of such a case is associated with certain risks, which must also be taken into account:

• Great competition in this segment of the business.
• Constant price increases and high supplier margins;
• Long payback. Be prepared that the supermarket will start to bring substantial profit in the best case in 1-2 years.