how to open a store?

November 14, 2005 10:43 PM

I've been thinking of opening a store in my town but need some advice on getting started

My main question is how and where do small retail stores order their merchandise from. If I were to open a store it would be a mix of apparel, books, music, skateboards, and accessories. Is there some sort of distributor or process to order from a certain company?

Also any advice or personal experience is appreciated

posted by apdato to work & money (6 answers total)

For the past few months, I've been helping my sister prepare to open her new store (she's opening tomorrow and will be selling hand painted furniture and home accents). She and her business partner ordered everything except the furniture (which is all vintage and repainted by her) and other hand made items from wholesale catalogs which are available to the trade, and by attending a home show, where she met several vendors and placed orders in person. They also met with local distributors from a few of the companies.

Even though the product line will be different in the store that you're thinking of opening, you should be able to do the same, obtaining your product via wholesale catalogs, etcetera.

I wish that I could help more, but the retail game is new to us, too. I did enjoy this article from Entrepreneur Magazine (some info about establishing your inventory on page 6). Also, you may want to take a look at websites for the products that you want to carry in your store - they usually have information on how to obtain their product (for instance, Element Skateboards list the information and a contact number in the FAQ on their site).

Good luck - it's exhausting, but fun!
posted by mewithoutyou at 11:07 PM on November 14, 2005

Retailers order books directly from publishers at a certain percent discount. New releases have a date before which unsold copies can be returned (the remainder date). Look at the publishers' web sites for bookseller services or trade services.
posted by leapingsheep at 6:13 AM on November 15, 2005

For things like apparel and skateboards, contact the manufacturer directly. A word of warning- they may not even talk to you if you don't have an EIN (Tax ID) yet.

On a broader note, take the time to search through the archives- there are a lot of posts about starting a business in general, which are chock full of good advice.
posted by mkultra at 6:42 AM on November 15, 2005

Sometimes if you go to a website of a company that makes the stuff you want to carry, you'll see a link like "want to carry our product" or "Resellers Click Here" or something like that. That's where you'd want to check.

Personal experience from helping my friend with her shop - unless you're very good at accounting, hire an accountant or someone to do it for you.

Minor snafu we found very annoying - my friend and her business partner used Quickbooks. They had a problem with it. Her business partner's husband set it up, so it was under his name. We had to have him come in (even though he had gotten out of the business and he was no longer associated with the company in any way) and call and put their names on the account so they could get tech support. Moral of the story: If you hire someone to set up anything like that, make sure your name is on the account too!
posted by IndigoRain at 6:43 AM on November 15, 2005

Visit skateboard shops in other places, or browse the web and write to vendors, asking for wholesale catalogs and pricing. Finding the merchandise should be pretty straightforward. There are trade shows for merchandise. They tend to be twice a year, and can be huge and fun.

What you really, really need is a business plan. You need to plan for the cost of electricity, rent, heat, merchandise and everything for at least a year or 2 , while you get going. You need to learn how the IRS treats inventory, which it does in a way that is crappy(I've been out of retail for a while, this might have changed; it could be worse). You have to understand sales tax. You have to be prepared to be there 6 - 10 hours or so a day, 7 days a week, or have employees, and the reporting and tax requirements of having employees can be nightmarish. Get in touch with SCORE, the Service Corps or Retired Executives, for free help. They're probably a bunch of fogeys, like me, but they are likely to have good advice about the buisness part.

The coolness factor is probably pretty key for skateboarders. Visit shops in other areas and try to define what makes people want to shop there. Don't do your research where you plan to open. I owned a retail business, and learned a lot and made some money. It's worth doing, but being prepared is critical.
posted by theora55 at 8:27 AM on November 15, 2005

If you want to sell used music, some used CD stores (I think CD Warehouse is one of them) will sell you x amount of used CDs for X amount of dollars. It's typically a pretty good mix of stuff but yeah, you'll get some crap.

If you're looking at selling new music, find out who the one-stops (industry term) are in your area. They will sell you the latest releases on a variety of labels so you don't have an order from Warner Brothers, one from Sony and one from BMG all coming at different days. They also specialize in small and special orders.

Don't forget the importance of fixtures -- these things can cost an arm and a leg. If you're lucky your city or one nearby will have a used fixture store. Also look for business auctions in the paper. Sometimes you can get stuff for a song. We have a bakery and got a big refrigerated case for $25. If you're handy you can probably make a lot of this stuff yourself -- counters, display cases, racks, etc -- if you're imaginative and resourceful.

Another note on auctions -- don't rule out food-related auctions either. They can be a great place to get stuff like filing cabinets, desks, credit card machines (you're better off getting one cheap at an auction than leasing one) and cash registers. Most people who go to restaurant auctions are there for food related items like ovens, refrigerators and pans so the office stuff frequently goes pretty cheap. YMMV
posted by Atom12 at 9:00 AM on November 15, 2005