Hi folks, this time I need advice on opening a small shop. A friend of mine owns a farm and has sold beef in quarters. He does not know how to cut and has outsourced his beef to be cut. He just found out that I am managing a meat department and have been cutting for a year. He wants to purchase equipment ( he has the buildings on his land ) and start up a small shop with the two of us. So my question is how much aprox would it cost to set up a small shop and is it worth the while rather than working for the man ( retail grocery store) This guy has money so I dont think thats a problem. He also has connections as he is in management of the parks department in one of the wealthiest towns in Alberta Canada. Any advice would be helpful.
going to work for friends or family (or hiring friends and/or family) is always a red flag, if the guy has big bucks, and isnt worried about paying you for a few months-this may be different
Id go through a cost analysis, what is it going to cost for the equipment you need?
I went into a farm/retail shop last year, and they vac sealed all the meat-even the beef (which when vac sealed, goes back to primal color-without oxygen) but once vac sealed, its good for 3 weeks-it's going to take a while to pick up business, so you will be battling shrink however, his niche was farm-raised, or naturally raised beef and grass fed- he was quite busy, had a couple self-service cases.
If you can be different than everyone else-it may work-but it's one hell of a commitment on your part, and you may want a day off down the road,
if your niche is going to be local beef, then find sources of local chicken and pork-for supply avenues
also, if you do a cost/benefit summary, how much do you have to sell per day/week/month to pay you and other business expenses.
In this area, there is a niche market for local meats- however it isnt the masses, and the stuff is very expensive (comparably)
id definitely get a vac sealer-if you go in this direction-yes it would be great do have a full service case and be busy enough to support it-but starting out-if your niche is local beef- you will be battling the clock on shrink-also this will give you the means to have a marinade section-vac sealed
Id also have a stove and a food warmer in the place, maybe a rotisserrie-this will clean up most of the shrink you have and you can have the great aromas of cooking in your shop.
Id buy a grinder, saw, wrap station, scale (you can buy a hobart quantum scale for under 1.000 on the internet-just make sure it isnt i.d. protected)- id also buy a smaller grinder for ground chicken, ground pork and lamb (and sausage) poly tops (cutting benches) a meatcase- definitely a self service-even if you decide on a full service case-get a self service case-
id also have a laptop and a digital camera, or i-phone if facebook is as popular where you are (and you-tube) id put the business on both and twitter, it's all free-and put pics on there daily also have some shelving for some-local all natural vendors-from relish to honey, to sauces-these vendors with also push your business
that info is priceless. Thanks. I think once we really decide to do this we will start with custom cuts build some orders and fill orders. Then after we build some return customers we can expand from that point. I would like to go organic. Nothing around here can compete but its also pretty expensive. I will give this a great deal of thought before I jump in. Your right I do need days off and being the manager of a retail chain store I can be pretty busy.
No doubt this is a big step, a huge commitment, but rewarding. As an owner of a small shop for 25 years here are two rules I live by. 1) store hours are the hours I am willing to work. It is easier to have shorter hours, leaving your customers wanting. Sounds odd in today's world where the big stores are open 7 days, and some of them open 24 hrs. I used to be open 7 days, mon-sat 8am-9pm Sunday 9am-6pm. I would only close new years, Easter, thanksgiving, and Christmas. Then I got smart. Sunday's 11am-3pm with no butcher on duty( we cut ahead for Sunday on Saturday afternoon) close memorial day, July 4 , labor day, and the day after Christmas. We also close noon-3pm on Good Friday. As a result of these hours our holiday sales are more than they were when open on the holiday, our 4 hour Sunday finds customers lined up waiting for us to open and we do more sales in those 4 hours than previous 8 hr sundays, and my full time employees get those holidays paid. 2) When pricing put your new products out 5% higher than you think you need. Some may think its gouging, but it's not, it's smart. You are not a big box store with deep pockets trying to bring customers in with cheap prices. You are a specialty retailer in the fight for your life. It's always easier to lower prices than raise them. You are stressing quality.
Equipment you need won't be cheap, but there are lots of auctions and used equipment jockeys. If you are only cutting, no slaughter or further processing (cured/smoked meats) I would plan on investing $200,000 on the low end. Mainemeatman lists a lot of what you will need, always remember-the small things add up, knives, platters, paper and supplies, all the incidentals. Just don't go into this underfunded.
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I'm not a vegetarian, but have eaten many animals that were.
