Liquor Store

beboppoker · #1 02-26-2007, 07:08 AM

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about opening/running a liquor store. I already know that laws differ from state to state, but here are some questions:
1. Do I need a license to sell liquor (not serve)?
2. If i do need a license, where do I get it and how much does it cost?
3. How do I go about finding a good wholesaler (considering I am going to run ONE fairly small liquor store)?
4. What other aspects should I consider? I already assume that location is extremely important.

Thanks in advance for any help

pushpushshove · #2 02-26-2007, 09:57 AM

1. Yes.
2. It depends on where you live, but they are usually pretty expensive. It may cost you 10k, it may cost 100k. You will also need to find out if there are any available. There is usually a limit on the number of liquor licenses a town or county will distribute.
3. Where do you live? The wholesaler may be the state you live in. In Michigan, for example, the wholesale and retail pricing for all liquor is controlled by the state.

MrBlue · #3 02-26-2007, 03:48 PM

If you never ran a liquor store before, you are probably better off buying an existing business. There are a lot of obstacles in opening a new store. The license is not easy to get and inventory is somewhat of a guesswork.

As far as wholesalers, there's a book called The Media Beverage Book or something in NYC. I can't remember the name. It lists all alcohol available and the wholesalers that sell them and at what price. There'll usually be case discounts and it varies month to month. Once you have an account you'll have a salesman assigned to you. It's really hit or miss but the dilligent ones will drop by and help you out on what to order (their stuff of course!).

All of this is really obvious if you've ever worked in a liquor store before, but you didn't really provide much background info.

edit:
What state are you looking at? In NY, investment would be a minimum of 200k. It's not unusual to see 500k+ out in Queens and 1mil+ in NYC. Just inventory would eat up the bulk of that. Since liquor is controlled, the price of liquor is the same for all stores. The only difference is if you buy A LOT of one type of liquor which means sinking a boat load of money into the business to remain competitive. That's the gist of it.

beboppoker · #4 02-26-2007, 05:56 PM

first off, thanks for the helpful replies.

[ QUOTE ]
2. It depends on where you live, but they are usually pretty expensive. It may cost you 10k, it may cost 100k.

[/ QUOTE ]

This range is pretty wide, can you give me any est. of the price in Texas. Also, on the subject of licenses, can an 19 year old run a liquor store?? I know that you only have to be 18+ to SERVE liquor, how about owning a store?

[ QUOTE ]
Once you have an account you'll have a salesman assigned to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Im not sure what you mean by this. Is it like ill have to deal with each individual company to get good prices? For example: talk to a ABSOLUTE VODKA salesmen to buy absolute vodka and a smirnoff guy to buy smirnoff vodka.

MrBlue · #5 02-26-2007, 07:36 PM

I have no idea how it works in Texas. It's not even in the north east so can't even draw any parallels.

In the NE, there are exclusive importers. There are 3 tiers to the business. The producer, usually foreign, the importer, and the retailer (liquor store). It depends on the state but that's how NY is setup. The wholersaler/importer cannot sell it directly to the consumer due to some stupid laws from the 30s.

So an importer here usually has exclusive rights to the entire region for a few different brands. Absolute could fall under the same importer as smirnoff. If so you just talk to one guy and you can buy both but bulk discounts can't be combined usually. If it's a 50 case discount for Absolute you can't mix in 25 cases of Smirnoff. Otherwise, yes, you'll need to talk to 2 different companies.

Prices are usually set around here. If it says 2% off on 5 case deal, it's 2%. Nothing your salesman can do. "Rebates" have been outlawed. If you're serious, you really need to make friends w/ liquor store owners or managers and have them help you out. The internet is only good enough for prelimary information gathering and not much else.