Finances
I know numbers are boring, so just a quick run down: our gross sales for October and November were about $18,000 per month. Assuming an average mark-up of 30% on our food (in reality it varies between -20% and +100%, depending on the item), and neglecting “shrinkage” (spoilage and theft), that means net monthly sales are about $4,500. Our fixed costs are rent ($1700), a full time employee ($1300), and utilities and insurance (about $600). There are some other costs, like sales tax and medicare payroll tax, but this is just a rough outline. This leaves us with a “surplus” of $900, which needs to cover any mistakes, spoiled fruit, fridge repairs, capital expenses, truck-related expenses (gas, repairs, insurance), and, ideally, a salary for me and Andrew. Not quite enough.
Our goal for the next three months is to increase our average daily sales from $600 to at least $800 and see what we can do about cutting some of our costs, perhaps our employee or our truck or something else. If, for instance, our daily sales were $800 and we had no employee, our “surplus” would be $3700 — enough to live on and re-invest in the store, in the form of capital improvements and an operating cushion of cash.
On the shelf: lots of ready-to-eat and frozen Indian food, fuyu persimmons, blueberries ($2), kettle chips, little peaches, fragrant pears from China (ask to try one for free), lots of other types of pear.
Oh yeah, we may open a little late on January 1st, and Medici Bread and Metropolis Coffee will be back on our shelves on January 2nd.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Oooo really looking forward to the fragrant pears when I get back from break. You might’ve already thought about this, but have you considered serving hot coffee in the mornings–particularly if you can target all the people boarding the 55 and 171 at 55th and Hyde Park Blvd?
January 1st, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Hey there — I just stopped by the store, which was quite fun. It is terrific to have another store, and although Hyde Park Produce is more convenient for me, your hours are very nice.
Can you get a printer? Many of us cook at home in part to save money, and I think we are all used to getting an itemized receipt to track expenses; it also gives us confidence that everything was tallied correctly. (I asked the nice guy behind the counter for a receipt, but it was a laborious for him and I felt too bad for him to ask it be itemized.)
I am not sure if you are by-design a vegetarian store, but if not it would be nice if you stocked some kinds of non-perishable fish. Sardines, smoked salmon packets, etc., are all very healthy, and neither Hyde Park Produce nor Treasure Island have reliable sources of the wild-caught (or otherwise ecologically responsible) kinds.
All the best,
Simon
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 am
Jessica: because of health code, we can’t serve coffee (or serve anything or do any food prep) without installing a 3-compartment dishwashing sink and doing some other plumbing work. Because of the permitting requirements and subsequent inspections, this is something like an 8-week project with a $10,000-$30,000 budget. Ultimately, we would like to do this and have a counter where we serve smoothies / juice / coffee and could prepare fruit salads. Currently we are seeking financing for this project, so if anyone knows any produce-friendly venture capitalists, please let us know.
Simon: glad you stopped by. All-in-one point-of-sale systems like you find in grocery stores (with barcode scanners, displays the customer can see, receipt printers, etc.) generally cost over $15,000, and we just don’t think that’s worth it for what we are doing. This is why most small businesses have cash registers that print dollar amounts but no item descriptions. We are looking into rolling our own POS system including a receipt printer (we are computer programmers in our previous lives), but it hasn’t come together yet.
In the mean time, we are more than happy to write out itemized receipts, or we can even email it to you. Just ask!