Customer Reviews

How to Start & Manage a Convenience Food Store Business

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The first eight chapters could have been written for any high school student dreaming of owning a business of any sort. The author should have provided instructions specifically for a convenience store.

Research statistics that the reader could use for starting one of the myriad of possible types of convenience food store that is hinted at, but not described in even a cursory attempt.

No guidelines are evident for categories of merchandise with typical markups (or margins) experienced by convenience stores. Further, as a rough guide, what portion of the typical store should be devoted to each category?

What about slotting fees. Yes, for C-stores these do exist, particularly from tobacco vendors.

No data is given by category to demonstrate what is the typical cost of doing business, as a percentage of sales?

The only chart provided is on Page A-5 of the appendices. This was simply a reprint from a Small Business Administration pamphlet to advise researchers regarding the needed population base for specific types of consumer-oriented businesses. It would have helped to include an explanation, but the patient reader is able to decipher something of value, so I give one star to the book author.

Page A-7 is a checklist of items readers should check. Checklists should result from discussions in the narrative, not be stand alone lists. Each item on the list should include the page number the user can refer to for a detailed discussion.

Finally, near the end of the book (just before Appendix D) there is 16 pages of typographical errors and very ambiguous data that I could probably get myself while having a coffee at the local Circle K or 7-11.

Too often this book tells the reader to do their research by consulting others and reading other books. People by a book about starting a convenience food store so they can get at least some of that research accomplished.

If readers want to dream about owning a C-store, buy the book. If they want to learn how to manage a C-store, go to work for Circle K or 7-11 for a year.