Farang Food Minimart Idea?

[manupete]

If you could manage a profit margin like that perhaps Big C or Tesco could use you as a consultant

If you buy crisps at 50baht for 12 and sell then at 5 baht a pack you make 10 baht = 20%

If you buy sugar at 20 Baht a Kilo and sell it for 25 baht  then that's =25%

I could list out the whole shops produce range we did at the time and I can assure you the average profit was 20%,it isn't rocket science Nookie   

[manupete]

BTW Nookie ..once you have built the shop,you have no rent to pay ,no wages ( the wife is the owner,the profit is her wages ),as I've said before I was giving her 5 k a month pin money which stopped when the shop started ( so I was a winner over the 3 years the shop was open    ) The only bill the shop had was Electric( that was about 800 baht and a few 100 baht a month for her or me to nip into town to buy new stock on the Honda wave),this isn't a Tesco or Big C ,its a small village shop and if done correctly and in the right place can make a small income for the wife if it is run western style and if you don't give free beer and cigs to family and give credit to people you know can't pay ,just to save face because you can't tell them to p*** off .

[Dave the Dude]

Good advice,Alan but most WILL DO exactly the anticts you describe in your last sentence PLUS gamble the profits away.

[manupete]

Good advice,Alan but most WILL DO exactly the anticts you describe in your last sentence PLUS gamble the profits away.

I think we can agree on this one then 

[Vombatus]

Bad idea.  The market is too small, as are the margins.

[manupete]

Bad idea.  The market is too small, as are the margins.

For a shop that you rent in town to supply western food to a limited amount of people ,yes.

A small shop in the village ( our village has 300 house-holds and 50% are the wife's family ) was a good regular income for the wife..If the money had been borrowed from the bank to build and open the shop it would be open now.Because it was free money they did give a ********* ......But hey,I'm not bitter 

A stupid thing to do is open a shop in a small village were there are 3 or 4 shops already and only 30 households as some do   

[isanbirder]

Running a shop for the locals is one thing;  running a minimart for farangs is another.

Most farangs will rely on their wives to produce the meals, and farang food will only be the occasional luxury.  I live near Krasang (and my partner runs a minimart in our village), but no way would I open a farang minimart there.

[nookiebear]

If you could manage a profit margin like that perhaps Big C or Tesco could use you as a consultant

If you buy crisps at 50baht for 12 and sell then at 5 baht a pack you make 10 baht = 20%

If you buy sugar at 20 Baht a Kilo and sell it for 25 baht  then that's =25%

I could list out the whole shops produce range we did at the time and I can assure you the average profit was 20%,it isn't rocket science Nookie   

AND I take it everything was delivered to your place 'free of charge'.....Well my lass has been running a pretty busy Thai oriented Bar/Restaurant for the last 4 years together with a large range of mainly frozen foods for the farang where the profit margin averages out around 20% but you are talking thro your hat when talking about 25% on a bag of Sugar...its a long time since sugar was 20 baht a bag,& you would be very lucky to sell it on for more than 22or 23 baht unless of course there wasn't another shop within a 100km radius..........Perhaps Greed was the main reason for your downfall...........Its not rocket science either

[manupete]

If you could manage a profit margin like that perhaps Big C or Tesco could use you as a consultant

If you buy crisps at 50baht for 12 and sell then at 5 baht a pack you make 10 baht = 20%

If you buy sugar at 20 Baht a Kilo and sell it for 25 baht  then that's =25%

I could list out the whole shops produce range we did at the time and I can assure you the average profit was 20%,it isn't rocket science Nookie   

AND I take it everything was delivered to your place 'free of charge'.....Well my lass has been running a pretty busy Thai oriented Bar/Restaurant for the last 4 years together with a large range of mainly frozen foods for the farang where the profit margin averages out around 20% but you are talking thro your hat when talking about 25% on a bag of Sugar...its a long time since sugar was 20 baht a bag,& you would be very lucky to sell it on for more than 22or 23 baht unless of course there wasn't another shop within a 100km radius..........Perhaps Greed was the main reason for your downfall...........Its not rocket science either

The sugar was just an example on pricing, it could have been 10 baht and we sold for 13baht ,it was a few years ago now 
Why most Thai small shops fail is because the owners think that once you have a shop you must have a big new 4WD Pick-up to drive 40k to pick up 3 bags of crisps and a box of Chang..Our local Chinese Wholesalers was 15k away and we went daily( sometimes twice when busy  and was as cheap as Makro ) by motor bike to pick up the stock so the transport cost were minimal.Beer and soft drinks were supplied by a guy that came round in a lorry and I got special deals by buying in bulk. At one time we were buying Archa at 200 baht a box ( had to buy 50 at a time ) and was selling at 4 bottles for 100 baht ( a mark up of 33.3%  ).I'm not saying these prices can be achieved now but I still believe an income for a bored house wife is possible if the location is right and you don't employ staff or give freebies to family .IMHO
BTW ..The shop finished because it was on my wife's Mothers land and I told her that  her son was a lazy no good c**t.so she told us to get my wife's shop off her land,which we did ( removed the contents and sold the lot) .The shop has been standing empty for over 2 years .The joke of it was ,after we finished the shop she asked us how much we would give her a month as now she didn't have a shop to work in and also had to buy all the things she took for free . Me understanding Thai culture and the way things work told her to "**** off"

[Admin]

haha..... Are you for real? You have to continue the story.. we are all waiting to hear what happend next.............. 

[Dave the Dude]

I think you know the answer to your question, Admin.

"Perhaps Greed was the main reason for your downfall"

I doubt if this is true, Nookie. Its probably more likely to be naive business sense or just plain none at all. We all hear of people coming over here, opening a bar, feeling that they have 'made it' because for the first time in their sad lives, they think they are 'The Boss.' The truth is, people venture into professions with no prior training/ minimal market research and expect to succeed in a different country than they are used to . They start of with a beautiful 4Wheel Drive 4 door truck and end up with a moped!   They can also get caught up in all sorts of scams like investing their hard earned money in imaginary homes/pig farms and the like . Then sit at home being miserable to the happy people around them.

Please don't think I am being too self righteous because my wife and I also opened a mini-mart and the truth is, it is constantly failing on a monthly basis, but as I expected nothing out of it on 'day One' I am not too disappointed!

p.s. Beware if Isaan lady with a machete too! (Old Thai Proverb)

[nookiebear]

Hello Dude,,,it would seem you know an awful lot about this Character

[Dave the Dude]

I was generalising and not mentioning anyone individually, that would be rude!

[nookiebear]

Dave ,you are a man after my own heart...........I'm never rude to people either 

[manupete]

Have to agree with most of what DtD says.When I first came to Thailand I did all the things you shouldn't do but some things I'm glad I did.I had a Bar in Koh Samui like thousands of others and it never made money but I never lost a great deal either.I bought land on Koh Samui and doubled my money in under a year,I had a nice house and nearly doubled my money ( after tax) after 2 1/2 years so after 3 years I came away from Samui better than most.
After 7 years of living in Isaan I'm still here with some funny stories and some tales of woe.The Village shop was set up for the wife so her and her family had an income  for as long as they wanted it. I was against the shop at first having seen so many shops like Dave's fail.After finding out that half the village was her family and know one in her family had a shop I decided to let her give it a go.It was a small success and made a good little income for the family but stupidity from the wife's family saw its demise. As I told the wife ,the shop was hers and the only person her family was cheating was her,up to her.
As Dave's post is mainly to have a laugh at me over things we have said to each other in the past ,I will tell some more of the stories Admin has asked for.
I tried to help out the wife's Uncle ( who's a village vet ) and make some money by setting up a Pig Farm ,to cut a long story short the pig farm failed ( mainly down to me having false faith and not keeping a closer eye on things ) but her Uncle ended up with a renovated house and a tractor.The sad fact was that if he had run the farm correctly he could have had a new house,tractor and car in 10 years.Thai Isan people in general want everything now and don't have the foresight to see that if they save and work towards a goal there is better things over the horizon.They have a  must have now mentality and the ability to fail  or cheat a helping hand when the prospects are good are all to common.
My advice to most that come to retire in Thailand is to find a good hobby like Golf,Fishing or gardening as most business venturers like bars,Mini Marts and restaurants will end up making as much money as a hobby.For the few that succeed there and hundreds that fail.So to Krasangchris and his OP question,keep your money in the bank as from what I have seen over the years you will make more money that way.