Do you want to start a supermarket business? If yes, you come to the right place because you will get complete information about the supermarket business here. So a lot to know, a lot to discuss and without wasting any time, let us begin. 

Why is the supermarket business profitable?

Time is the only thing that is equal for everyone. Someone becomes very rich in these 24 hours, and someone destroys their life in that 24 hours. 

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The one who becomes rich understands the importance of time and keeps time over money. That is why they prefer spending money to save time and visit supermarkets( departmental stores) to buy their daily and monthly use items, which makes this business profitable because the majority of the customers belong to the upper-middle and more affluent class of the society.\

Resources for starting a supermarket business

Every business involves some essential fixed cost to buy resources which is necessary to start it. So you need to spend some money to acquire the below-mentioned resources:

#1 Land and building

Supermarkets sell almost all types of products. Customers demand supermarkets to sell every product they need, and it is evident that a large size of land and building is required to sell almost all the types of items.

Generally, a departmental store needs an area of about 10,000-50,000 square feet to start. So you need to rent a considerable space of land in a crowded place if you want to make a good amount of money.

#2 Workers for managing a supermarket

It is impossible to manage the supermarket alone. So you need to hire some workers for billing, managing customers, cleaning, refilling the stock, and a lot of work that a supermarket owner has to manage.

At least 5-6 workers must manage a supermarket, so hire and pay them accordingly.

#3 Cameras for preventing robbery in the supermarket

A lot of people will visit your supermarket to buy goods of daily use. It is anticipated that a fraction of them will also try to steal some products. To prevent it, you need to install  CCTV cameras everywhere in your departmental store.

As per my estimate, 25 cameras are sufficient for surveillance of an area of about 15,000 sq feet.

#4 Toilets for customers

In some countries, it is compulsory to have free access to toilets for customers in supermarkets. So you also need to build some good quality toilets for your customers otherwise no one would like to visit your supermarket.

For a fact, some people visit supermarkets only to use toilets, and 30% of them purchase by seeing items in the supermarket. So toilets can really help you to increase sales.

#5 Air conditioners for cooling

Almost every supermarket has installed air conditioners so that customers feel better at their place and spend more time shopping. I will never purchase a supermarket without air conditioners, and I know that 90% of people are like me. So yes, air conditioners play a significant role to increase sales in your business.

#6 Barcode scanner, computers and other machines

It is almost impossible to manually prepare bills in a large supermarket. So you need barcode machines for pricing, computers for calculating and a billing machine for printing bills for the customer.

Apart from that, you also need to be LED for surveillance from cameras.

#7 Electricity and water supply

You need a continuous supply of electricity and water in the supermarket. If you are from a developing country, you must use generators to ensure the proper and constant electricity supply because anyone can easily rob your supermarket if electricity is cut at night. Also, your billing counter stopped, and it will give a negative impression of the supermarket in the mind of your customers.

Legal formalities for starting a supermarket business

Generally, many people start a supermarket business in partnership, so in that case, you need to register it in the partnership act of your country.

Similarly, if you start a supermarket company, you need to register it in the companies act.

Since supermarkets are large scale businesses with a lot of funds requirements, you need to register your business in the taxation department and adequately follow the indirect tax laws of your country.

Apart from that, some specific laws differ from state to state like compulsory toilets, unexpired food items, minimum wages to workers, provident and gratuity fund, etc., which you need to follow.

Funds required for starting a department store

There are a lot of expenses for starting a departmental store business. You need large land, cameras, LED. Computers, machines, workers, proper sanitation and some other things for creating it. So as per my estimate, apart from building rental cost, you can quickly start a supermarket business in about $7,00,000 in the United States or Rs 3.5 crore in India.

You can approach investors or take a bank loan for arranging funds. I recommend coming investors if you do not bother sharing control because bank loans involve interest which will increase the variable cost of your business.

Some other questions

I have covered some general questions and answers which come to mind for every businessman.

Apart from that I know you have many questions like “ How to find suppliers”, “ How to reduce the cost”, “ How to negotiate with suppliers”, “ How to advertise business” and many more questions. I am not answering it here because their answers are different for different areas. So you need to make a specific search on the internet for finding solutions of this questions,

Ending Note

At last, you need to avoid some common business mistakes if you want to get success.

With this note, let us now end this blog, and as always, God Bless You All.

Frequently Asked Questions