Hey /biz/, I wanna start a butcher shop that operates on self-serve

>>1491260
sounds feasible. i'd like to 'meat' you. not really tho.

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>>1491289
>not really tho

Please explain how your store concept works from the moment the customer walks through your door and the moment they walk out

>>1491260
You may encounter serious hygiene problems, so be careful.

I would advise you don't attempt. I run a few delis, and also manufacture my own goods. This is all about knowledge, skill, experience, and connections.

I was the 4th company doing what I do. Since I opened an additional 6 competitors tried for the market. Today there are 2 companies doing what I do on the market. I take the quality/artisan/good margin market, they take the cheap/bulk/wholesale market.

Cut and wrap has really shite margins. The money is in the value added. If you can't create competitive value added products yourself, well, you're shit outta luck. A "certified meat cutter" can't do it for you, and if they can, they won't work for you because they're already a celebrity chef.

If you're trying to compete by having low low prices, you're slowly but surely making yourself unprofitable, after all you "win" by making the least money, and someone is more desperate than you, and buys their meat for less, and willing to do it cheaper, believe me. Also corporate counters will operate at a loss for -years- at a time to put you out of business.


If you MUST do this, you MUST either buy a farm, and also your own abattoir (in this fashion you can be competitive enough that your errors won't cost you your business)

OR if you want to run it the way I do (value added/artisan focus) welp, I'm available as a consultant, but I actually charge $600/hr, the only time I consulted for free was for the Bocuse D'or team. They were using my product, so I didn't want them to do poorly.

I have 25 years experience, and don't like seeing young people lose their shirt to this.

That being said, I buy all my equipment off people like yourself who try and fail at the meat game. Less than a year old, and only 25% of what you paid for it new? Yes please.

Anyway, I'm getting long winded.

Either, invest a LOT, or get a GREAT consultant/partner.

Otherwise, please understand food is the MOST competitive market. It's the only guaranteed sale on earth. We all gotta eat.

>>1491260
I would use it. I hate waiting for some old bag to order 300 hundred things, one thing at a time and talk about her fucking day.

Self serve checkouts are a damn nightmare.

I work for Woolworths AU, not in supermarkets thank God, but I get to see the constant declarations of theft across the Sydney area daily.

Number 1 stolen item is meat and deli. Not just the off the shelf product but the over the counter stuff as well.

Thousands of dollars a day in attempted theft that is caught. The mind boggles on the possibilities of what isn't caught.

The question I'd ask is; could a small business support theft through a decision to cut customer service and use self serve?

Woolworths, and most big box retailers, apply a 'tax' to all sales that covers, or at least mitigates some loss. When you base you whole customer experience on self service, at what level would you need to 'tax' to cover potential losses.

It's cheaper to employ uni / college students either part time or casually at that level than to risk letting your entire business just walk out the door.

You could go as far as employing a 'welcome wagon' or 'bag checker' but again, the wages would be better served actually serving your customers and removing the "everyone is guilty" feel that 'bag checkers' give. In AU there is a bag check policy applied to all stores that states bags larger than an A4 sheet of paper may be inspected. There are rules and laws for what, how, when etc. but the stigma still exists - your customers are guilty first.

Not smashing the idea, keep dreaming OP. You'll find a way to make it work.

>>1491438
A big box retailer offsets the costs against other much higher profit lines. Best example I can give is Milk, the majority of branded milk sells at a loss. It's the reliance the it will bring other purchases along for the ride. Every Day Value = Permanent Loss Leaders.

The other method is minor margins over massive scale. It's a terrible business decision to make 3 cents a kilo on TBone Steak, If yo're a small operator, but factor that over 1 ton for a day in one store, then over scale that over 1200 stores and that single line will justify its existence.

Owning most of the supply chain decreases costs and increases margins. From the outside, it creates a longer price drop spiral that drives other businesses out and reduces competition over all.
Just food for thought.