My husband and I would love to open a homebrew supply store, but everyplace we think about opening one there is already one there. Does anyone have any insight on where there is a need?
You could do an “online” store and be anyplace you want. IMO not worth relocating. Doesn’t seem like a really profitable business in most cases with regards to brick and mortar. Though having said that there’s sure to be someone with a differing opinion. 
New Jersey could use a good one.
Quincy IL would maybe be a good place, population around 50,000 with a lot of residents of German heritage. They have a reasonably successful little brewpub. There was a store fifteen years ago and they closed up after a few years because they weren’t doing enough business. Even so, I think there is more interest in brewing now and I think it would be a good place to start a shop. I live 15 miles away and I’d be in there constantly. The closest competition would be nearly 100 miles away. I used to be in a brew club in Quincy, and now I started a small one in Hannibal. Also sell winemaking supplies, there are a LOT of small vineyards springing up in the area and I know you could sell winemaking supplies.
Springfield IL doesn’t even have a decent homebrew shop, the closest thing there is a nice liquor store called Friar Tucks that carries some brewing stuff but you could blow them out of the water. Theres a homebrew club in that town.
Online you’d be competing with the likes of Northern Brewer, Midwest, High Gravity, etc. I can’t see a future in that. If gas keeps going up, you’ll compete better as a local shop.
Carlsbad New Mexico needs one(all of New Mexico needs one) but I don’t think the 3 homebrewers here could support you.
Ontario!!!
I can’t find one anywhere that’s any good and the one on-line I use is expensive. He’s opening a storefront operation so he’s closed on-line sales until that gets done so he can focus on moving. So I can’t get anything anywhere right now.
A long drive for you. But, we have a great one in Albuquerque.
There is ways to research this… I don’t have and MBA but I’m sure there’s a process.
I have an MBA and did some research regarding this. The best advice I got was from the folks at the AHA. It takes about 1,000 customers to sustain a homebrew store. If you can find a market with that demographic, you’re off to at least a somewhat profitable start.
Here is the body of a note I got from Gary Glass. I strongly suggest that you give him a call and discuss. I had considered opening a store in NJ and did some of the research.
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Want To Open A New Homebrew & Winemaking Shop?
Before you spend too much time on a business plan, here are a few calculations to determine if your market is likely to support a retail supply shop.
The first rule in deciding whether or not to open a homebrew supply shop is DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. The second: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. If your reason for opening a shop is “there isn’t one in town and I have a lot of friends who like to brew,” that may not be reason enough.
Demographics are accurate – you may bend them, but you can’t break them. The easiest demographic to find and work with is population. Experience shows it takes between 250,000 and 500,000 people to support a “stand-alone” homebrew supply shop. Here’s how the numbers break down based on industry estimates.
• There are between 500,000 and 1 million homebrewers in the United States. There are estimated to be at least 4 million home winemakers in the United States.
• The average homebrewer spends between $100 and $150 per year on his/her hobby. (This represents an average of those who get a kit for Christmas and never brew, to those who brew every week for a while.)
• The average home winemaker spends between $100 and $150 per year on his/her hobby.
• It takes a minimum volume of $100,000 per year at retail to support a shop. Here’s why:
Cost of goods, including freight … $60,000
Rent & utilities … 12,000
Promotion … 6,000
Net … 22,000
And you haven’t paid anyone a salary yet.
If you are the owner/operator, $22,000 may keep you alive, but it may not be enough to make you a happy, independent business owner. However, if you double your volume to $200,000, the net rises by $40,000 because the cost of goods is the only number that applies to the second $100,000.
What does it take to get volume to $100,000 given the above parameters? Using the most conservative numbers, you’ll need 1,000 brewers and home winemakers spending $100 per year for a volume of $100,000. If there are one-half million brewers and winemakers, then one in about every 500 people in the country is a brewer or winemaker. If you need a population of 500 to get one brewer or winemaker, you need 500,000 people to get 1,000 brewers or winemakers. If you estimate that each brewer/winemaker spends $150 per year, you need a population of 333,333. If you think there are 1 million brewers/winemakers in the country, and each spends $100, you need a population of 250,000. At the most optimistic, if you estimate 1 million brewers/winemakers spend $150 per year, you would need a population base of 167,000 to make $100,000 in annual revenue.
It’s our best guess that the low end of these numbers is too optimistic and the high end too pessimistic, but we are not far off. This example only brings you to $100,000 in volume. To reach the more desirable $200,000 mark, double everything. At the very best, if you’d like to open a shop and have it produce meaningful income, you’ll need a good quarter million people in your potential customer base, at least in your market area, free of competition.
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south east jersey specifically!
Victor’s? It’s not bad but not a really great one IMHO.
It is New Mexico man! Geez.
Little 2 row and a few packets of US-05 and you are good to go.
We just got one here, and I doubt they will last long according to the criteria listed by Tim and Gary.
I will try to support the local effort, but online sales with free shipping are way tempting for the bulk of my goods.
Good luck. Moving to Jersey? Wow. ;D
Great post. Thank you
Finally I’m above average in something ;D
Upstate SC has only 1 but its a sideline for a brewery. Not much to choose from.
Paris! I dunno about 1,000 homebrewers… but the scenery’s nice.
No, there’s a new one. Southwest Grape & Grain
And, that little dissertation does not mention the internet. The get a part of those $150…
As an aside…$150 a year? Heck, I spend that a month…in a quiet month!
No, it doesn’t mention the Internet, but if you were to do both at the same time you’d have to account for the additional overhead. You’d have to buy packaging materials (boxes, peanuts, etc.) and have extra space to keep that stuff. You’d also have the costs of hosting the site, building the site, and maintaining the site. Although I haven’t done a complete analysis of it, there is a concern that the extra costs required to get a few extra dollars might not be worth it.
I wish I had known, I was in Querque Monday and Tuesday.
I don’t know that those stats represent current data. Based on the number of entries in a lot of competitions recently, I could see the number of brewers having doubled. That’d bring the minimum population way down. Then theres the demographic of the town/city. Is this a drinking population or a Bible Belt population? Also, here in northeast MO and west-central IL, the towns are shopping center for a large area and so your clientele will include the population of a lot of smaller towns. On the subject of sales vs cost of materials, can you not double your money? And I think I could do a little better on rent and utiities in this area.
Still, it doesn’t look like a get rich scheme by any stretch. And you’re talking self-employment taxes on that 22-25K. I could see doing it as a semi-retirement gig, where I could hang out and brew and enjoy dealing with the occasional customer.