A great guide
Rating:
5 / 5
A friend recently opened a store and this book has acurately addressed some of the issues we are experiencing. The author has a knack for addressing both personal issues such as self doubt, fear, relations with partners as well as topics related to the business. He compels the entrepreneur to think hard about the objectives of his undertaking and then walks him through it step by step.
The sections on site location and templates for creating a business model, mission statement and feasability study are better than two other books that I had purchased.
Most of the book has little to do with specialty food and more about the decision and execution process of opening a new place. I would recomend it to both someone just toying with the idea and someone who is already established.
Invaluable Tool
Rating:
5 / 5
I have been working on opening a specialty food shop/cafe and got stuck on the logistics of planning. After using several guides and books I randomly found (and getting NOWHERE) I decided to buy Gourmet to Go on a recommendation. It is THE best thing I could have ever bought, hands down. It seems that all the questions I had were answered in the book, and the structure of the book leads readers down a logical path through the maze of planning for this type of business. If you are to buy any book on this topic, this is the one. The money spent on this book will save you thousands later on. Two thumbs up!
Good for starting stores or providing to stores.
Rating:
5 / 5
This is an excellent treatise of starting a specialty food store or, perhaps is even more beneficial to one who wishes to wholesale food products to place in food stores or delis..People wanting to cash in on the current trend towards take-out convenience need this book, as well as From Kitchen To Market and How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets. The three books are invaluable for overlapping reasons. A prospective store operator needs to understand how to setup his or her store and, just as important, how their competition operates. Beginning store operators also need to understand their industry in detail not merely from the viewpoint of their competition and from their customers, but from their suppliers position. Gourmet To Go does a great job from a narrow viewpoint. Probably the only topic not suffriciently explored is the hands'-on advice. Perhaps the next edition will detail the possibilities for including rollergrills, microwaves and how to earn what the industry refers to as "Plus-sales." I'm speaking of the technique in all fast food chains and convenience stores to get customers to spend more money. Other hands-on topics that should be discussed are controlling theft and the experience of many store operators who have lost significant chunks of money in providing lottery tickets. I know of a feww whose losses exceeded $10,000. Adding insult to injury, lottery only reimburses stores from one to three percent of gross sales and pay-outs for winning tickets. Despite such a poor return on investment, many stores consider it mandatory to provide lottery. Further, computerizing the store could be considered, as well as installing UPC readers. It is not uncommon to see even the smallest store using such equipment. Yet, those installing such systems all seem to have to reinvent the wheel. Again, buy this book but augment it with From Kitchen To Market and with How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets so you can keep up with and, perhaps, improve upon your competition and keep customers, suppliers and yourself happy!
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