Brewing supplies in a beer store?

[Brewtopian]

Should your local beer store carry brewing supplies as well as a good stock of bottled beers or do you prefer these to be separate?

I personally buy my brewing supplies online as my local supply store is pretty limited in selection and not the most customer friendly in nature.

[Bham Brewer]

I have shopped at a place that had both and it was really cool.

[MikeRoy]

Well I have a question for you, is there already a homebrew shop(s) in your town? If not then I'd say give it a shot, it's cross marketing though not a huge market it would add a convience aspect to your store if you can afford the space and have staff on hand to sell it properly.

If there already is a homebrew shop in town you want to think if putting your own shop in your store might cause some tension and potentionally cause you to lose customers. If might be a better value to your store to have the local homebrew shop sending customers your way if you're not also stealing their business.

[BrewinLou]

I convinced two retail liquor stores I worked at over the years to pick up homebrew supplies. These were both large format beverage/party supply stores. One was 17K sqf the other 45k sqf. The biggest key in my opinion is having at least one person on staff who is a homebrewer and can speak shop with customers who have questions. This person should be involved with, if not incharge of ordering. The nice part is You are not running a homebrew only shop so you can undercut the price of most stand alone homebrew shops. It does take some time, yeast dates need to be checked, shelves stocked, make the sale with a few customers. It is a great thing to have all the way in the back of the store so the homebrewer gets tempted whilst walking all the way through the store. Get in touch with your local homebrew clubs, offer them a discount if they prove they are a member. Tell them they can make special orders for expensive items. Worked for me. Good luck.

[Buster]

We sell homebrew supplies out of our tasting room. People usually enjoy a beer or two while they shop and most of the time there is a brewer there to field questions. It isn't a huge revenue maker, but it does bring more people in the door.

[Brewtopian]

We sell homebrew supplies out of our tasting room. People usually enjoy a beer or two while they shop and most of the time there is a brewer there to field questions. It isn't a huge revenue maker, but it does bring more people in the door.

How much inventory are you keeping on hand and of what type? Do you cater to the novice brewer or the more advanced? Is it all in store or are special orders available?

Thanks
Rick

[BrewinLou]

With the hop supply being short, many shops will only let you buy a small amount, and only if you buy malt as well. The only item I really had many extra of (other then what I could fit on the shelves) were carboys. There was a small break in price if you bought bulk.

[beertje46]

How much inventory are you keeping on hand and of what type? Do you cater to the novice brewer or the more advanced? Is it all in store or are special orders available?

Thanks
Rick

I would contact LD Carlson (http://www.ldcarlson.com/). They supply retail shops and can give you inventory levels.

[jarviw]

my local supply store is pretty limited in selection and not the most customer friendly in nature.

I have to quote your own words. you got the key already.
if you are well stocked with good selections, customer friendly and cheap enough to compete with online stores (not hard when we are talking about shipping grains / bottles), you certainly are doing it right.

you should evaluate the local market demand... like most retails, it will be more of a local thing. The reason your local supply store sucks may have a lot to do with simply not enough demand to cover a larger inventory.