Liquor store oklahoma. Just signed letter of intent. Any tips on what I need to do to open it up with 70k?

I am about to open a liquor store and want to know what you think about tips on style, POS systems and where to get one, any laws or hoops that I might need to know about to avoid a long process? Anything or any tips you might have for me. Even if you have business experience and not "liquor store" experience.|||To start, you're going to want to open up an account with a distributor or wholesaler of liquor. If you want to keep pricing competitive you'll need to avoid stores such as BevMo and deal directly with a distributor. Most liquor companies (manufacturers) will have distribution agreements with a distributor/importer in your state. One of the largest conglomerates of liquor companies is Diageo (http://www.diageo.com) and they will be able to provide you with the distributor for your local territory. If you're going to have it purely be a liquor store, and not just a convenience store that happens to sell alcohol, you'll need shelving for the products and perhaps refrigeration cases if you're planning on selling cold beer.





Point of Sale Systems: The easiest system to use is going to be the non-networked till. Companies such as Sam4s manufacturer excellent cash registers that are your basic unit-no networking between registers, no audit trail other than a receipt, etc. and can be purchased for $400-$500 dollars. ( http://www.cashregisterstore.com/samsung鈥?/a> ) Moving up in the line would be a touch screen system which may or may not be networkable but would create an internal audit trail of sales. This sort of system can be purchased for as cheaply as $500, but a competitively featured system would run between $700 and $800. You'll also want to get a credit card merchant agreement signed so that you can process credit cards. There are several companies that provide this service and a quick google search should turn up a few serving your geographic region. Be aware that you will pay between 3 and 4% of the purchase amount in transaction fees.





Depending on your opinion of the security of the store, you may want an E.A.S. system to identify you of potential theft. A simple E.A.S. (Electronic article surveillance) system will run between $1,000 and $1,500 dollars. Companies such as BottleLox and Alpha Security make products specifically designed for liquor bottles and a 10 pack of Alpha Security EASy Caps will run $59.95. This works out to approximately 6 dollars per cap. However, the caps are reusable and if you believe there is a risk of shoplifting by minors or others not interested in purchasing alcohol, I would recommend this investment to protect your larger investment.





Finally, you may want to talk with an attorney about the legality of liquor stores in your geographic region. In certain states (I am not familiar with Oklahoma), there are laws restricting the sale of liquor between certain hours or after a certain time. Be sure to thoroughly investigate these laws before setting your open hours. Your state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Entity would be an invaluable place to get information regarding the sale of alcohol and the laws surrounding it. You will also want to check ID's of purchasers. In most states a single underage sale can result in losing your Alcoholic Beverage license, for a period as short as a week or as long as indefinitely. It will be a costly mistake and one that can be avoided by requesting ID before you make a sale to anyone who appears younger than 40. If something doesn't feel right when making a sale, check the ID. If there's no ID, don't make the sale.





I hope this helps!|||good security system