Who is it suited to?
On average, most retail businesses are open from at least 9am until 5pm but running an off-licence is one of the exceptions to the rule. You are legally allowed to open at 8am in England, Wales and Scotland on weekdays but many off-licence owners choose to open later at around 10am or even midday and continue trading until 10pm or 10: 30pm. This will mean long hours and also a high level of patience with customers, some of which may have had more than a few too many drinks during the earlier part of an evening.
Later opening is generally due to the fact that your primary stock holding and source of revenue is the sale of alcohol. This means that only a small amount of customers will want to purchase these types of products early in the morning, leading to a lower sales rate in the daytime. However, in the afternoon on a sunny summer’s day, for example and particularly the evening, trade will pick up considerably. This is where you will have to stretch yourself in order to cater for late demand from either people drinking at home or those who want to purchase more alcohol or snacks to take home just before the pub, bar or restaurant closes.
As well as the training involved in obtaining a licence and learning to apply the law to your business, you will also need to have a certain amount of business savvy. This will involve finding the right balance between supply and demand and not holding back on ailing stocks lines that are just not selling. The rule for a business with a small amount of variable stock should be that if it doesn’t budge within a short time frame then it should be discontinued or replaced with a new more ‘sale worthy’ product.