Mercado/SuperMercado

jrf said:

Anyone have any thoughts on owning a non tourist based business such as a supermercado or a small mercado?
Being there are so many months of down time in relation to the amount of tourists in the DR has anyone started or is running one of these now? Any idea of the success/profit it may generate?
Outside of running it myself I have a few close friends that I would like to provide some employment for while being to make a few pesos as well.
Any thoughts?

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Are your friends willing to work for the 4,000-5,000 pesos per month that store clerks work for here? I don't know much about that business, but it incorporates the 2 worst aspects of Dominican business. It is both labor intensive and inventory intensive. Both hard for a local to manage. Next to impossible for a non-Dominican to handle.

You're probably better off in opening a small Farmacia. Most of the inventory is behind the counter, where you don't have to worry about customer theft (you still need to worry about employee theft, but some well hidden cameras might take care of that problem).

I'm have no idea of how much training (or what licensing) is required for the people selling the products.

I have a friend (Dominican) in La Romana that owns the Farmacia Santa Barbara. Without his clinic business on the side it is a loosing proportion. The guy is a American trained chiropractor and offers a number of health related services in the neighborhood. His entire business and home are incorporated into one building and he is doing quite well. Well enough to drive a year old Mercedes.

In all of my travels to the DR I have never seen a gringo owned Farmacia.

Chuckuindy

I had a small colmado here in El Seybo. I started out just selling meat, chicken, pork etc. I then expanded to beer, rum, water, flour, sugar, candy etc. I have a small (15' X 12") in front of my house on the street and sold from there and I live in a very poor barrio. There is a big freezer inside the store that I used for the meat and beer and the electricity is from my house.

As it is so small my wife or her mother would operate it which required no salaries to be paid so my overhead was minimal. I was not registered with the state, like so many small colomados, so therefore paid no taxes directly. Because of not being registered I was not able to buy at wholesale prices but would receive a discount from distributors therefore my profit margin was less then a registered, licensed colmado.

My biggest profit maker was bags of water 125%, beer 22%, rum, 31%, candy 25%, meats 16% for pork and 22% for chicken, flour 12% and sugar 13%. With these figures my net should have always been above 12% but after operating for 2 years I could never get it above 2 % and therefore closed it down because the work and aggravation were too much for such a low profit. Where was my money going each day? I have no idea and I investigated it and to this day the only thing that is possible is that my family was pocketing the money but I was never able to prove it.........

I think there is money to be made in a colmado if the location, employees, and owner are good and more money is to be made if you are licensed. A must that is needed is that the owner MUST be able to speak Spanish.

Don't know if this information will help any but those were my experiences in this endevor.

Rick

A big bouquet to Rick

Rick Snyder said:

I had a small colmado here in El Seybo. I started out just selling meat, chicken, pork etc. I then expanded to beer, rum, water, flour, sugar, candy etc. I have a small (15' X 12") in front of my house on the street and sold from there and I live in a very poor barrio. There is a big freezer inside the store that I used for the meat and beer and the electricity is from my house.

As it is so small my wife or her mother would operate it which required no salaries to be paid so my overhead was minimal. I was not registered with the state, like so many small colomados, so therefore paid no taxes directly. Because of not being registered I was not able to buy at wholesale prices but would receive a discount from distributors therefore my profit margin was less then a registered, licensed colmado.

My biggest profit maker was bags of water 125%, beer 22%, rum, 31%, candy 25%, meats 16% for pork and 22% for chicken, flour 12% and sugar 13%. With these figures my net should have always been above 12% but after operating for 2 years I could never get it above 2 % and therefore closed it down because the work and aggravation were too much for such a low profit. Where was my money going each day? I have no idea and I investigated it and to this day the only thing that is possible is that my family was pocketing the money but I was never able to prove it.........

I think there is money to be made in a colmado if the location, employees, and owner are good and more money is to be made if you are licensed. A must that is needed is that the owner MUST be able to speak Spanish.

Don't know if this information will help any but those were my experiences in this endevor.

Rick

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I read these boards because I have gained so much useful information that has made my D.R. trips easier to organize and more fun than they would have been otherwise.

I think Rick's reply above to the O.P. question is one of the best examples that I have seen in a long time of how useful these boards can be.

Just before I left on the trip I have just got back from Chris wrote a great insight into what there was to do at Cabarete. I took notes of what he said and did it all and really enjoyed it all.

Rick and Chris you are both very useful posters. I should do a trip report when I get the time. I still had some unexpected fun and lessons I learnt that cost me a few bucks.

Like a flat battery in the car at 5:00am when we came out from Classico Disco. Then two days later getting a clamp put on my wheel by a parking attendant in the middle of Cabarete.

Fun and games, its what I love about the D.R.

Bruce

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Kiwicanuck said:

I think Rick's reply above to the O.P. question is one of the best examples that I have seen in a long time of how useful these boards can be.

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I agree. Great posting Rick!

absolutely! rick your response was on the money, extremely informative. god i wished there were more like you that actually answer the question rather than simply answer a question with a question.

Kiwicanuck said:

I read these boards because I have gained so much useful information that has made my D.R. trips easier to organize and more fun than they would have been otherwise.

I think Rick's reply above to the O.P. question is one of the best examples that I have seen in a long time of how useful these boards can be.

Just before I left on the trip I have just got back from Chris wrote a great insight into what there was to do at Cabarete. I took notes of what he said and did it all and really enjoyed it all.

Rick and Chris you are both very useful posters. I should do a trip report when I get the time. I still had some unexpected fun and lessons I learnt that cost me a few bucks.

Like a flat battery in the car at 5:00am when we came out from Classico Disco. Then two days later getting a clamp put on my wheel by a parking attendant in the middle of Cabarete.

Fun and games, its what I love about the D.R.

Bruce

.

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I think the farmacia is a good idea. Especially, if the farmacia is located within or very, very close to tourist centers . . . . people on vacation always need suntan lotion, pepto . . .and stuff usually non-otc here like viagra, antibiotics, etc. These are available otc in DR.

In Las Terrenas, for instance, there are several farmacias . . . some on the calle principe and one - - European/French owned - - in the paseo down near the beach. I don't know if it makes any money but: 1) because it's located within the tourist area, it gets a lot more foot traffic and foot traffice with money; 2) when my gf came down with acute intestinal issues, I went to this farmacia first - - because they spoke english and it was near the ATM and convenient etc. (though I quickly shifted to a Dominican farmacia where extremely effective antiobiotics were dispensed very quickly); 3) the drugs dispensed at the Euro farmacia were much more highly marked up than at the Dominican farmacia - - ie. though the rent was probably higher, they were clearly fattening their net.

I don't know the farmacia licensing laws in DR - - for dispensing or for pharmacists - - but I suspect they are nowhere nearly as strict as here in the US. Given all the hubub here about prescription med costs - - I can see some gringos taking the opportunity to stock up on prescrip meds while on vacation in the DR - - it is legal to carry a 90 day supply of prescrip meds across the border. With the internet, I could also see a possible mail order script business on the side - - shipping meds with prescription through the mail to the US. Finally, many generic drugs are now being manufactured in S.A. - - especially Brazil and Argentina - - these are available at a much reduced cost in latin america - -ie. with enough time and research, one could connect with a supplier of quality, cheaper prescription meds.

Lol . . so . .having sold myself on the idea . who wants to partner up?

Kiwicanuck said:

Just before I left on the trip I have just got back from Chris wrote a great insight into what there was to do at Cabarete. I took notes of what he said and did it all and really enjoyed it all.

Rick and Chris you are both very useful posters. I should do a trip report when I get the time. I still had some unexpected fun and lessons I learnt that cost me a few bucks.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words Kiwicanuck and glad you enjoyed the Cabarete suggestions. Please write the trip report. It is nice to see things that for us would be ordinary by now, through someone else's eyes again. Btw, it is 'she' and not 'he'...:classic: