Starting a Colmado in Cienfuegos, Santiago

Four sources for stock.

1. Deliveries: Coca cola, Presidente, Cola Real, Pepsi, Bon, Helados Bon, Rico, Sweet men, biscuit men, pasta man, Gatorade, Brahma, Brugal, ice, water, bread, phone cards and probably more. Some will provide you with freezers and the water people with cages.

2. The almacen or warehouse for most other stock such as oil, rice, flour, sugar, maggie, beans, ketchup.

3. Local fruit and veg growers will provide fruit and veg depending on season

4. Supermarket if any foreigners in the area to buy stuff that the foreigners buy.

Matilda

Speaking from experience you will not make a profit unless you are in the colmado and watch over everything. Otherwise you will find that there is not enough money to replace the sold inventory. The other sure fire way to failure is to extend credit. Creditors will shop elsewhere when their credit is shut off. Good luck.

Credit is an issue but all colmados offer credit. Put a limit on it. The ones who disappear without paying are, in my experience, mostly ex pats! Do not allow the managers to buy on credit as that is a source of problems. For example Helado Bon will fill up the ice cream freezer on credit but the money from the ice cream goes to buy other things and then no money to pay icecream man. If you can get in touch with local employer allow his staff credit and then he can deduct what they owe you from their wages and then he can pay you direct.

Matilda

I wonder if a drive thru would work

What it's Like......Pavlish Beverage Drive-Thru - YouTube
Manu

bri777 said:

I wonder if a drive thru would work

What it's Like......Pavlish Beverage Drive-Thru - YouTube
Manu

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The amount of people living in Cienfuegos with a car you can count one hand and have fingers left over.

No
not there lol

what about
pop/sosua area
or sosua /cab area
Manu

I am not really sure what a drive thru is = not being American but I assume it is where you don't have to find somewhere to park and get out of your car. Here in the DR you can park anywhere - middle of the street if you want to have a conversation. If I want something from the colmado and can't be arsed to get out of the car I just lower the window and shout for what I want and they come out and give it to me! Is that the same as a drive thru??

Matilda

exactly
drive in
shout
pay
go
Manu

Ah. We already have them at colmados. Drive next to, shout, write down amount on your piece of cardboard to pay later, go.

Mat

So you have a drive up ?lol

thanks Mat

Manu

to stock a new Colmado with just 2.5K sounds more like a very small Colamdito to me, as they are everywhere, in the poorer Barrios every 3rd house is such Colmaditio in the Living Room, stocked with much less money spent of course.
a 2.5K Stock will IMHO not come anywhere close to a cross of 3000 pesos per day, discount 2/3rd of those 3000 pesos as Fiao but keep in mind that 50% would have be needed to restock the sold Items, still no money spent for the Family themselves.
to run a full Colmado is a heck of work and You need to be there at the Cahsier and control what's going over the Counter and for what Price all day and night long, it is a tough Biz.

good Luck

Mike

Matilda said:

Credit is an issue but all colmados offer credit. Put a limit on it. The ones who disappear without paying are, in my experience, mostly ex pats! Do not allow the managers to buy on credit as that is a source of problems. For example Helado Bon will fill up the ice cream freezer on credit but the money from the ice cream goes to buy other things and then no money to pay icecream man. If you can get in touch with local employer allow his staff credit and then he can deduct what they owe you from their wages and then he can pay you direct.

Matilda

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This. The big companies will extend credit, Presidente, Coca Cola etc. Must be able to discipline the income so suppliers can be paid. Credit is a must for the clientele, or you wont have any. Try to only extend credit to known and reputable families. Unfortunately, some loud music and a domino table will attract a drinking crowd, money is made in this fashion at the expense of some sanity. Buy bulk in el pedaje, the rest of the suppliers will come to you over time. The less hands behind the counter the better! If they are going to have every Tom, Dick and Primo covering an hour or two they are F-d! It is a lot of work, but it is viable. GL!

The only thing that comes to mind is this>
Matilda is a very disciplined Brit and hubby is sort of cop with some discipline also. They live on the property or close by and work at it. They are not absentee owners.

This would be a money pit...And we are talking about one of the cesspools of Santiago, so that triples the issue.

Son, forget about this project. Set them up with something they can handle (if they could handle a "paletera" that is what you should finance--it is all cash. Do you know what a palatera is?) Perhaps you could buy them an orange peeler? And buy the first hundred oranges? People can live off of this. The needed skill set for a colmado might not be there. Be warned.

HB

Good Morning, You have been given a million dollars worth of advice here. I do not know business stuff but I am sure that the father who works at the Zona Franca is not going to quit so that leaves the Mother to either give up the salon or only be able to kinda of supervise. If you want to see what happens who a colmado owner lets others run it watch movie Sank Panky. Your motives are noble but reread what the others have said here. best of luck

Matilda said:

If you can get in touch with local employer allow his staff credit and then he can deduct what they owe you from their wages and then he can pay you direct.
Matilda

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That is a good idea if you can get away with it. But, it is against Dominican Labor Code for employer to make this type of deduction from employee salary. He will be in deep sh*t if a complaint is made by employee.

From PHLAW executive summary:
The payment of the salary must be complete, except for amounts
discounted which are authorized by the Code, in its article 201,
as follows: 1. The ones authorized by law (Taxes and Social
Security); 2. Those concerning union dues, after written
authorization of the worker;3. Advances against salary made by
the employer to employee;4. The ones concerning credits granted by banking
institutions with the recommendation and guarantee of the
employer; and 5. Those concerning the contributions of the worker
to private pension plans.

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Interesting re labour law. All of the maestros on the construction sites operated the system for their workers. Workers would buy in colmado and maestro pay their bill every 15 days and then deduct from their wages. Probably item number 3 on the list. Mind you I am sure some level of interest was paid as well.

Matilda

When I had the equivalent of a colmado in the Pacific Islands, I used to give free individual cigarettes and coffee to the taxi drivers. This led to a lot of their passengers checking out the store. When they realized my prices were good, they'd buy at my place instead of paying for the trip into town.

The stuff that moves with the most profit are often items that are boring:diapers, feminine products, paper goods. It can help if you get a scale that can calculate price per pound so you can break down large bags of rice and other staples into smaller amounts. I used to weigh everything to the same price amount(say 50 pesos) which made sales faster. With a scale you can also sell cooking oil to customers who bring in their own bottles by weight. This can greatly increase your profit margin when you buy by the gallon and sell by the cupful.

Be careful of scams. One of the most common ones I encountered was a kid would come to buy something and give me a small bill, then the parent would come back saying they had given the kid a larger bill. It creates a very awkward situation esp when the parent is knowingly using the kid as part of the scam.

It can help if you run specials/contests. It can be something simple like if you spend 300 pesos you get a free roll of toilet paper or you run a weekly drawing for a bigger prize. This generates lots of good will.

I managed inventory with a simple rule. Try to flip the value of the store inventory once a week. Some items took a month to sell and some sold out in a day or two, but on average it all worked out. If you are doing this for someone else, let them start small and reinvest into the store. If they can grow the inventory by 15% a week they will be doing well in a few months. If they squander it, you will know sooner rather than later.

Finally be sure to have a large back-up supply of change outside of the store. You don't want to be giving out change in gum...