I have made the decision to move on with this venture since it fits so nicely with my available resources. I already have a 22'x38' metal sided building (3-4 years old) across the parking area from my mobile home. I don't need to put a bathroom in this building since as long as I don't hire help, the ones in the mobile home are OK. Building has skylights so shouldn'd need lights on most days. Will install a gable exhaust fan for air conditioning. For winter heat, I already have a ceiling hung natural gas heater in another building I can relocate. For unloading trucks I purchased a kit to mount forklift tines on the bucket of my backhoe. I can buy in truckload lots (significantly reducing per pallet freight cost) as I have another building I can use for storage of what won't fit into the store. I will build my own shelving units out of plywood sheeting and 2"x4" lumber. Labor will be mine. Aspects such as this basically give me a natural advantage over other similar operations.

Only negatives I have heard locally have been on the order of so and so tried it somewhere and only lasted a couple of years. I strongly suspect this is a case of their not realizing just how much groceries they had to sell to just cover overhead.

Hey, if it turns out to be an absolute failure I should be able to get out of it in a way to recoup my costs.

I suspect the old adage of don't expect to make money until the third year of operation may apply, but, with my low overhead, I suspect I can better than.

I admit I am not going into this with unbridled enthusism, but I need something to keep me at least partially busy and this seems to fit the bill.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 24, 2002

Answers

Like I always say " If you never try...you'll never know !!" Good Luck in your new business venture !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), March 24, 2002.

If it doesn't work, you can always do what I intend to do if my "cash from SFG" produce garden and market fails, "eat the losses" :>) One thing to always keep in mind, negativity generally comes from either people lacking the motivation to try to establish their own business or people that went into business to "get away from the boss" and were unprepared and failed to realize that when you are the "boss", every customer is the "boss" also. I have met only a few , that when they "fail" speak of what could be done different to succeed, these are the successful ones.

Your right to logically pursue it as you are. Ignore the negative decractors, they are the failures. Successful "failures" will always have a solution with the negativity they present to you. There are no problems, only solutions.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 24, 2002.

Ken, it seems you have the ideal set-up and very little risk. I think it will be a success for as long as you desire to work it. You are right when you say folks don't really consider overhead costs-or even underestimate them. You have that beat! I can't tell you how many little restaurant dreams have shattered in the light of the balance sheet. You have to sell an awful lot of sandwiches to pay the bills and make a profit.

I really appreciate you sharing your development of this idea with us here at the forum.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), March 24, 2002.

Here's wishing you the best of luck, Ken! Will say a prayer for your success!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), March 24, 2002.

Ken, sure wishing you were closer to us! Best of luck and keep us posted on how it works out, will you? I can't wait to go back to Utah to stock up there, and sure wish there was a similar outlet here. Would do it myself if I knew where to get the matials! Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

Jan:

Seems odd, but all but one of the wholesale salvage places I have come across are east of the Mississippi. Other one is in California and is a small operation.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

Good luck!

-- Jo in PA (farmerjo02@yahoo.com), March 24, 2002.

If anyone can make it work, it'll be you, Ken. I'm rootin' for ya!

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

Hey Ken way to go heres wishing good luck in your new venture. Bob se,ks. ps missed your posts

-- Bobco (bobco@kans.com), March 24, 2002.

Good luck Ken.Dave (central WI)

-- Dave (duckthis1@mybogusemail.com), March 24, 2002.

With the low overhead you'll have and the logic you're bring to this project, I'm sure you'll do well. Let us know how it turns out. Best of luck.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), March 24, 2002.

best of luck Ken. looking forward to hearing how it goes.

if this doesn't work give a holler. I recently received an E-Book titled "How to Earn Extra Money in the Country" that is chock full of great ideas. sure you could find something in there. ;^}

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), March 24, 2002.

How much would a pallet load of Skiddles be?

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), March 24, 2002.

Best of luck. I read a lot of the earlier posts about your idea and it seems to me that you are really preparing---not just "diving right in." That's probably half the battle----knowing what to expect.

-- Jeff (lorianandjeff@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

Hope it turns out really great for you Ken. Please keep us posted.

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), March 25, 2002.

Wishing you success in your business venture! If we are ever in your area, we'll look drop in and stock up...

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), March 25, 2002.

As I said very early on, such stores are unheard of in my location. But I really enjoy reading your threads on this, and wish you luck. Keep writing about your venture. I enjoy it, tho I have little to contribute.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

Arrrg! it's too far to drive for my captain crunch fix! i'm a junkie i admit it, the 98 cent store,[where very little was actually 98 cents!] has closed leaving me staring longingly at 4.00& 5.00$ boxes of sugar coated crunchies. i wouldn't pay 4.50 for 12 oz. but i would pay .69 cents!

mr. jim still has 2 other salvage stores open they are in other towns tho. this one was on the edge of high & middle priced nieghborhoods & w/ access to large thorofares should have done well. but he & his employees smoked in the store, one employee kept attempting to 'flirt' w/ female customers and there were often jumbled boxes of goods outside baking in the sun.

i think many folks just came once, the cereal kept me comming back. just because we are dumpster-diving does not mean we want to feel like we are! :)

i'm sure your place will be run much more professionally, & if you are still looking to keep busy, i hereby invite you to my homestead of: 'too much to do & not enough daylight!' :0

you know what is making a killing down here? the 'mexican'potery, rusted iron& concrete garden decorations & brick-a-brack nick-nack crud. all sorts of lightly damaged, not this seasons colours, wrong size stuff that looks like it's from williams sonoma, pier-one, etc.

one fellow just sold his biz & retired, he is definitely not retirement age!

-- bj pepper ,in central MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), March 25, 2002.