What does it take to run a general store successfully?
The owner of a successful enterprise in northwestern Vermont has recently shared his grocer-know-how with one organization in Windham County that will soon be in the business.
“If you're not on the ball in this business, you'll be upside down real fast,” says Mike Comeau, who has assisted six general stores as an independent proprietor and consultant for the Preservation Trust of Vermont (PTOV).
Comeau and Paul Bruhn from the PTOV met in April with Eric Morse from the Friends of Algier Village, which is raising money to purchase the Guilford Country Store (see related story this issue).
“He provided a lot of advice that will help make the [Guilford] project work long-term,” Morse said after the meeting.
“Village stores are critical to the identity of a village. Not just for goods, but as a place to meet neighbors,” says Ann Cousins, field service representative for the Preservation Trust of Vermont, which has consulted with the Putney Historical Society and Friends of Algiers Village, Inc.
She says community spaces like general stores or post offices act as “gathering places” where people communicate face-to-face, maintaining the social fabric of a town.
On the corner
The 2,500-square-foot market serves 1,800 households in and near Richmond, close to Burlington off Interstate 89. The store sells groceries and meat instead of convenience store items like cigarettes and gas pumps.
“It's not a run-and-grab store. Customers carry a shopping basket and put dinner together,” says Comeau.
Comeau, 38, began his grocery career in high school. After graduation, Comeau (who described himself as “not the best student”) decided against college, opting for a “dead-end” job bagging groceries until he figured out his next step.
But as his employer, recognizing his hard work, offered him promotions and raises, Comeau discovered he liked the grocery business.
By his mid-twenties, while still working at the grocery store, he saved enough to buy an apartment building, adding landlord to his résumé. When he reached his late twenties he decided he wanted to own a store, not just work in one.
Comeau bought the 100-year-old, run-down, nearly bankrupt Richmond Corner Market and apartments in 2004.
“It just sort of fit the two things I was good at,” he says.
Comeau rolled up his sleeves and turned around a failing general store, elbow-grease style.
Bringing the business up from the bottom in two years was a big challenge but also his biggest reward, he says.
Comeau says he never had a budget or a business plan, but he would never advise other businesses to go the same route.
“I've been on this wonderful rollercoaster ride. I've never had a plan, and for whatever crazy reason it works,” he says.
Sans plan, Comeau's grocery business thrives.
The Richmond Corner Market will open in a new location this June. Comeau bought a local liquor business and will combine it with the market. With the building no longer on a corner, Comeau will change the name to Richmond Market and Beverage.
These tomatoes have a story
A market like Richmond's cannot compete on pricing with supermarket chains like Hannaford or Shaw's. Comeau focuses instead on customer service, offering quality products and buys local when possible.
“Customers can buy tomatoes at Shaw's, but my tomatoes have a story behind them,” he says of the local farmers who sell to him.
Comeau says the store's meat counter also draws customers.
Customers come specifically to see butcher Pat Quin, 85, who owned the Jonesville Store in neighboring Jonesville for 50 years before coming to the Richmond Market.
Quin answers questions and sells local beef, but more importantly, says Comeau, people know him. Parents remember buying meat from Quin with their parents and now bring their children to the store.
A new home
Comeau decided to move after customers told him they would prefer to shop exclusively at the market if it had a wider product range.
The new 11,000-square-foot full-scale grocery store will offer produce, dairy, a meat counter, personal items, paper products, and liquor.
Comeau designed the space with his customers in mind, separating the liquor from the groceries because he caters to families, he says.
His current location generates $10 to $15 per sale. He hopes the new location's expanded merchandise will increase his average sale to $30.
Sharing know-how
Comeau became involved with the Preservation Trust of Vermont four years ago after Cousins, a loyal customer, asked him to work with the PTOV to advise struggling general stores.
Cousins says Comeau's business “know-how” impressed her.
“We think the world of him,” she says.
“I don't try to go into these stores and pretend I'm some sort of genius,” Comeau says, adding he learned his trade by watching his customers and understanding how best to serve them.
According to Cousins, most general stores in Vermont work well until they run up debt - an easy trap because the profit margins are so small.
“There's no cookie-cutter solution,” she says.
She explains that some stores, like the Guilford Country Store and the Putney General Store, will work well under the model of a nonprofit purchasing the building and then leasing the business to an operator.
“Your customers like buying soup - so you want to buy soup to pay the bills. But your vendor is unhappy because you owe money so you can't buy the soup you need to sell,” Comeau says.
Comeau says that in his visit with the Friends of Algiers Village (FOAV), he talked about finding operators for the Guilford Country Store and staying debt-free.
Comeau and Bruhn suggested FOAV have a lawyer draw up the new proprietors' contract. They advised FOAV evaluate the proprietors' résumé, knowledge of the grocery business, and ensure they have operating cash for initial inventory.
“These small stores are hard to run. You have to wear so many hats,” says Comeau.
Comeau suggested the new proprietors own inventory outright rather than buy on credit. This way, profits go back into the store instead of paying off inventory.
He also suggested, if the operators need to cover bills by increasing sales, they should break daunting amounts into smaller bits. Instead of thinking sales need to increase by $1,000, he says, store owners should try to get each customer needs to spend $0.50 more.
“Across [my] 300 customers, that 50 cents adds up to $150 a day. That's over $4,000 extra a month in sales,” he says.
Despite the hard work and long hours, Comeau loves the grocery business. He still “gets a kick” out of customers thanking him for saving them the 10-mile drive to the nearest supermarket.
“It makes it easy to come to work when people appreciate what you're doing,” he says.