New RV supply store?

[crazy bout campin]

My wife and I are entertaining the idea of opening an RV supply and service center in our home town. There are atleast 10 campgrounds within 20 miles and the only large supply store is a national chain about 50 miles away. There are a couple of small dealers in our town with limited parts and supplies in stock. Our thoughts are that campers would like to have a local store that they can buy from with out spending 1/2 a day of their camping trip driving to pick up parts if they have a break down. We would like to have other camper's opinions before making such a large investment.

[Emmel]

Jimmy, as a camper that tries to hit every RV store we can, I think it's great to have a local store to go to. You have to spend a lot of time to operate this kind of business and then you will wonder where that time went. If you're young enough, go for it, my age, I'm already retired and that would take too much of what I have left!
With 10 cg's in your area, be prepared to be very busy!
I admire the young people with the umpha that are not afraid to venture into a private business!

[exav8tr]

I personally think that would be a great idea! I would think that you need year round business to stay in the black. Do yourself a favor and start small and work your way up. Remember, reputation is everything in this business. As you can see on this forum, word gets around quickly......... Best of luck if you do decide to do this. I don't think I oould put up with catankerous campers such as myself.......

[nailbender]

Service and repair of RV's is probably more important to a business than selling parts. If you have the ability and knowledge to do repairs and have enough capital to carry a business through off season, it could be a good and rewarding investment.

[Ozz]

It would be tough in my thinking to get enough of a mark-up on the parts, to make much money. You always compete with the Internet pricing, you can get a part UPS to your door now, don't have to go out.
If you had a service business along with the store, you could do better, but I really think it would be a big gamble, long hours, you would be tied to the business and in the end when all is calculated, would make more working at Lowe's with the week-end, (or Tuesday and Wednesday off)
I almost bought a marina that I had my 2 watercraft, 22' speedboat, 32' Carver and 28' classic Owens cruiser at, I was there all Summer anyway. By the time I crunched the numbers, my accountant and banker went over all the figures, I would have made around $60,000 a year. Not even close to being worth the risk, aggravation, long hours and borrowed money.

[Wifeofdano]

Since Dano & I recently closed our retail tile store after 10 years, I would have to say, "Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? What are you thinking? Are you kidding me? LOL

Now, seriously, think about this one alot. Go through the whole scenerio a million times. Your time is going to be the largest investment to consider, especially your time with your kids. Your service center would have to be the best. You would need to find the best people to carry out your vision. Okay, I'm tired just thinking of all the research involved to even consider moving forward with this idea you're entertaining.

Don't know your age or what you do now. Have you ever had your own business before? I'm always for people doing their own thing & I always support small business over the big guys out there. If you've got it in you to do this, go for it! Just do your research & think of how it will change your life forever. You could very well have the best RV place in the country! People could plan their routes so that your place is in their loop somewhere! And we can all say that we knew you when this was just a crazy idea!

Dano & I always had this picture hanging on the wall at our store & now it's in our living room. It always seems to make life more interesting. It says --- Expect more than others think is possible; Dream more than others think is practical; Risk more than others think is safe.

[brenkco]

Jimmy & Christi,
I would pay particular attention to Ozz's advise. I own 2 small businesses, in which 2 of my three children work. The employees and suppliers get paid before DW & I. The best advise I can give you is to:
1. Work in the industry for at least a year or preferably 2 to get a feel for it's ins and outs
2. If you decide that this is really what you want to do, make sure you are well capitalized. The biggest failure comes from lack of working capital.
3. Budget...use your experience from working in the industry to know what your costs are. Pay attention to everything you can get your hands on knowing that a new business will have higher costs for several things like insurance, workers comp, etc. You maybe on COD for your parts and inventory so careful budgeting is a must.

That being said, with all the heartaches, worry and really working 24/7, I would do it all over again. There is a great amount of pride in making it work.....best of luck!

[snfexpress]

What Ozz and everyone else has said...I have a few businesses and want to be rid of them...I want to travel and be without burden...

[sgtpp214]

I have no experience to help you out, but OZZ sure has and has his head screwed on right. Over on RV.NET there is a Mrs. Mick who with Mr Mick started a small RV store in Abbotsford, WI a couple years ago that could probably give you some good advise. I am not certain if is Mic or Mick.

[sgtpp214]

Just checked RV.net and it is Mrs. Mik. At least I was close.

[garyka]

The idea is great but,there used to be alot of small stores for this particular reason.Then came the large chain stores(walmart,etc.)who put these businesses under by under pricing, volume buying,etc. .Even walmart has a rv section and this chain is everywhere,I belive they have around 3400 stores.Then there is the internet with overnight shipping.Please save yourself a lot of grief and money with a good idea, but you can't compete with the big boy's,we learned the hard way with a small business and ended up filing for bankruptcy 2 years after we started,could of used all that time on rving.

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Jimmy, I love your idea, but from my experience living in a tiny rural town where many things we need regularly are 90 miles away in Butte or 120 miles away in Bozeman, I know that most residents don't blink at making those drives. For one thing, we know that we can get everything we need in one trip if we hit Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, several grocery stores, 2 or 3 sporting goods stores, a mall, etc., and we can get it a lot cheaper than what it would cost locally. That's a heart-breaker for local business people, but the reality is that the playing field isn't level any more, and if local businesses can't offer competitive pricing, they can and do lose business. Most of the time, local businesses can't meet the box store prices because the those stores get a break in wholesale prices because they order things in huge quantities. Small retailers can't do that.

The internet would also hurt you. I just posted a note on another forum about the Bedsaver we bought 2 weeks ago. Instead of driving here and there to find one, and after seeing the prices in two RV catalogs we have, I got on the internet, Googled "Bedsaver," and in less than 10 minutes I found 20+ retailers for them. I picked the retailer who had a great sale going AND free shipping. The internet has put a new spin on comparison shopping, and I think most retail businesses are going to feel the pinch eventually.

Unless you can offer RV servicing of some sort, I think you'd have to invest a fortune in stocking your store to bring customers to it. Without a hefty financial investment, you might be able to stock some of the basics, but that won't pay your rent or justify your time, and it won't create repeat customers who need somethine other than the basics. The comparison I can make is to a national chain hardware store we have here in town. It has the national name on it, but if you need something other than sheetrock, nails, or mailboxes, you'll have to make that drive to Butte or Bozeman to get what you need. Customers soon realize that it's easier to make one longer trip and get everything than make one trip to this tiny store and one trip to that tiny store and still have to go out of town to get the rest of what you need. I realize you could special order things you might not have on hand, but when we need a part for our RV or something other than a plastic-handled faucet set, we need it immediately.

As much as I love them, Mom-and-Pop stores are probably an endangered species. I'm not a Wally World worshipper, but prices there and at other big box stores are so much cheaper than here in town that the savings pays for the extra fuel and more, a lot more, and I usually have several choices for each item, not just the one brand or style that is on the shelf locally.


Carolyn

[brenkco]

Carolyn,
You hit the nail on the head. We live in a small town and the chamber etc. is doing everything possible to promote the small retailer. The town is against any big box stores....so the net effect is that customers drive 15 minutes to the nearest town for groceries and 30 minutes to Costco, Target, etc. As much as many of us might want to shop locally in our small towns, it just doesn't happen for all the reasons you site.

That being said, consumers will patronize service business that perform well. I still hate to discourage the entrepreneur....dreams, hard work, risk and reward built this country but one must be realistic in their evaluation....
Ken

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

After I wrote that rather discouraging reply to Jimmy's question about opening his own RV store, I felt bad about possibly nipping a dream in the bud. I didn't explain in that post, because it made it too long, that I opened my dream store once. Theoretically, it should have succeeded because above all, I offered service with a smile and a guarantee that if I didn't please the customer, I'd do everything possible to rectify the situation. However, as a small town retailer competing with big city retailers, I was destined for failure.

Big retailers received quantity discounts because they could order 100 or 1000 of an item and not worry about being unable to sell them all. I never needed more than 5 or 10 of an item (which still was sometimes too many for my store), so I didn't get that same price break. I always had to order the wholesaler's minimum quantity, too, in order to qualify as a retailer. Unless the wholesaler's minimum quanity order was met, I would have had to pay the retail price myself--and what's the point of that?

I shut the doors before I saw too much red on the spreadsheets. If you decide to take the plunge and realize your dream, you might check with some RV parts suppliers and see what their requirements are for qualifying as a wholesale buyer; in other words, would you be able to order 6 or 12 of an item, or would you have to order a case of 48? Instead of ordering 1000 packages of specialty screws, could you order only 1--or 10? That would give you a quick reality check about what it would take to stock your store.

I believe in dreams, and if you act on yours, I wish you luck and happiness. There's nothing quite like being your own success story!

Carolyn