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Are you opening a dollar store? One of the important tasks is to design your stock room. There are so many considerations. You need to consider the flow of dollar store merchandise as it arrives, gets received and then moves onto the sales floor for display. You need to establish areas for the storage of excess merchandise. And of course there is safe storage required for tools and equipment that are required to offload and move incoming merchandise. In this article I provide 6 tips for setting up your stock room. These same tips can also be used to check your existing stock room setup. Tip #1) Don’t create rows of shelves to stock the extra dollar store merchandise you receive. The sad truth is the more shelves you install the more items that will find their way to your back stock area. You will soon find all kinds of merchandise stored in the backroom rather than on the sales floor where it will make you money. The bottom line; add some shelving. However place back stock on upper shelves right on the sales floor for ease of replenishment. Tip #2) Your stock room will be used for more than just storing back stock merchandise. Therefore it is important to leave lots of room to move about freely. Place a few shelves against the walls. But make sure the stock room in your store does have open space to work. You will find this space useful for sorting, assembling displays and merchandise, and for storing extra incoming merchandise that hasn’t been received or inspected. Tip #3) Provide lots of open working space in your stock room. When opening a dollar store you will soon find this area comes in handy for breaking out, counting and inspecting incoming dollar store merchandise, broken cases, damaged and smaller mixed dollar store merchandise. All you need is a table or other flat topped working space to make it easier. Tip #4) Be sure to include plenty good lighting in your receiving/stock room area. Good lighting will significantly shorten the amount of time spent trying to see the small product numbers on boxes and other packages. It will also make reading the faint printing on incoming invoices much easier. Tip #5) Be prepared for the weight of the products being handled in your receiving and stockroom areas. Often you and your stock personnel will be moving heavy pallets of items about your stockroom. Be sure there is plenty of room to move. Also be sure to provide the right tools for the job. Tools include a hand trucks and a pallet jack. For larger stores consider investing in a forklift to easy the listing. Tip #6) Really think through the possible risks associated with installing ceiling-high shelving when opening a dollar store. The higher you build your shelving the more the risk of injury. Higher shelves require higher lifting of dollar store merchandise. Higher shelves invite employees to climb about rather than using ladders. Even ladders add an element of risk. The higher your shelving the more precautions to take. To your success when opening a dollar store! Learn how you can Start your own Dollar Store Business.
Bob Hamilton is an entrepreneur, author, writer, business consultant and trainer.
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