A Caribbean grocery sells what Jamaican, Trinidadian, Guyanese and Haitian families cook with: oxtail, goat and saltfish, rice, flour and canned ackee and callaloo, jerk seasoning and pepper sauces, yams, breadfruit, scotch bonnets and plantains, and ginger beer and sorrel. Many add a hot food counter on weekends, jerk chicken and patties, which keeps more of each dollar than anything on the shelves. The plan turns on the freezers, a kitchen and hood for the hot food, and buying from Caribbean importers in New York and Miami. The plan below works in departments per $100 of sales. In the example, a Hartford Caribbean grocery starts with $157,900, ends its first year about $12,500 behind before the owner's pay while sales build, and makes about $3,500 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the store in a paragraph: the communities, what's missing nearby, the goals.
- Cost a few items: importer price, the card fee, the shelf price.
- Plan sales by department per $100: frozen, staples, spices, produce, hot food, drinks.
- The hot food counter keeps the most of each dollar.
- Freezers and the hood are a big share of the build-out.
- Buying from U.S. importers means they handle FDA's import rules.
- TaroStack makes the counter's jerk chicken batches from stock and keeps dates on the freezer. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Blue Mahoe Market, a made-up Caribbean grocery in Hartford, Connecticut, writes:
Blue Mahoe Market is a 2,600-square-foot Caribbean grocery in Hartford with freezers of oxtail, goat and saltfish, staples, spices and pepper sauces, Caribbean produce, drinks, and a hot food counter with jerk chicken and patties Friday to Sunday. In its first year it aims to reach $61,000 of sales a month.
Part 2: what an item costs
| Item | Cost | Card fee | Total cost | Price | Cost share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxtail, frozen, per lb | $6.40 | $0.25 | $6.65 | $9.99 | 66.6% |
| Canned ackee, 19 oz | $7.20 | $0.30 | $7.50 | $11.99 | 62.6% |
| Jerk seasoning, 10 oz | $3.10 | $0.15 | $3.25 | $5.99 | 54.3% |
| Ginger beer, can | $0.80 | $0.04 | $0.84 | $1.69 | 49.7% |
| Jerk chicken plate | $4.20 | $0.33 | $4.53 | $12.99 | 34.9% |
The jerk chicken plate is a quarter chicken, rice and peas and cabbage, $4.20 with the container. The department costs in Part 4 run higher than these items, because they carry yams that spoil, freezer burn and the hot food left at close. How margins differ by department is in grocery store profit margins by department.
Part 3: suppliers, the freezers and the hot food
Staples, frozen goods and drinks come weekly by truck from Caribbean importers in New York and Miami; produce twice a week from a wholesaler. Buying from U.S. importers means they, not the store, handle FDA's import rules, in fsvp requirements. The hot food counter needs a food service permit and a hood, and jerk chicken is held hot or cooled fast; what's left at close is recorded. Where a store loses money to waste is in grocery store shrink.
Part 4: what each category earns
| Category | Sales | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | Hundreds a month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frozen meats and fish | $100.00 | $70.00 | $30.00 | 30% | 150 |
| Staples: rice, flour, canned goods | $100.00 | $70.00 | $30.00 | 30% | 180 |
| Spices, sauces and seasonings | $100.00 | $60.00 | $40.00 | 40% | 80 |
| Produce: yams, breadfruit, peppers, plantains | $100.00 | $64.00 | $36.00 | 36% | 70 |
| Hot food counter | $100.00 | $40.00 | $60.00 | 60% | 70 |
| Drinks | $100.00 | $66.00 | $34.00 | 34% | 60 |
At full speed the business sells $61,000 a month and keeps $21,860, 35.8%; staples bring $5,400 of it.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Fixed costs are $18,400 every month: rent ($4,200), wages ($10,500), utilities, mostly the freezers ($2,000), insurance ($400), equipment upkeep ($300), register and software ($200), ads ($200), and other costs ($600). Sales start at half of full speed:
| Month | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,500 | −$7,470 | −$7,470 |
| 2 | $34,200 | −$6,150 | −$13,620 |
| 3 | $37,800 | −$4,864 | −$18,484 |
| 4 | $41,500 | −$3,518 | −$22,002 |
| 5 | $45,100 | −$2,232 | −$24,234 |
| 6 | $48,800 | −$912 | −$25,146 |
| 7 | $52,000 | $244 | −$24,902 |
| 8 | $54,200 | $1,014 | −$23,888 |
| 9 | $56,700 | $1,914 | −$21,974 |
| 10 | $58,600 | $2,594 | −$19,380 |
| 11 | $61,000 | $3,460 | −$15,920 |
| 12 | $61,000 | $3,460 | −$12,460 |
The year's sales are $581,400, and the business ends it $12,460 behind, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $51,340 of sales a month, in the seventh month. The lowest cash point, −$25,146 in month 6, is covered by the $30,000 of working cash with about $4,900 to spare. Christmas, Easter and Independence Day weekends bring the busiest weeks; the plan spreads them as monthly averages, so order sorrel, ham and goat early.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Opening inventory | $42,000 |
| Build-out | $25,000 |
| Hot food kitchen and hood | $22,000 |
| Freezers | $15,000 |
| Lease deposit and first month | $8,400 |
| Shelving | $7,000 |
| Register | $3,000 |
| Signs | $3,000 |
| Licenses and permits | $2,500 |
| Working cash | $30,000 |
| Total to start | $157,900 |
The $127,900 before working cash is earned back in about three years at full speed. A general small grocery is in small grocery store business plan, and an African grocery with many of the same staples in african grocery store business plan.
Get the template
Download the Caribbean grocery store business plan workbook. Four sheets: your categories, each per $100 of sales with its variable cost and hundreds a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The plan uses one shrink allowance per department. The counter cooks a different count of chicken each weekend, the yams soften on their own schedule, and what was thrown out on Sunday is a guess by Wednesday.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack makes the counter's jerk chicken batches from stock, keeps dates on the freezer, and records shrink by reason.
The counter's batches. Jerk chicken and patties are recipes: a batch takes the chicken, seasoning and dough off stock, costs what it used, and gets a lot of its own with a date.
Dates on the freezer. Frozen meats and fish keep their dates, the oldest goes first, and an alert comes before a date runs out.
Shrink with a reason. Soft yams, freezer burn and food left at close are recorded with their reason, reported by item.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a jerk chicken plate cost | Guessed | The batch's cost from what it used |
| Goat near its date | Found in the freezer | An alert before the date |
| Shrink by department | One plugged-in number | By reason, item and site |
Recipes, batches, lots, expiry and losses by reason are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.