Gourmet to Go: A Guide to Opening and Operating a Specialty Food Store

This is an excellent treatise of starting a specialty food store or, perhaps is even more beneficial to one who wishes to wholesale food products to place in food stores or delis..People wanting to cash in on the current trend towards take-out convenience need this book, as well as From Kitchen To Market and How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets.The three books are invaluable for overlapping reasons. A prospective store operator needs to understand how to setup his or her store and, just as important, how their competition operates. Beginning store operators also need to understand their industry in detail not merely from the viewpoint of their competition and from their customers, but from their suppliers position.Gourmet To Go does a great job from a narrow viewpoint. Probably the only topic not suffriciently explored is the hands'-on advice. Perhaps the next edition will detail the possibilities for including rollergrills, microwaves and how to earn what the industry refers to as "Plus-sales." I'm speaking of the technique in all fast food chains and convenience stores to get customers to spend more money.Other hands-on topics that should be discussed are controlling theft and the experience of many store operators who have lost significant chunks of money in providing lottery tickets. I know of a feww whose losses exceeded $10,000. Adding insult to injury, lottery only reimburses stores from one to three percent of gross sales and pay-outs for winning tickets. Despite such a poor return on investment, many stores consider it mandatory to provide lottery.Further, computerizing the store could be considered, as well as installing UPC readers. It is not uncommon to see even the smallest store using such equipment. Yet, those installing such systems all seem to have to reinvent the wheel.Again, buy this book but augment it with From Kitchen To Market and with How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets so you can keep up with and, perhaps, improve upon your competition and keep customers, suppliers and yourself happy!

A friend recently opened a store and this book has acurately addressed some of the issues we are experiencing. The author has a knack for addressing both personal issues such as self doubt, fear, relations with partners as well as topics related to the business. He compels the entrepreneur to think hard about the objectives of his undertaking and then walks him through it step by step.The sections on site location and templates for creating a business model, mission statement and feasability study are better than two other books that I had purchased.Most of the book has little to do with specialty food and more about the decision and execution process of opening a new place. I would recomend it to both someone just toying with the idea and someone who is already established.

Looking forward to reading this - wish I’d been able to find it for the $2.99 price tag that was on it when it arrived.

Great book but slightly outdated. The examples that were given of successful gourmet stores are not relevant any longer and a couple aren't even in business. The general concepts are still value able. I wish an updated version would come out

I haven't completed this book 100%. The information is useful but is very dated and some of it isn't really relevant anymore. Good jumping off point but definitely need something a little more current.

The book is exactly what I was expecting from a seller that I will be able to trust in the future. I had absolutely no problem with purchasing this book from start to finish.The book itself answered the questions that I had on the subject matter and gave a further insight to other questions I should be asking.

This is a great book, I am currently enrolled in Chef Bob's class for restaurant management and his book fits right into what we are learning..Great inspiration

Well worth the read... Lots of information contained that will help you to consider the practical requirements of food industry.