I’m opening up a discount store within six weeks and we are at the point where we need to order our opening inventory. Our store is 28oo square feet including our 800’ foot backroom. We have setup slat wall along the perimeter of our retail floor and added 6 aisles of gondola shelving. For our clothing section we purchased six round racks, along with a section of racks extending off a portion of the perimeter gridwall. Here is our question: how much inventory will we need to get started? We want the store to look full, but we do not have the luxury of ordering back stock due to the size of our backroom.
Thanks for the question! I will start with the apparel section; depending on what season you will be ordering, each round rack will hold approximately 50-65 pieces (50 being heavier, winter items). If you have six round racks, you are looking at an initial order of about 300-500 pieces of shelf pull clothing. This, at most, is approximately 1-2 pallets of clothing.
For the general merchandise, I would venture to say you will need at least 12-15 pallets of assorted goods. I’m not sure what type of furniture you want to resell, but “knock down” furniture is readily available within the wholesale liquidation industry. If ordering customer returned knock-down furniture make sure to order at least 4-5 pallets so you can piece together any damaged merchandise. If you are going to order full size furniture, you’ll probably want at least half a truckload to get started.
For a store your size, I think you could get a good opening inventory within one truckload of 20-24 pallets. Don’t forget, you will need a forklift when the pallets are delivered.
My suggestion would be to order your initial inventory form a large wholesale liquidator with the intent to get all merchandise shipped within one truckload; this will save on freight charges. Most of the large reputable liquidators I have dealt with will create a custom truckload consisting of several categories of merchandise. This will work to your advantage since you are ordering a diverse selection at first.
