Do you think an international food store is a good idea?

Question

I live in the Omaha area and they really do not have any stores to purchase, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, or Chinese food cooking supplies and ingredients. I love to cook and it really is hard to find things here to cook with due to we don't have any stores that sell certain food from other ethnic backgrounds. I came from the east coast where you could get anything from any store to cook with. What are your thoughts

Answer 1

definately but look around and see the ethnicity in the city see what kinda of ethnics they have example if they have lots of viet open a viet store if they have a mixture of ethnics then its probably a good idea to open an international store

Answer 2

It all depends on how diverse Omaha is.

Answer 3

Definately! We have some here and the people with that background love it and others come too to get a taste of the food, but we have European like Russian, Polish and Ukranian stores

Answer 4

I think it all depends on where you live. I love the idea myself but if you live in a little hick town with a bunch of locals that have never been anymore than 10 miles away from home it could be a little hard starting a business in that area. But if you live in a big progressive metro area it maybe worth a try.

Answer 5

Very much so. Not only can ex-pats get food from home, but people from Omaha can (if they choose to) try food they would probably not be exposed to otherwise.

Answer 6

Yes it's a good idea.

But not right now.

I'm in that business and trust me

everyone is suffering ( business wise) from the economy.

Even stores that are already established are having a tough time( some even closing).

Imports are sky rocking because of the dollar devaluation and the increase in shipping costs due the the oil prices compounded by customers budgeting and keeping away from high end products.

Wait it out.

Follow the stock market and see whats going on.

When the economy gets better( maybe a year or 2( hopefully)

then go for it.

Karl mentioned Whole Fopods

Have you seen their stock?

I use to be a manager in their Florida store( Orlando).

They are in deep trouble also.

The stock was $80 a share when I left 2 years ago.

Today you can have it for $25 a share.

Not good.

Answer 7

Depends how you market it. If you try to market it as a niche ethnic store meant to serve a particular ethnic group, you probably won't get much success.

However, if you market it as an upscale, cosmopolitan marketplace in the model of Whole Foods, you might have success.

Answer 8

yes