Food Store Franchise: Why Specialty Retail Is a Tasty Option
Food store franchises offer a way to be part of the food industry, while satisfying a niche market. As an alternative to a fast-casual restaurant or mobile food truck, a food store franchise offers a mix of food and retail, capitalizing on two exciting markets.
Options for Specialty Food Stores
Some of the options you have for a specialty retail food franchise include convenience stores, frozen food markets, fudge shops, olive oil stores and bakeries. With convenience stores, you offer prepared food plus other retail amenities, making it a quick grab-and-go option for customers. Frozen food markets are food retail franchises focused on prepared frozen food – just reheat and serve. Bakeries offer a mix of freshly prepared food and retail items such as beverages.
The challenge with some of these options as a business owner is determining what kind of work-life balance you’re looking to achieve. Convenience stores have long hours and likely come at a pretty high entry cost. Frozen food stores may have better hours, but you’ll have a lot of cash tied up with inventory that you need to manage daily. A bakery will have very early hours with perishable food that might end up costing you in the long run.
Choosing a food store franchise that provides a strong quality of life as a business owner is an important consideration. And there is another avenue worth pursuing: making it easier, and tastier for people to cook at home.
Capitalizing on Cooking at Home
People eat out-of-home in two ways – going to a sit-down restaurant and ordering takeout. Let’s look at the opportunities with both.
Why People Visit a Restaurant
A study by US Foods found the average person dines out three times a month for the following reasons:
- They don’t feel like cooking (74%)
- They believe it’s more convenient (51%)
- They go out to socialize (44%)
The Spice & Tea Exchange can benefit greatly from these statistics. Being encouraged to cook with exciting spice blends can make it easier for people to cook at home, especially with great recipes to follow. Knowing what items to buy and how to prepare them can make home cooking less time-consuming than standing in line for a table. Invite friends over and you can easily socialize in the comfort of your own home.
Why People Order Takeout or Delivery
The same study also found that the average person orders takeout almost five times a month, and often for many of the same reasons. However, the main reason people choose delivery is that they want to eat at home (76%).
The unique element of The Spice & Tea Exchange franchise is that it promotes opportunities for people to eat at home by cooking for themselves. When someone knows how to elevate their cooking with spice blends and great recipes, it can make it easier to enjoy the benefits of home-cooked food.
Benefits of Cooking for Yourself
When you can offer a service that saves people time and money, you have a winning opportunity. The Spice & Tea Exchange is a food shop franchise that offers both.
- How to spend your time: Instead of spending time waiting for food to be delivered, you can make it yourself. Often the time you spend waiting for food is more than the time it takes to prepare your own meal.
- Enjoy a cost-savings: The cost to prepare your own food is usually less than a single meal purchase at a restaurant because you don’t have to pay the preparation costs of the food. Make your food budget go further with tasty meals and ample leftovers.
- Portion control is easier: You can control your portions more easily at home when you’re serving yourself. Often, restaurant meals are oversized portions that result in mixed feelings about eating the entire portion, taking home leftovers, or leaving food on the plate. At home, there’s no stress over those decisions.
- Keep socializing: Engage your family or friends by making home-cooked meals a social activity. People can bring their own beverages which is cost-saving, and you can either make it a potluck activity or everyone can take a turn hosting.
- Nutrition considerations: Cooking with real food gives you nutritional advantages. You eliminate the high-sodium content of pre-prepared ingredients which are often part of a restaurant’s food inventory. You can also choose a healthier way to prepare the food (i.e. baked versus deep fried) or make the food exactly the way you like it.
As a food store franchise owner with The Spice & Tea Exchange, you can help people feel more confident in their abilities to prepare a tasty meal at home. We provide you with all the training and support to do that, not to mention incredible ingredients.
The Spice & Tea Exchange Opportunity
In terms of culinary franchise opportunities, The Spice & Tea Exchange is one to consider. As a franchise owner, you operate a store that sells spices, herbs, teas, spice blends, rubs, olive oils, and related products. You also have a full-service tea bar within the retail store with gourmet gifts, candles, kitchen accessories, and more.
The quality of our private label teas and spice blends is enhanced by the fact that we manage the supply chain. Our team of specialists ensures top product standards and makes the distribution to our franchise owners more efficient. You can trust the quality and you’ll appreciate the more direct relationship with 95% of our product sourced for store owners.
Pursuing Our Food Store Franchise
Our franchisees come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all have a passion for delivering a quality, niche market, food store experience. Our stores are typically located in downtowns and tourist destinations as we fit well with the character these locations provide. You can choose your own location and we will work with you to set up your store, which is typically between 1,300 and 2,000 square feet.
Most of our franchise owners start by running the store themselves with some part-time help. Some continue to operate this way because they enjoy the interaction with customers and being directly involved with the day-to-day operations. Other owners choose to expand with additional units or manage the wholesale element of the program while delegating in-store services to staff.