4 Tips about Setting up your Stock Room when Opening a Dollar Store
by: Bob Hamilton

For many who are opening a dollar store the stock room is assembled more as an after-thought instead of a well-planned portion of the overall business location. Yet the amount of traffic and use your stock room will receive is very difficult to imagine until you begin to realize just how much dollar store merchandise will be coming and going through the receiving and stock room areas of your store. In this article I present 4 tips about setting up your stock room when opening a dollar store.

1) After opening a dollar store you’ll discover the more shelves you install the more dollar store merchandise you’ll find stored in the backroom rather than on the sales floor. Prevent that from happening by establishing guidelines and procedures to quickly get all incoming freight on display on the sale floor. For those occasions when there is excess merchandise or if there are other stockroom needs, install heavy duty shelves that can more than handle the weight.

2) Leave lots of room to move about the stock room. You’ll be amazed how much freight is coming into your receiving area. One of the challenges associated with all that dollar store merchandise is being able to quickly gain access the right items for your shoppers. Leave wide aisles. Be sure to leave plenty of room to sort and count items that come mixed together in a single carton. Creating a cramped stock room also creates potential safety issues. Don’t make things so tight that employees end up climbing on top of boxes and pallets to move about. The bottom line is you must provide work space for breaking out, counting and inspecting broken cases, damaged goods and smaller items that come in mixed cartons.

3) Provide good lighting to shorten the amount of time spent trying to see product numbers and invoice printing. It’s almost impossible to believe how hard it is to read the invoices and packing slips you will be using to receive merchandise. In some cases the print is micro-mini. In others the ink should have been changed decades ago. With mixed packing, you’ll be examining small items to locate some kind of identification number to make sure you received the right dollar store merchandise. Good lighting makes all of this so much easier. Don’t skimp on lighting just because it’s your stock room. You’ll thank yourself over and over as you help deal with the challenges of receiving, sorting and pricing items yourself.

4) When opening a dollar store it is important to always think about safety first. Really think through the possible risks associated with installing ceiling-high shelving. Always attached storage fixtures to floors and walls for safety. Higher shelving will create the possibility of employees climbing on the fixtures. With climbing comes the risk of falls. If high shelving is installed, include a ladder, ladder storage area and safety chains. Use a buddy system to minimize the chances of a slipping ladder and injury. There are a couple of good reasons to consider higher shelving. One is if you have a larger store and a forklift to move your dollar store merchandise about. The other is if you have plans to sell wholesale to other retailers.

To your dollar store success!