I am seriously considering a baking supply shop in Alabama.  The only places we have locally are Michael's, JoAnns, Party City, Hobby Lobby.  So needless to say the selection is limited.

However, there was a supply shop in a smaller city about 30 mins away and they had a small selection and limited hours in a location that was not easy to find without a bakery or classes.  They have closed and gone back to internet sales only.

I would like to carry everything from pans, boxes, flavorings, cutters(cookie and gumpaste), fondant, hi-ratio shortening, etc, etc. and everything in between.  So looking at online supply stores will give me a lot of good ideas on what to carry.

But, my question is this; are there any supply stores that only carry supplies and do no baking in store or classes.  A pure baking supply store.  If so, how are you doing and how long have you been in business???????

Thanks in advance for your help,

cakeymom

I live in Nebraska in a small town and about 30 minutes from me there is a place called bakery Supply and its basically kind of a warehouse that sells pans, boxes, bulk ingredients, racks, baking equipment, dry goods, fillings etc... everything! its definitely nice have there for all the stuff we need. theres constantly people from bakeries walking in and out of there stocking up on stuff.

AYou need to do some market research. Are there a lot of professional bakeries in your area? If so, they might be your biggest market. You would probably not get much business from a home baker (I don't mean a home-based business) because they can get the basics from the craft stores with a coupon and aren't generally knowledgable about professional grade items.

Also, a good baking supply store should have a large inventory of many different items, which would mean a large up-front expense. Perhaps that other store went out of business because they just didn't have enough selection or their prices were too high because they were not able to get quantity discounts when purchasing those items to sell. Unless a baker needs something ASAP, they can get really good deals online, many times with free shipping, delivered right to their door. You might consider polling the bakers in your area to see if they would even shop locally,and if so, what they would be looking for. That might be a good first step to see if it is worth moving forward.

Good luck!

AThese days it will be very difficult to make a profit exclusively selling baking supplies in a retail shop, considering the prices and availability from online retailers. Your business plan should make this readily apparent.

AAlso check to see if there are restaurant supply stores in your area. They might sell baking supplies so would be competition. Sometimes these type of stores don't have websites, or they are very basic. With just store hours/directions, so you might not know to check them for baking supplies. There is one near me that has basics like pans, Americolors, white Satin Ice, boxes, cardboards, cupcake liners. They don't have online ordering so I would not have known to look for baking supplies had I not gone there looking for some catering supplies.