Hiya,
Well I feel your pain too. The truth is, there are plenty of places about in Central Scotland. In no particular order:
- Boquhan Estates, Kippen
- Stirling Mart Shop, Stirling
- New Kildean Mart Shop, Stirling
- McKaskies, Springkerse Stirling
- Central Saddlery, Avonbridge
- Russell's, Larbert
The trouble we have with all of these is 1)
the prices seem very high compared with what others on here are paying 2) I typically work from 8:30 till 4:30, which is not too arduous, but if the shop is 1/2 hour drive away, even if they open 8 till 5, that's still not much use. 3) Now I think about it, I've had "service with a spit" at most of these locations over the past wee while. The classic was last month when I wanted growers pellets - "I'm sorry, we haven't got any in stock". "But I just walked past a pile of them - they're right there!". "Ah, but the computer says there's none in stock, so I can't sell them. I'll have to order some in for you"
.
So, if you can open a better store, and hopefully at a better price, I'll beat a path to your door. Truthfully though, I doubt you could make enough profit after expenses to make it worth your while. The other alternative, as Raine says would be to open a feed co-op. You could buy in some things like wheat in bulk to bag off, and other things like pig nuts by the pallet. If everybody placed their individual orders with the co-op once per month, these could then be pooled to get the best price available, then orders could be collected or delivered, or whatever. You would make your money by charging an admin fee or a premium over the bulk buy price, and also delivery charges for those who wanted that. Now that's an idea that could start off slowly and grow as more people joined.
Worth a thought at least?
Womble.