TOPIC:

I would love to be able to just pop into a brick and mortar shop and pick up something of interest after having a browse. There is no problem having prices a little higher than from the web as long as its not too much higher and the shop staff would have to have knowledge of their product of course. The biggest mistake someone could make is to open the shop and hire someone who can barely understand English let alone know anything about brewing.

I think if you keep some of the essential ingredients (grain, hop, dry malt extract) at a similar price as you can order from the UK factoring in shipping then you can make any loss of profit back on other items. That way you keep people coming back for their bare essentials and chances are if they see something they have been thinking of ordering, they will just grab it in the shop to save the hassle of ordering online and waiting.

Apparently the supplier wont sell to them unless the staff do a course in Scotland.Its probably a short brewing course that gives the basics and whatnot but it might be enough for the beginner.

Any location tipped for this yet Rossa?

"rossa":1y7aq930 wrote: Apparently the supplier wont sell to them unless the staff do a course in Scotland.[/quote:1y7aq930]

dead right, do we want newbies going into a shop and walking out with all the wrong stuff, good business sense.
Plus the suppliers don't want to deal with people who can't pay them, because the retailer can't do their job prorerly.

I would also hope that that is not the extent of their knowledge/experience. Being able to homebrew should be something you need to get the interview in the first place.
It is not like it is something you need years in college and a degree to achieve. Just a little equipment which you can even cobble together for free and a modest investment of some ingredients and you can brew your own beer/wine.

Agreed, it's not like working in Centra; a prerequisite for even considering opening a shop is that is at least staffed, although ideally owned, by brewers. It's too much of a speciality that it can just be handled by PFYs on their summer holidays.
You can just imagine the scene:
- "Hi yeah, I was wondering if you could tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'm only getting 74% efficiency on my mash, but my buddies are up at 80%"
- "erm have you tried using [u:3rf9sttq]this[/u:3rf9sttq] kit here, and putting more sugar in?"