Opening Your First Convenience Store: Design-Build for New Owners

Most first-time store owners have run a business, worked in one, or bought a site that came with a building. Very few have specified a cooler wall or drawn an electrical layout. That is normal. The goal of the design stage is to make every expensive decision on paper, where it is cheap to change, before anything is ordered or built.

The order things happen in

1. Site and concept. What is on the lot, what the store will sell, and whether it will have fuel, food service or alcohol.
2. Floor plan. Where customers walk, where the coolers go, where checkout and the back room sit.
3. Equipment package. Every cooler, case, shelf and counter, selected to fit the plan.
4. Building drawings. Framing, electrical and refrigeration layouts that match the equipment.
5. Permits and construction. Your general contractor builds the shell and the trades rough in power and plumbing.
6. Delivery and installation of the equipment.
7. Opening.

Our design timeline guide explains what happens in each phase.

The mistakes that cost new owners the most

• Buying equipment before the plan is final. A used cooler that is six inches too wide for its wall is not a bargain.
• Undersizing the walk-in. Cold drinks are a big share of c-store sales, and adding cooler doors later means construction.
• Treating food service as an add-on. A kitchen brings hood, plumbing and electrical needs that are much cheaper to plan in from day one. See food service build-outs.
• Running out of electrical capacity. Refrigeration and cooking equipment draw a lot of power. The electrical layout has to be drawn from the equipment schedule, not guessed.
• A layout that hides the cooler wall. The cooler wall pulls customers through the store. Put it where they see it from the door.

How design-build helps a first-time owner

When the designer and the equipment supplier are different companies, the owner is the one who has to check that the equipment fits the plan. With design-build, the same team draws the store and orders the equipment, so the plan and the equipment schedule are checked against each other before anything is bought. For a first store, that removes the riskiest job from your list. Read the full comparison in design-build vs. hiring an architect.

What it costs

Our published range for a full convenience store design is $15,000 to $75,000+, depending on store size, complexity and whether equipment is included. A basic floor plan starts around $5,000 to $10,000. Equipment is a separate package, priced from the equipment schedule. Our equipment cost guide breaks down the main categories.

What we do on your project

We follow the same eight steps on every store: floor plan, equipment package, framing layout, electrical layout, walk-in coolers and freezers, cabinets and shelving, color and graphics, and the store delivery package. Then we deliver and install the equipment. JayComp has built more than 2,500 stores since 1996, from our base in Ravia, Oklahoma, and we work in all 50 states.

Send us what you know so far: the site, what you want to sell and when you want to open. We will tell you what the store needs and what to do next. See what to send for a quote.