Is €30K a week realistic for an off licence these days?

[SassyOchreTurtle]

Hi everyone. I posted yesterday about feeling stuck working in my boyfriend’s family off-licence and a lot of your comments were really helpful, so thank you for that.

I wanted to ask another question because something my boyfriend’s father said has been on my mind.

He told us that the shop could potentially make around €30,000 a week in sales. The thing is, I’ve been working here for about three years and we currently do roughly half of that most weeks.

This is a medium town with several supermarkets, a shopping centre and two other off-licences nearby, so I’m struggling to understand whether that figure is realistic or not.

For anyone who works in retail or off-licences, does €30k a week in sales sound realistic in a situation like this in 2026? Or does that sound overly optimistic?

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have experience with this kind of business.

That 30k isn't profit though, is it? You have to deduct the amount you paid for the goods you sold, all the running costs and expenses before you can see whether the business is profitable or not.

A small business is going to have to pay far more to buy its stock than a supermarket, which can buy huge quantities and negotiate a lower bulk price. They can then sell it cheaper than you can and undercut your prices.

In the meantime, I saw your other thread and this family is treating you like a servant. You absolutely need to find another job with proper pay and decent working hours & conditions.

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.

I can only assume this shop barely scrapes a profit, given that the turnover is €15/16k a week, yet you are paid a pittance for working 60 hours a week, and your partner isn’t paid at all.

Honestly, it’s all pie in the sky and your energy would be better directed looking for a new job and rethinking your relationship.

If you and your boyfriend are working in the shop all day every day, surely you must know yourself whether it's capable of doubling turnover and if so, how you could achieve it. You're best placed to know what new products you could start selling, increase opening hours, become a franchise, etc. Turnover doesn't rise by doing nothing, so things need to change to make it happen. You know your customer profile, you know the kind of things they currently buy, etc. The big question is "IF" it's possible to double turnover, why hasn't it already happened - what's holding it back?

This off licence is part of a franchise. His father renovated the old off licence and he made it a bit bigger but sales are exactly the same. We're opening now at 11 when we used to open at 13:00 and we are not making more money. In fact the money is the same as last year in the old shop.
I can actually see less consumption in alcohol every year. Some regular customers are not coming anymore.

Honestly I don't know when I was last in a high street off licence. At least 20 years Id say. Supermarkets are cheaper, have trolleys for carrying heavy bottles, lots of parking and unless you have a very unique draw, I cant see why your football would increase.
Problem with many family businesses is that Dad or Grandad is still planning off business conditions decades ago. I have a wonderful independent wine merchant nearby with amazing stock and good prices, and I'll still only make a special trip for Christmas or a special occasion.
Added the rest of the crap you are putting up with, get out.

I can actually see less consumption in alcohol every year. Some regular customers are not coming anymore

I think people are drinking less. Younger people don't seem to drink as much as I and my friends did when we were late teens, early 20s.
There's also the cost of living crisis and people are having to make cutbacks.

It's decades since I've been to an off-licence because supermarkets stock a range of alcohol and it's easy to pick something up with the rest of the shopping, parking is easier too so you don't have to faff on finding a place to park near the off-licence and then walk to the shop and back again with heavy bottles.

@turkeyboots

Problem with many family businesses is that Dad or Grandad is still planning off business conditions decades ago.

Nail on the head there.

That's what I actually think, but the father lives in a constant fantasy. He's stuck in 2006. I don't see how we can make €30k when we have a couple of Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes Stores and a big Tesco nearby.

As you are using euros, I'll guess you are in Ireland? If so engage with your Local Enterprise Office, they do specialist family business planning sessions, here a link to a Dublin one, but all counties will offer something similar.

Succession Planning for a Family Business - Local Enterprise Office - SouthDublin share.google/PhD1MnUx9DmqSUAXb