Multiple Locations
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This month we are interested in multiple locations. Does your rental company have multiple locations or a single location? And how did you decide which direction you wanted to take?
1. What type of equipment do you rent?
Party/Event: 30% (11 responses)
General Tool: 43% (16 responses)
Both: 27% (10 responses)
2. Do you have a single or multiple locations?
Single location: 54% (22 responses)
Multiple locations: 46% (19 responses)
Have Multiple Locations
3. How many total locations do you have?
1 – (7 responses)
2 – (2 responses)
3 – (4 responses)
4 – (4 responses)
5 – (2 responses)
6 – (6 responses)
7 – (2 responses)
8 – (7 responses)
9 – (2 responses)
10 – (2 responses)
11 – (5 responses)
12 – (3 responses)
13 – (2 responses)
14 – (2 responses)
4. What made you decide to open additional stores? (Check all that apply.)
Volume: 29% (4 responses)
Deliveries: 21% (3 responses)
Market: 50% (7 responses)
Customer Base: 29% (4 responses)
Other (please specify): 29% (4 responses)
Additional comments (4):
• Partners want their own stores.
• Opportunity to purchase an existing business.
• Economy of scale, buying power, for our employees.
• 2nd store became available as former owner retired at bottom of market.
5. Are your additional stores owner or manager run?
Owner: 14% (2 responses)
Manager: 86% (12 responses)
6. What is the distance between your locations?
1. It varies, the average is 20 miles.
2. 5 miles (2 responses).
3. 25-75 minutes.
4. 17 to 65 miles.
5. 7 miles (2 responses).
6. 6 miles to 60 miles.
7. 10 miles.
8. 35 miles.
9. 100’s to 50.
10. 1 hour.
11. 20 miles.
12. 90 miles.
7. Do you own or lease the land of additional locations?
Own: 79% (11 responses)
Lease: 21% (3 responses)
Additional comments (3):
• 3 owned, 4 leased.
• Both own and lease. (2 responses)
8. Do you use shared inventory or have dedicated store inventory?
Shared Inventory: 86% (12 responses)
Dedicated Inventory: 14% (2 responses)
Additional comments (5):
• Smaller equipment is dedicated.
• Share when necessary.
• Share most equipment requiring delivery. "Small" equipment is dedicated.
• Stores will rent other stores inventory because they are compensated for it.
• Seattle branch is dedicated.
9. Do the additional locations help the bottom line?
Yes: 71% (10 responses)
No: 7% (1 response)
Additional comments (3):
• Sometimes.
• 2nd store only 20% of income, probably 10% of profit.
• After heavy start-up costs and building volume.
Multiple Location Challenges
10. What are your challenges in operating multiple locations? ( Check all that apply.)
Labor - Staffing: 57% (8 responses)
Management - Staffing: 43% (6 responses)
Difficulty in Having Enough Inventory: 36% (5 responses)
Transferring Inventory: 57% (8 responses)
Accounting Issues: 7% (1 response)
Other (please specify): 7% (1 response)
Additional comment (1): It is a smaller market than we anticipated.
11. Comments (2 responses):
• Finding quality store managers is always challenging!
• Having a written SOP is of great benefit. Otherwise you are scrambling around putting out fires all the time.
Single Location
12. Have you ever considered multiple locations?
Yes: 67% (14 responses)
No: 33% (7 responses)
13. What is keeping you from expanding? ( Check all that apply.)
Labor - Staffing: 71% (15 responses)
Management - Staffing: 62% (13 responses)
Difficulty in Having Enough Inventory: 14% (3 responses)
Transferring Inventory: 19% (4 responses)
Accounting Issues: 5% (1 response)
Securing Land: 33% (7 responses)
Other (please specify): 19% (4 responses)
• Not enough brains.
• Being semi retired.
• Getting dad on board.
• Cost of leasing in California.
14. Additional Survey Comments:
• I want to "weigh-in" that I took the survey. I also appreciate the opportunity to sound off but don’t want to enter the drawing.
• One location equals less headaches.
