Opening inventory

Opening inventory is the product, paper, and supplies needed to start selling. It is not the three-month operating reserve, and it is not the grand-opening campaign. Filings put it on its own row because it is due before the first week of sales, often to a required supplier, and because replenishment after that week belongs in additional funds or in the monthly model.

The league table at the end of this chapter sums inventory-bucket rows. Every itemised filing in this dataset has one.

The five disclosed inventory lines

Brand	Filing label	Low	High	Format
German Doner Kebab	Opening Inventory	$15,000	$20,000	1,200–1,400 sq ft
Shah’s Halal Food	Initial Inventory	$10,000	$30,000	1,200–2,000 sq ft
The Great Greek	Opening Inventory	$7,000	$15,000	1,800–2,000 sq ft
Mad for Chicken	Initial Inventory	$14,250	$28,200	2,000–4,000 sq ft
375° Chicken ‘n Fries	Initial Inventory	$5,000	$10,000	800–1,500 sq ft

Great Greek’s $7,000–$15,000 is the lowest band on one of the larger footprints. 375°’s $5,000–$10,000 is the lowest band on the smallest footprint. Shah’s $10,000–$30,000 is the widest inventory range, and its high end equals GDK’s entire additional-funds high of $20,000. Those comparisons are interesting only after the footnote says what is in the box: protein, produce, bread, packaging, cleaning chemicals, uniforms, or some mixture.

GDK also discloses Small Wares at $11,000–$15,000 in the equipment bucket and Office Supplies & Misc. at $1,500–$5,000 in other. Smallwares are utensils and opening tools; they are not food. Treating them as inventory double-counts if the operations list already packed them into opening inventory, and undercounts if a buyer skipped the smallwares row because “inventory” sounded like the whole kitchen.

Shah’s Marketing Supplies of $2,000–$7,000 is other, not inventory. Napkins with a logo can live in either row. Minnesota’s public Shah’s Halal filing is the place to read the inventory footnote next to marketing supplies and the fixture package.

Inventory is not working capital

Additional-funds rows in the same filings:

Brand	Additional funds	Period
German Doner Kebab	$15,000–$20,000	3 months
Shah’s Halal Food	$10,000–$30,000	3 months
The Great Greek	$35,000–$75,000	0–6 months
Mad for Chicken	$51,375–$162,000	3 months
375° Chicken ‘n Fries	$30,000–$60,000	3 months

GDK’s opening inventory high ($20,000) equals its additional-funds high ($20,000). That coincidence is not a reason to merge the rows. Inventory is product on the shelf at opening. Additional funds are cash to operate after opening. If the additional-funds footnote already assumes replenishment, the opening-inventory row is still the first fill. If it does not, the monthly model has to buy food again in week two.

Great Greek’s inventory high of $15,000 against additional funds of up to $75,000 for as long as six months is the opposite shape: a modest first fill and a longer operating reserve. Mad for Chicken’s inventory of $14,250–$28,200 against additional funds of $51,375–$162,000 is closer to that shape on a larger restaurant. 375°’s inventory of $5,000–$10,000 against $30,000–$60,000 of additional funds is a small first fill on a small outlet. None of those patterns discloses days-of-supply.

Required suppliers and spoilage

Item 8 restricted sources matter more for inventory than for almost any other Item 7 row except equipment. Proprietary protein, bread, or sauce cannot be bid out because Shah’s disclosed a $10,000 low. The opening order may have a minimum, a freight add-on, and a delivery window that does not match the health-department opening date. Spoilage between delivery and the first busy weekend is an opening cost that Item 7 may have assumed away.

Halal supply, where it is required, is a specification, not an Item 7 line. The inventory cell does not say whether the first fill meets the brand’s standard; the operations manual and the supplier list do. This chapter does not invent a premium for that specification.

Packaging for delivery and pickup can dwarf protein in a small footprint. 375°’s $5,000 low on 800–1,500 square feet will not last if the opening week is aggregator-heavy and the row was estimated on dine-in paper. Ask the footnote, then ask a recent franchisee, as the FTC’s FDD walkthrough recommends for opening costs.

Worked example: do not scale inventory by square footage

Great Greek’s inventory high of $15,000 on up to 2,000 square feet is $7.50 per square foot if someone divides it that way. GDK’s $20,000 on 1,200 square feet is $16.67. Mad for Chicken’s $28,200 on 2,000 square feet is $14.10, or $7.05 on 4,000 square feet. Those unit costs are artifacts. Inventory scales with menu, throughput, delivery mix, and supplier minimums, not with dining-room area. The cost per square foot chapter exists to show that kind of division and then put it down. Inventory is one of the rows that makes the division misleading.

Opening-inventory checklist

1. Copy the filing’s inventory label and range without renaming it “food.”
2. List protein, produce, dry goods, beverages, packaging, chemicals, and uniforms, and mark which of those the footnote includes.
3. Keep smallwares, marketing supplies, and grand-opening materials on their own rows where the filing split them.
4. Confirm Item 8 sources, minimum orders, freight, and lead time.
5. Put replenishment on the working capital calendar, not back into the opening-inventory cell.
6. Count spoilage and a second delivery before the first weekend as explicit lines if the franchisor’s first fill is a one-time truck.

First fill versus par, and the delivery calendar

Opening inventory is a first fill. Par is the on-hand level the store is supposed to hold once it is busy. If the first truck is a first fill and the second truck is delayed, the store either 86s items or buys retail. GDK’s $15,000–$20,000 and 375°’s $5,000–$10,000 are the cells that most need a dated delivery calendar, because they are small relative to a busy weekend on a small footprint. Mad for Chicken’s $14,250–$28,200 on 2,000–4,000 square feet looks larger and still fails if the protein lead time is ten days and the health department opens on day eight.

Frozen versus fresh changes the cash, the equipment, and the permit. A first fill that is mostly frozen needs freezer capacity that lives in equipment or in a package. A first fill that is mostly fresh needs more frequent trucks and more spoilage reserve. Item 7 inventory rows do not say which. The operations manual and the supplier list do. A first fill that arrives before the walk-in is running is spoilage, not inventory savings.

Uniforms and smallwares are the usual double-count. GDK split smallwares. Shah’s and the chicken concepts did not. Count uniforms as inventory only if the footnote put them there; otherwise they are other, professional, or a site quote with no home in the filing.

The injected comparison below sorts inventory rows by high estimate. Use it to see the labels. Use a supplier quote dated to the opening week to see the order.