Mama Bear's General Store — The general | mamabearsgeneralstore.com
A small general store is five departments sharing one roof: dry staples, canned goods, chilled, frozen, and household lines — 1,500-4,000 SKUs in total.
The format is defined by range, not size. A typical small general store runs 1,500-4,000 SKUs on a 150-400 square metre sales floor — enough to cover a household's weekly basics without becoming a supermarket.
Dry staples form the backbone of the list. Sealed flour keeps 6-8 months and white rice 2 years or more at 15-25°C, so this department forgives slow weeks and can be bought in case quantities.
Canned goods divide by acidity. Low-acid staples keep best quality for 2-5 years; high-acid lines such as canned tomato and fruit keep 12-18 months and belong on a tighter rotation.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
The chilled cabinet carries dairy, deli and ready-to-eat lines at 1-4°C, with 4°C (40°F) as the food-code limit. Sealed pasteurized milk keeps 10-21 days, and 3-7 days after opening, so this department orders weekly.
Frozen lines hold at -18°C or colder, with ice cream kept between -23 and -18°C. Household and hardware lines — cleaning goods, paper products, basic tools — round out the format without adding cold-chain risk.
How these departments translate into an opening order is worked through on the stocking plan page (/stocking-plan-small-store), and the holding limits behind the chilled and frozen departments are tabulated on the temperatures page (/store-temperatures-and-shelf-life).
Further reading