I used to work in the industry from a distribution stand point.
What I can tell you is that credit for stock is hard to come by. I can recall our company's credit controllers having weekly meetings with the oposition distributors to determine which businesses were in credit stress (mostly bottom feeders) so terms could be changed to Pay before delivery or refusal of orders if things were really bad.
From a start up perspective, to obtain credit with any liquor wholesaler, I'd suggest you'd need a directors guarentee and soem water tight security just to gain terms of 14 days, otherwise you will have to pay before delivery. Getting credit terms is like pulling teeth.
Like others have said, if you are an independant its probably better (and cheaper) to purchase through Safeway. Some "semi" independants join multiple buying groups/banner groups and 'pick' which brand they were going to buy under that week. That was being tightened up when I left the industry with banner groups changing their contracts so they were exclusive.
We did have a number of truely independants who did specialise in rare/exotics but they were few and far between, but they did well. If you think that offering a wine tasting and nibbles night once a month is specialised, then Uncle Dan (Dan Murphy's) has beaten you to the punch. It needs to be far more specialised than that; which in turn requires IMMENSE knowledge and passion.
Truely independants also need to negotiate the buy price of their liquor direct with the brand owners; who will then pass the pricing onto the liquor wholesaler who will invoice you at those prices. In this case, you or your manager would need to liase with the best part of sales teams from 30 companys, and double check pricing on all invoices to make sure the right rebates etc have come through. Being a member of a banner group removes this negotiation and because of volume throughout the group, pricing is usually better (although still not as good as buying through WW's on special). However this comes at a cost; and it really irked me the way they spent their Banner fees. (ie Sales team conferences in Las Vegas where not only do you take your sales team, but you take your sales rep from the 30 or so wine/spirit companys you negotiate with, then take them for a cruise on the way home!)
From memory; over 80% of "off premise" liquor in Australia is sold through either Coles (Liquorland, Vintage Cellars) or Woolworths (WW Liquor, Dan Murphy's) I'd say with the GFC it's probably a little higher than that now.
I don't know the cost of Liquor Licensing
Cheers
Buddybee
