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AyRojgar

Tea stall and small cafe

About 250 cups come out of a kilo of tea leaf, and a cup sells for Tk 5-30. Tk 20,000 buys a stove, a cylinder, cups and a week of stock - not a shop deposit and not a fridge.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Tea stall and small cafe

Tea stall and small cafe

Starting capital
৳20,000 – ৳1,50,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 3 people
First sale
7 – 30 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
2 – 4 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Shop · Easy

About the business

A tea stall is a small room or shed at the roadside or in a corner of the bazaar: one stove, some cups, a bench. It is the business people think of first when there is no money in hand, but cheap to start is not the same as easy. Bangladesh drinks about 65 million cups a day, made from roughly 260,000 kg of tea leaf, which works out at about 250 cups from a kilo of leaf. A cup sells for Tk 5-10 in villages and small towns, Tk 15-20 in cities, and up to Tk 30 for malai cha and speciality teas. On the cost side, the Chattogram auction average for the 2026-27 season is Tk 280.88 per kg, and Tk 306.76 at the auction of 24 August 2026; packet dust tea bought retail works out at Tk 440-462 per kg. Sugar is Tk 110-115 a kg, a 400 g tin of condensed milk Tk 105, and a 12 kg LPG cylinder Tk 1,585. What Tk 20,000 buys matters more than any projection: a double-burner stove (Tk 1,436-4,900), one cylinder, kettles, cups and about a week of leaf, sugar and milk. It does not buy a shop deposit, a fridge, or a trade licence and food-safety registration together in a city corporation area. And one cost never appears in anyone's plan: a footpath stall pays the local lineman Tk 50-500 a day, some Tk 5,000-10,000 a month, while floating traders in Chattogram report Tk 100-150 a day. Eviction drives are routine - Chattogram City Corporation runs 25-30 a month. Location and that payment decide whether the stall survives.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳6,000 – ৳30,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳5 – ৳30 / unitMarket quote
Variable cost৳4 – ৳12 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin30% – 60%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue7 – 30 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time2 – 4 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 7 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss2% – 10%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity150 – 600Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A double-burner gas stove (Tk 1,436-4,900), a 12 kg LPG cylinder (Tk 1,585), kettles, strainers, cups and glasses, spoons, a water drum, a bench and a table. A fridge lets you hold milk and side items.Equipment
  • Dust or BOP grade tea leaf (Tk 440-462/kg retail), sugar (Tk 110-115/kg), condensed milk (Tk 105 per 400 g tin) or milk powder (Dano Daily Pushti 1 kg Tk 770), ginger and cardamom, biscuits and side items.Starting stock
  • Food safety registration from the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority: Tk 1,000 new, Tk 500 renewal, valid three years. Under the Food Safety (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2026 it is compulsory for street vendors too.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, non-judicial stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, plus VAT and signboard fee. Issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
  • A hand for making tea, and the same taste every day. Customers leave when the taste changes and rarely come back.Skill
  • A wholesale grocer or tea dealer, plus a regular LPG dealer. The cylinder price is fixed by BERC.Supplier
  • A small shop or shed at the roadside or in the bazaar, with water and somewhere to sit. A footpath pitch needs no deposit but faces city corporation eviction drives - Chattogram City Corporation runs 25-30 a month.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Fix the spot: a bus stand, a bazaar corner, a factory gate, outside a college, or beside a highway. For a tea stall the location is the real capital.
  2. 2Decide first: footpath or a rented shop. The footpath needs no deposit but means a daily payment to the lineman and the risk of eviction.
  3. 3Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300 and a licence fee by trade type.
  4. 4Register with the Food Safety Authority: Tk 1,000 new, Tk 500 renewal, valid three years. Street food vendors are covered.
  5. 5Buy the stove, cylinder, kettles, cups and glasses, a water arrangement and a bench. A double-burner stove is Tk 1,436-4,900 and a 12 kg LPG cylinder Tk 1,585.
  6. 6Line up leaf, sugar and milk. Buying by the sack or carton from a wholesaler is cheaper than retail, where dust tea runs Tk 440-462 a kg.
  7. 7From day one, count how many cups you get from a kilo of leaf and from one tin of condensed milk. Knowing those two numbers is what lets you price a cup.
  8. 8Keep biscuits, bananas, cake, paan and cigarettes alongside the tea. In most stalls it is these side sales that keep the shop alive.
  9. 9Keep a credit book but write it up daily. The shopkeepers around you settle at month end, and what is not written down is money lost.
  10. 10Morning and evening carry the sales. Winter lifts them and peak summer cuts them, so buy stock accordingly.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprLow
  5. MayLow
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovHigh
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitChattogram · Many floating stalls around the port, Station Road and New Bridge; 71 percent of the city's footpaths are occupied.
  • Strong fitDhaka · Offices, factories and bus stands give customers all day, but footpath payments and evictions are heaviest here.
  • Strong fitGazipur · At the factory gates of Chandna Chowrasta, Board Bazar and Konabari, sales peak at shift change.
  • Strong fitNarayanganj · Dense settlement and factories, with busy bus stands on the Dhaka route all day.
  • PossibleBogura · A northern trading centre with all-day demand at the bazaar and bus stand.
  • PossibleCumilla · Stalls at the rest stops on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway sell through the night.
  • PossibleMoulvibazar · The Sreemangal auction centre is here, where the 2026-27 season average is Tk 264.06 a kg.
  • PossiblePanchagarh · The Panchagarh auction averages Tk 253.83 a kg, the lowest of the three centres, so leaf is cheap.
  • PossibleShariatpur · The malai cha stalls on the Angaria bypass draw crowds, selling from 4 pm to 11 pm.
  • PossibleSylhet · Tea gardens put leaf close at hand, and cafe-style stalls work in the remittance neighbourhoods.

Risks and cautions

  • HighOther: A footpath pitch means paying. A May 2026 report found linemen collecting Tk 50-500 a day from each of the 25,000-30,000 hawker stalls in Gulistan, and Tk 5,000-10,000 a month from some. A floating trader in Chattogram's New Bridge area said he is not allowed to sit without paying Tk 100-150 a day. None of it appears on a receipt and all of it comes straight out of the margin.
  • HighOther: Eviction. City corporations run mobile courts and eviction drives constantly - Chattogram's executive magistrate says 25-30 a month - and Dhaka South ran drives against footpath occupation in August 2026. One drive can take the stove, the bench and the shed together.
  • MediumWorking capital: The cup price is stuck while costs rise. Putting a cup up from Tk 10 to Tk 12 sends customers next door, but the auction average for tea has gone from Tk 245.50 in 2025-26 to Tk 280.88 in 2026-27, about 14 percent in a year, and sugar and milk prices are not in the stallholder's hands either.
  • MediumCompliance: Both a trade licence and food-safety registration are required. The 2026 Food Safety Regulations brought street vendors into registration at Tk 1,000 for three years, and running without papers invites a mobile-court fine.
  • MediumDemand: Sales are entirely a function of the spot. A stall at a factory gate dies when the factory shuts, one outside a college sits idle in the holidays, and a highway stall empties the moment the road closes. Winter lifts sales and peak summer cuts them.

Sources

What changed

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Stories about this business

What workedA tea shop owner in Sherpur, Bogura, in a Prothom Alo report

A 10,000-taka loan, and 1,000-1,200 cups of tea a day

A tea shop opened about 35 years ago on 10,000 taka borrowed by his father now sells 1,000-1,200 cups a day at 5 to 60 taka a cup, and paid for a three-storey house costing 35 lakh taka.

Capital
৳10k
Reasons
Loyal customers, Weak demand

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