What permits do you need to open a retail store in Bucks County?

Farmers'/Flea Market Stand License

A retail store or food-truck operator selling from a farmers market or flea market stand in Bucks County needs this BCDH license, priced under the current ADM-71 fee schedule at $175 for a seasonal stand, $235 for a year-round farmers market stand, and $50 for a satellite stand selling the same product on the same day as a licensed primary stand. This is separate from the Temporary Food Facility License listed elsewhere here, which covers short-run event sales rather than an ongoing market stand.

Precious Metals Dealer License

A retail-store business in Bucks County that buys precious metals from the general public for resale or refining — a pawn-shop or jewelry-buyer type operation — must obtain a Precious Metals Dealer License from the Bucks County Sheriff's Department under the Precious Metal Sale Regulation Law, Act 17 of 1984, §4(a), which requires the dealer to get a license 'from the sheriff of each ... county.' The statute caps the fee at $50 per year (§4(c)), and the implementing regulation, 37 Pa. Code §501.5, sets it at exactly that figure: 'The annual license fee is $50 payable at the time application is made to the county treasurer.' So the application itself is made to the Sheriff's Department, but the $50 annual fee is paid to the Bucks County Treasurer, and the license runs for a 1-year term under §4(d). Bucks County's own Weights & Measures program materials independently confirm the same $50 fee and 12-month term for this license.

Private/Residential Well Construction & Certification Permit

Any Bucks County business drilling or certifying a private well — including the restaurant, retail-store, childcare, fitness-studio, veterinary, auto-repair and contractor industries — needs a BCDH well permit or certification, priced under the current ADM-71 fee schedule: well certification with 3 field inspections is $420 (each additional inspection $270), a geothermal well of up to 3 holes is $435, abandonment or similar well actions are $280, a permit transfer is $130, and a bacteriological water sample analysis is $25 (a replacement sample bottle is $10).

Retail Food Facility License

$241 for a new facility, or $103 if it is owner-operated with fewer than fifty seats — a genuine small-operator discount worth checking you qualify for. Renewal is $82, and so is a change of ownership. Plan review is free, and due at least sixty days before opening. The license interval is risk-based rather than flatly annual: 24, 18, 12 or 6 months depending on the risk factors in the Model Food Code, so a higher-risk operation is re-licensed more often. Follow-up inspections escalate — the second is $150 and the third $300. Fees are collected at the compliant licensing inspection rather than with the application. The jurisdiction question matters more here than in most states: the Department does not license in Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Montgomery or Philadelphia counties, nor in the city health departments of Allentown, Bethlehem, Wilkes-Barre and York, and roughly ninety-nine further municipalities run their own licensing. There is no reciprocity between them, so a business crossing a boundary licenses twice.

Food Employee Certification

Pennsylvania sets no fee and no renewal term for this, because it neither issues the certificate nor runs the programme — the state charges none and the only cost is whatever the accredited provider asks. What the law requires is one certified food protection MANAGER per licensed facility, not a food handler card for everyone, and the Department is explicit that enrolling in a food handler course instead of a management course does not satisfy it. There is no statewide food handler card in Pennsylvania at all. Anyone reading older material should be careful: the state used to issue its own certificate for $20 with a five-year renewal and continuing education under Chapter 76 of the Pennsylvania Code, and that chapter was rescinded on 12 May 2014. It is the single most likely source of a wrong Pennsylvania figure. In practice: the certified employee must be available during all hours of operation and is the person in charge when present, the certificate is posted publicly, a new facility has ninety days to comply, three months to replace a certified employee who leaves, and one person may only serve as certified manager for one facility. Prepackaged-only operations, non-profit-managed facilities, volunteer fire and ambulance groups, agricultural fairs and school booster organisations are exempt.

Shared with other businesses in Bucks County

• Weights & Measures Commercial Device License/Permit — Bucks County Office of Consumer Protection, Weights & Measures, Bucks County Ordinance No. 165 §4 states that 'Annual license/permit fees shall be specified by resolution and adjusted from time to time as necessary by the County, in consultation with the Department.' The ordinance itself sets no dollar figure; a separate Board of Commissioners resolution does, and that resolution's amount is not published on the Weights & Measures program's web pages, its current Device Inventory Form, or its consumer-education materials., annual, per device. Also required for auto repair shops, restaurants, coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the auto repair shops page.
• Retail Food Facility License (Yearly) — Bucks County Department of Health, $115–$1,200 annual, by facility type/size — non-profit or school cafeteria/kitchen $115; take-out with no seating $345; microbrewery/winery/distillery with no food prep $345; under 50 seats $365; 50+ seats (including private/commercial schools with food service) $545; licensed in conjunction with a PA liquor license $545; caterer/commissary $545; over 10,000 sq ft $1,200; duplicate license $20, annual, calendar-year (January 1 through December 31); not transferable. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops, food trucks and childcare centres; what it involves is set out on the food trucks page.