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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Pricing produce

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Matt Cheselka <cheselka AT freestateproject.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Pricing produce
  • Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 09:05:07 -0600 (CST)

On Sat, 20 Mar 2004, Pat Meadows wrote:

> Suppose (this is only hypothetical) that I'm a hobbyist who
> doesn't NEED to make any money from my lettuce sales whereas
> others could be depending upon their sales to make their
> living or part of it.
>
> Therefore, I think it would be unethical to take away their
> business by seriously undercutting them. And I would,
> accordingly, not go to the farmers market and charge half
> the going rate.

Yes, this is certainly something that needs to be taken into
consideration. Thanks for pointing this out to me. It's not to anyone's
benefit to undercut by a significant amount.

However, I've seen some people at the market charge as much as $4/head for
lettuce simply becuase they know people will pay that much. I consider
this practice (overpricing) very unethical, too. The best I can do is
look and see how much is costs me to help that head of lettuce grow
(including some reasonable salary for myself) and then tack on a little
for "profit". If I do this without considering what others are pricing,
to my surprize it turns out that I'm almost always in the same ballpark.

Thanks and Cheers,

Matt





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