Market Farming

[KAKerby AT aol.com]

I went ahead and signed up for this particular service, and so far I'm cautiously optimistic.  It sounds a lot like what you've described below.  I create my own "fresh-sheet" for any given week, with whatever products and quantities we have available.  I also set my own retail price, my own wholesale price, and what minimum volume folks would have to buy to get the wholesale price.  I liked that last feature quite a bit.  They have two days of deliveries (Tues/Thurs) and I have to get product there by 10:30 the morning of a delivery if it needs to be delivered.  But I can also direct customers to pick up there.  I already have some folks in that area so that's handy.  I get paid when I drop off, and customers pay when they pick up, with a fee charged for handling the transaction.  Another nice thing is that they have three different levels of membership, where the higher the membership, the more "bells and whistles" come with it but at higher cost.  Things like auto-invoicing and monthly sales reporting and other features which don't matter much to me right now at our micro-scale, but would become more important as our sales added up.  I'm still fuzzy on some of the details but I'm working through their FAQs and figuring it out as I go.

 

I'll keep folks posted.  We're doing a better job of finding our own customers lately, but it's been a very slow buildup.  This may help us reach more folks, with less effort per new customer.  I'll be curious to see whether this new food hub listing out-performs our Local Harvest listing.  I've gotten some window-shoppers through the latter, but only a few actual customers.  We're also involved with two different informal bulk-buy groups, which have also given us a few customers here and there.  I guess it all adds up.  The food hub claims to reduce the amount of effort required for producers to gain new customers.  We'll see if they live up to that particular advertising claim.

Kathryn Kerby

frogchorusfarm.com

Snohomish, WA

 

In a message dated 9/12/2012 8:27:46 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, vaspencer AT sisna.com writes:

We are involved in something like that-- SixRiversMarket.com

This is a local online system where local producers advertise what they
have to sell, can set quantities available that the computer system
keeps track of while people order.  Customers order anytime Friday
through Monday the specific items from the specific producer that they
want.  The producer gets it to the distribution center with the label
for each customer on each item (or one package for each
customer--producer's choice) on Wed. early afternoon and customers pick
up late afternoon to early evening.  The producer is paid when they
deliver to the hub, and the customers pay either online or when they
pick up that day.

It started as a non-profit co-op, but wasn't run well and was given over
to a businessperson this spring.  We are in the process of rebuilding
our customer base.  Each producer sets the price for his own product,
can add, subtract, change prices at any time, but if it is during the
order cycle, the manager has to update it from their end.  The market
takes 6 percent from the price set by the producer, and adds tax and I
think percent from the consumer as well.

We drop off product on our way to Farmer's Market and if we have ordered
anything ourselves, we pick it up after market.  The nice thing is we
know what is sold before we even pick it.  The downside is if we only
have one order we still have to get it there, but it is only a couple
blocks from Wed. market and during the winter we can either keep going
or take a break.

I don't know how Local Orbit works.

Vern
Vern's Veggies and More!


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