Really raw honey aggravation

[sqkcrk]

It sure should. You should be charging more than them. Or at least the same.

[camero7]

Sell your honey. If people like it, you will build a customer base who will retrun to buy more and spread the word that you have a product worth buying. Don't try to compete. Sell your own.

Works for me, I'm sold out until next summer.

[sqkcrk]

Maybe you should raise your price too?

[camero7]

Well, I'm getting $10/lb retail and $6/lb wholesale. Can't push it much higher I'm afraid. Don't want to price myself out of existence.

[sqkcrk]

Those are good prices. You should be making a profit at those prices. Mine aren't that high. Good job Cam.

[camero7]

Still in the red as I continue to grow. Looks like I have bad losses this winter in my nucs. So don't know if growth year or replenish year

[brooksbeefarm]

I'm sold out,i sell quarts for $13.50 at the farmers market and $13.00 at home ($.50 is to cover the set up fee) May have to go up on price if supplies go up? customers want raw local honey, but if you raise your price to much they go to Wally World for the $9.00 to $10.00 quarts.

[sqkcrk]

If you raise your price too much you will make more on what you sell.

[brooksbeefarm]

That's true,but i would rather sell at a fair price and build my customer base up (word of mouth) then move the price up slowly when overhead occur. If you get to greedy you start losing customers, and the word gets out that your trying to rip them off,when that happens you can never get them back. Seen it happen.

[sqkcrk]

Can't argue w/ you there. But, it isn't ripping someone off to get twice the Wal-mart price or more. It's making profit so you can stay in business and expand your business. Maybe you don't need to run a financially selfsusstaining bee business, because your real job supports your bee bizz. Nuthin' wrong w/ that.

[camero7]

That's true,but i would rather sell at a fair price and build my customer base up (word of mouth) then move the price up slowly when overhead occur. If you get to greedy you start losing customers, and the word gets out that your trying to rip them off,when that happens you can never get them back. Seen it happen.

But how is the customer to value what you sell if you sell it too cheaply. I have very few customers tell me I'm too high priced [even though I'm on the very high end of sale price]. They understand they are getting pure honey, unfiltered and unheated. They value that.

[sqkcrk]

It is very much about whether one is in business or not.

[brooksbeefarm]

Camero7,I've had bee club members tell me they guess they raised there price to high? that their study customers quit coming back.I usually run out of honey before the first of the year and i tell my customers i won't have anymore befor July or Aug. They like that because they know i'm not buying honey and selling it as my own. My phone starts ringing off the wall in July.

[camero7]

I have a pretty loyal customer base. Sometimes they buy in the store and then come back to tell me how great my honey tastes. I know I have a high price but I firmly believe, if you don't value the honey how can you expect your customers to? I'm sold out and have a couple stores begging for more honey. I don't buy and resell either. That's a good way to lose customers IMO.

[Bee Bliss]

Brooksbeefarm,
How much are your bee club members selling their honey for? I also think your price is too low for the quality honey you produce. Mark and Camero are the voices of experience so what they offer in advice is priceless.

You are worried about fewer sales. But, for every 100 quarts you sell at $13.50/quart, you could sell 75 quarts at $18/quart and make the same amount. These are the numbers as an example....

$13.50 x 100 = $1,350
$18.00 x 75 = $1,350

You could sell at the higher price and have 25% fewer quarts sold and still make the same amount in total sales. At this rate, anything sold after that total is a bonus (25 x $18 = $450). The numbers change depending on what you sell quarts for. Wish you well.....

[Slow Modem]

Just wanted to share a pet peeve of mine. I sell raw on heated unfiltered honey. This year I made enough to sell it to local health food stores. Yesterday I made a sales pitch yesterday where the store owner was really excited about the honey. Today I brought it in-- a case of 24 queenline jars only to be met with a tepid "oh thats raw honey really?...It doesnt look like the raw honey on the internet.....?"

Anyone else have to deal with this nonsense? I left annoyed as the store owner implied by her questioning that I was somehow offering fake raw honey--she asked me several times if I heated it---which I never do. She bought it but still I don't need to be interrogated.

Most folks have no idea what it takes to get honey from the hive into the jar. (I know I didn't. After my first extraction, I was ready to sell for $100/quart!)

If you think this is a potential source of income and is worth saving, then invite the owner to your next extracting and let them learn what is involved. That way they'd know what's involved, plus they would be able to explain the process to their customers.

Just some food for thought.

Good luck!

[brooksbeefarm]

Bee Bliss, no doubt i could make more $ by raising my price. but in this small country town of around 1200 population (older farm people) you can't charge twice as much as they can go to Wally World and get a quart of honey even if they know my honey is better. Most of the bee club members that sell honey from they're hives sell it to people they work with $18.00 a qt, but they only sell 10 to 20 qts. a year. I could join the Springfield, Mo. Farmers Market and get $18.00 a qt. but the fees i would have to pay to join, and set up fees plus gasoline driving to and from would cost more than the extra $4.50 per qt.so i think i've got a good customer base built up here.Out of the 160 club members only myself and one other member produce enough honey to have a large customer base and she sells her honey cheaper than i do.

[AstroBee]

I am bumping this thread as a warning to all of you selling Raw honey--sites all over the internet insist that if it isnt creamy and spreadable it is "fake raw honey" I have included some examples here--be ready to argue with customers over this if you sell at farmers markets or direct
http://www.destination-healthy-foods...Raw-Honey.html
Middle of page

http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/2012/...or-pure-honey/
"Raw honey is solid at room temperature (like honey should be) and it also looks opaque and milky. You should be suspicious if a honey that is marketed as “raw” is clear and runny. The sold “milky” honey still contains the bee pollen granules, bee propolis, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes"

and finally this beauty from the brilliant people at Ehow
http://www.ehow.com/how_7430772_tell-honey-raw.html

And this "live" example found on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAELXYAthqM
Look around the net and on youtube and you will see what I mean

People try to be educated consumers, which I respect and do myself on almost everything I purchase I make. Commonly, they go to the internet and attempt to learn what is consistent with their desires, and in this case to learn about "raw honey" and potential health benefits. They then land upon one or more of these sites, which gives them a false understanding on what "raw" honey really is. The sad thing is that this bogus stuff seems to propagate faster than real facts. I've been finding more and more customers come up to our booth and look at our beautifully presented jar of liquid raw honey (and yes clear) and almost immediately they turn away and say something like: "Sorry I was looking for raw honey". I then reply (as nice as humanly possible) that all of the honey in front of them is raw. They then turn around looking very puzzled with that look as those anything that comes out of my mouth in the next 30 seconds will be a lie. Some stop and listen, but others have their minds clogged with internet bogus "facts" and don't believe a word that I say. My definition of raw honey is very simple. It is honey that is only coarsely screened and never heated - that's it. Oh and for the disbelievers, I have archived a jar of honey every year since 2003 and all are still perfectly clear and liquid. Our spring crop simply does not crystallize. In fact, I've tried to make creamed honey from it and can't.

I'm going to make a flier to give out that tries to cut through the BS and present some facts.

[sqkcrk]

Who ya gonna trust? The guy standing at the Farm Mkt every wek, who puts his name and contact info on the jar? Or some unkown and unknowable entity from somewhere out there in cyberspace? Cause ya know everythig on the net is true, right?

I feel for ya Astro. That's one reason I don't sell at Farm Mkts. I sell directly to stores. It sells, even if it has to sit there until the right customer comes along. If it sits there too long I have a Buy Back Policy.So far, after 20 yrs or more, I haven't had to buy any back.

Get them to taste it if you can. They'll feel obligated to buy some. Some of them will anyway. And when they do, others will see them doing so and suspect there is good reason to do so also. And they will. Marketing. Sell your own product w/out denegrating someone elses and you will build a customer base over time.

[Joel]

I have helped a friend put up Really Raw Honey. I don't know how they get away w/ such a product. But they have established a market and an impression of what Raw Honey is and looks like. It is what it is and there are plenty of people out there who will buy your Raw Honey w/out wax chunks and bee parts. I bet you will sell all you put up.

The same way Clorox sells natural products under the name Burt's Bees - It' all about marketing to sheep!

As to your quality product - don't be discourgaed - it will take some time to develop a niche but once you do and word spreads you won't find yourself having to explain your product very often. A sample taste comparison with a store owner or a retail customer speaks for itself.