12 oz or 1lb

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Been thinking about what RAB pointed out in his initial post. Granted it may not of been the most endearing post but different people express things differently. Effective communication is approx 60% body language, 30% Tone and 10% words. On here we only have words so its important they are written well or they are easily misunderstood.
Whilst not siding or defending either side I read what he was pointing out (skimming the tone) and considered the 2 scenarios below.

I extract a super and get 24lb of honey, put it in 1 pound round jars and sell it at £5 a jar which gets me £120, less 24 x 30p (£7.20) for the jar and label leaving me £112.80.

The next super I also get 24lb of honey and this time put it into 12 oz hex jars, I get 30 jars which I sell for £4 a jar which gets me £120, less 30 x 30p (£9.00) for the jar and label leaving me £111.00.

I used the same jar and label price but the hex can be slightly dearer.

My extra time and effort gets me £1.80 less. Probably on average the 6 jars filled, weighed, capped and labelled take me a minute each so 6 minutes. I am losing 30p a minute or £18 an hour.

I might believe I get more sales in 12oz hex as they are pretty but this is fairly irrelevant when I sold out easily my modest 420lb harvest last year.

The commercial guys who sell bulk at £2.20 a pound who just extract, rough filter and stick it in to 660lb barrels do it this way for a reason.

I only sell 12 oz hex at £4 which is the same price I used to sell my 1 pound round for.
 
Thanks Pete D for putting some numbers onto RAB's point.
I'm hoping to sell my 227g jars for the same as I used to sell 454g but with a better label.

Sent from my XT890 using Tapatalk 2
 
I am very sorry that I do not know your level of literacy skills, but I am forming an opinion. Posts are quite revealing at times.

usual veiled insults and you're right - posts are very revealing
 
QUOTE=oliver90owner;349009]playing with words

Not 'playing'.

I am just very careful to write exactly what I mean and to be honest. One sometimes wonders about some of the posts on the forum ... like whether the poster has actually read what was written before replying, or even able to properly read what was written. I do realise there is a wide spectrum of literacy out there but can only respond to what has been written. Advice to this OP of selling in 12oz hex may well be flawed and the OP needs to realise that. Hex jars are more expensive, particularly in small quantities. I have not checked (more than knowing Th8rne approx prices for comparison) but somehow I doubt the OP would realistically choose that option unless for a very good reason. He almost certainly realises he needs far more than 33p a pound differential to break even.

I am very sorry that I do not know your level of literacy skills, but I am forming an opinion. Posts are quite revealing at times.



Its like :beatdeadhorse5: Now please lets move on!!!!![/QUOTE]


What a condescending rude and unpleasant post.
 
of course he did, he enjoys playing with words and winding people up and that's what he's doing here - usual cr*p from the same people defending him

no like button, nor a :thumbup: icon. :(

Oh well.

Perhaps he ought to modify his writing style if he is not attempting to be condescending and insulting?

For someone so literate it shouldn't be too difficult I wouldn't have thought?
 
...If the customer says that is expensive I always show a 12oz jar of Tesco finest English honey which retails now at £4.99...
Agree, it's a move that the supermarkets and big packers completed some time ago. Reducing the size gets less customer resistance than increasing the price, as the chocolate bar makers and even beer bottlers have found (pint to 500ml, how many cans are now 440ml?).

The overwhelming majority of honey jars in the supermarkets are now 12oz rather than 1lb. Mysupermarket lists Sainsburys as having 29 varieties packed at 340g, nothing at 454g. The supermarkets know the customer remembers the unit price more prominently than the quantity. 5 quid for a local artisan product looks fine if the supermarket price for anything with UK provenance is 4.99. If you push it up to 6.50 or 7.00 they can get a full traditional pound (+33% and round up or down) and it is probably more profitable and less effort for you. At 6.50 it's even better value for the buyer. But it looks expensive when "a jar" of honey, even a choice of specialist honeys, are presented as "top of the range" in every supermarket and no more than 4.99 or 4.95.
 
Psychologically £5 is a lot better value than £6 too.

Plus people will often buy 2 for £10.
 
Pete D,

If you insert the relevant jar cost (for a small user simply buying from Th8rne0, there is a far greater differential.

The comparative costs (buying by the box or boxes delivered) are :

454g rounds - 61p per jar (gross rate)

340g hevagonal - almost 95p per jar.

Our OP would be payiing out far more than your calculated differential.

Round figures - £105 for his super in 454s and £92 as 340 hex.

That was not taking into account the labels, extra time to jar and more time for making extra sales (assuming jars bought singly).

'Bulk' bottlers will clearly reduce the differential, but here we clearly have a possibly cash-strapped newbie and basically we don't know how he is proposing buying jars and labels.

Now we have the usual mob hissing around, I will leave someone else to persuade the OP that the advice given, particularly in one reply was rather less than adequate.

Regards, RAB
 
Pete D,

If you insert the relevant jar cost (for a small user simply buying from Th8rne0, there is a far greater differential.

The comparative costs (buying by the box or boxes delivered) are :

454g rounds - 61p per jar (gross rate)

340g hevagonal - almost 95p per jar.

Our OP would be payiing out far more than your calculated differential.

Round figures - £105 for his super in 454s and £92 as 340 hex.

That was not taking into account the labels, extra time to jar and more time for making extra sales (assuming jars bought singly).

'Bulk' bottlers will clearly reduce the differential, but here we clearly have a possibly cash-strapped newbie and basically we don't know how he is proposing buying jars and labels.

Now we have the usual mob hissing around, I will leave someone else to persuade the OP that the advice given, particularly in one reply was rather less than adequate.

Regards, RAB

omg is that how much some are paying. compac are so much cheaper even at small amounts, and much less if you work as a team and bulk buy.
 
Wynne jones sells jars much cheaper - around the 30p mark for 1lb rounds and 12oz hex.
 
I doubt those prices are typical.

It is what some charge. And some pay.

However, buying hex jars on the special half-price deal that was posted here (thanks again!), the 12oz hex came out just under 20p a jar, delivered to me. So they would have been 40p normally.
Whereas 1 pound round jars via the Association (last year £18 for 72) worked out at 25p each, collected at a meeting.

It depends what you are paying!

RAB's very valid point, as illustrated by PeteD's example, is one that deserves consideration by all that understand it.



The fundamental point however is that in asking his question about relative popularity of 12oz and 16oz jars, the OP missed the vital point that the popularity (as well as the profitability or otherwise) can be controlled by the price(s) that the beek chooses to set.
 
The figures I used, £6 for 16oz jar and £5 for 12oz jar means a 12oz jar will give you an extra 50p margin on the honey.

It is a relatively simple question of then asking does the extra cost of the hex jar, + label, + extra time spent filling it outweigh the 50p gain.

Assuming you got your 1lb jars from your local association @ 25p each (cheapest I have seen), my last batch of jars cost me £35 for 84, 42p each.

I can safely say that the extra cost of a label, plus the extra 1 min filling it (I am cheap labour anyway), did not cost an extra 33p
 
Dont forget to factor in the cost of petrol for carrying the extra weight of bread and butter, and the wear and tear on the teaspoons/knives.
 
I'm at a festival next weekend might sell a teaspoon of honey for 25p a time, or 2 slices of toast with honey on for £1 each.....great margin !

Depending on the festival, you could mix in some Cannabis and sell it at £50 a Jar :icon_204-2:
 

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