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I manned a stall at a farmer's market last year, selling association honey at £5/lb and my own at £7. My own honey outsold the association honey.
Presentation or did the patrons regard the association honey as they would super market honey happen ?
 
I helped at an association stand a couple or three years ago. Prices were set at association prices, i.e £5/lb or £4 for 12oz.

My jars were in 12oz hexes and everyone else's were in 1lb rounds.
Customers were always surprised at being given £1 change when one of mine was picked. I asked the organiser if I could just up mine to £5 as that would make it easier (no change) and customers obviously were expecting to pay £5.

I was told no as that would be unfair on the other members selling 1lbs at £5!
 
So called " wildflower honey " in lidle today, 89p lb jar. Probably never been near to a bee as label stated, a blend of non eu honey.
 
It's even cheap for around here

£5.00 a lb is just ripping yourself off - that's almost bulk price
A bulk price probably still includes a profit or other benefit of some sort so what's your point? Anyway the £5 i get is a fraction less than what I receive from the local Country Markets stall without the effort and expense of actually driving into town to the market. With a wife with alzheimers that suits me and her very well indeed. I sell my quite small stock at the front door to locals and give plenty away to friends and family too. Seems that is huge problem for everybody here? Nowt so queer as folk!!
 
We now package in 8 oz hex jars, because it outsells any other size by a country mile all day long!

Chons da

I sell 8 oz at £3.50 - it's going up to £4.00 this season but the only time the 8oz sells more than 12oz is the run up to Christmas - presents I think .. the rest of the time most of my sales are 12oz - new customers often go for 8oz but when they come back it's for the 12oz.
 
I sell 8 oz at £3.50 - it's going up to £4.00 this season but the only time the 8oz sells more than 12oz is the run up to Christmas - presents I think .. the rest of the time most of my sales are 12oz - new customers often go for 8oz but when they come back it's for the 12oz.
Couldn't be faffed. More glass and more expensive pro-rata honey usually.
 
Couldn't be faffed. More glass and more expensive pro-rata honey usually.
It's good marketing ... giving people the choice of two price points and the opportunity to choose is a good selling proposition ... when I see people hesitate at £4.50 .. it's easy to trade down to £3.50 and get a sale, once they get a taste for it - they come back for the bigger size next time. Also, ... people do buy the smaller size as gifts and that's probably a sale I would miss. Yes, it needs two sizes of jar and two different labels but it's not a big deal.
 
It's good marketing ... giving people the choice of two price points and the opportunity to choose is a good selling proposition ... when I see people hesitate at £4.50 .. it's easy to trade down to £3.50 and get a sale, once they get a taste for it - they come back for the bigger size next time. Also, ... people do buy the smaller size as gifts and that's probably a sale I would miss. Yes, it needs two sizes of jar and two different labels but it's not a big deal.
I'm with you on this one Philip, my doorstep sales are generally 340g hex @ £5.50 (£6 next season) but in the run up to Christmas I also do 135g hex jars with a ribbon on the neck for £3.00. They sell like hot cakes then but not very well at other times.
 
I think small jars would be better at show people like to wander about and buy some stuff they aren't there to buy anything specific but have money to burn sell them light expensive things so they can carry more of them.

move learnt the hard way not to compete on price at one point I struggled to get work and was charging buttons now I don’t want the work I make sure If I hear someone else is charging more they arnt for long and I get offfered a lot more work
 
12 oz hex I've been selling for £5 for a few years. One lady who lives with her father (they also order for their neighbours) has been on to us for ages that we are not charging enough, her 80 year old dad tells everyone it's the reason he hasn't caught covid. Price was £6 last year and we will look at sales this year.
 
Couldn't be faffed. More glass and more expensive pro-rata honey usually.
you're still not getting it are you. it's a hobby for you but a source of income for others. By undervaluing your honey, time and capital spent on equipment you are having an impact on the price in your area and potentially someone s income.
no problem with you giving it away as gifts, in doing that you recognise it's a premium product worthy of being a gift, just carry that mindset across to your pricing
 
Couldn't be faffed.
That sums up the approach of those who sell honey but cannot think beyond the garden gate. Reminds me of a film repeated recently on TPTV (Channel 81 on Freeview) featuring that lovable slice of olde England, Fred Kite.

The definition of couldn't be faffed bears comparison with I'm all right, Jack, a British expression used to describe people who act only in their own best interests, even if providing assistance to others would take minimal to no effort on their behalf.
 
you're still not getting it are you. it's a hobby for you but a source of income for others. By undervaluing your honey, time and capital spent on equipment you are having an impact on the price in your area and potentially someone s income.
no problem with you giving it away as gifts, in doing that you recognise it's a premium product worthy of being a gift, just carry that mindset across to your pricing

We also sell in small square 140g jars for £4.00***... anything much smaller would be a pain to package, even with the Thornes manual electro pneumatic machine.... flys off the stand at the County shows and Christmas markets.... Lets hope the Chinese Pox is under control for the coming season!

***Quality premium Cornish Trading Standards accredited black bee honey

Pargyle... How much sales competition do you have to force your prices down to a subsistence level????
 
Pargyle... How much sales competition do you have to force your prices down to a subsistence level????
My local association has 100+ members - mostly selling at £5.00 a pound. There are over 100 apiaries within 3km according to Beebase and we are not looking at sales to punters on holiday or rich ones with second homes in the area. The local market in Fareham has two stalls selling honey ... both with prices on par with what I get from at the door sales. One of them sells plastic 5lb tubs for £20.

One local producer has the local farm shop market and specialist outlets pretty much sewn up and they sell retail for the same sort of price I sell for - so I suspect their cost price is probably £3.50 - £4.00 a pound ... and I know they take jars on a sale or return basis. I don't want to compete in these outlets at those prices or on those terms.

I can dismiss the objection that my honey costs far more than the supermarkets ... but it's hard to counter the one that says - "I can buy local honey **here** for **this price** - what is different about yours ?"

My hex jars have gold lids, a nice label and anti-tamper seals and it's lovely tasting honey which has won prizes at honey shows. I push the fact that my bees are treatment free, work in combs that don't have foundation and the general way my bees are kept. I avoid the word natural but I do use raw honey .. I stress that my honey is not heat treated or blended and being coarse filtered contains local pollens - and they get the message but .... these are 'technical' answers to a 'price comparison' objection and it takes time to explain and convince.

I also sell on the taste test ... and concentrate sales in my immediate area as I can also sell the line 'my bees will have foraged in your garden'.

It doesn't help anyone's cause when the likes of Rowse are preaching in an advert on the TV about the attributes of their "British" honey - and then sell 340gm jars of runny honey in Asda for £2.00 a jar ... some people really don't notice or understand the 'blend of non-EU honeys' labels until you have time to explain it.

https://groceries.asda.com/product/honey/rowse-pure-natural-honey/910000280262
They even have Soil Association certified on their 'Organic' honey ... although I do wonder how much UK Organic honey is actually in the jar at £3.29 for 340gm ?

https://www.rowsehoney.co.uk/our-honeys/
I don't consider supermarket honeys as competition but my customers shop in them and I'm sure that they can and do make a price comparison - and have to justify to themselves that my product is worth the additional cost.

I win quite a few customers selling the attributes and benefits of my honey and have some regulars who have moved from other suppliers ~ but there is always going to be a price point that the market will bear and this will vary where there's a difference in clientele across various parts of the country.

I've spent most of my life in sales and marketing - and a lot of it was in the fragrance industry - try talking to a person you are selling a perfume or aftershave to about what price it is and you will be dead in the water ... as I said earlier - you have to sell the sizzle not the sausage - and honey sales fall into the same sort of category for us local producers. Unfortunately, unlike perfume or aftershave, it's considered by many purchasers as a commodity and your brand of honey can only be semi-exclusive. You have to find the things that add value to your offering and sell whatever exclusivity you can find.

I'm getting £6/lb soon to be nearer £7/lb. Judging by some other posts it's not quite subsistence but I think it's about all the market will stand around me at the moment. If you have some ideas that will allow me to increase my prices without losing sales I'm all ears.
 
My wife has relatives in Talgarth and when they re opened the Mill, with cafe and shop, we thought to ask if they would like to stock our honey.
They already had a local supplier and were selling his honey for £3.50, I didn't even bother to ask. I dread to think what they were buying it for.
 
I think our:-
"Product of Cornwall~ Approved Origin ~ Cornwall Council"
Gold label on our Cornish Black Bee Honey, plus the Apiary name and area of production......
Has a definite level of exclusive sizzell to it!

Yeghes da
 
If I get the chance to speak to my customers, I stress that I never feed sugar. With all the media interest in adulteration, that resonates with most people.
 

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