No, not a way to buy porcupines...
https://www.nhteaparty.org/index.php/topic,686.0.htmlWe were thinking of starting a buying club. Initially, the focus would be on natural food, groceries, etc. There are some pretty good prices available on a variety of products, and a NH warehouse that we can pick up at in order to get better prices and smaller minimum orders.
There would be a small cost for the subscription, which pretty much just covers the monthly catalog.
Minimum order would be $350, I think. That's for the group, so the exact frequency of orders will depend on the size of the group. If we can get a few families involved, we could likely do monthly orders with ease. Increasing the volume could knock it down to weekly.
We'd have to figure out pickup procedures and costs. I can drive to the warehouse with my truck and get a fairly large order loaded in there. Then deliver to a designated point in some of the major cities. If all the deliveries are happening in one day, there would need to be a crowd at each point to unload the truck, break out the products for that group, and re-load the truck so I could head to the next city.
The other alternative, if we can manage a larger minimum order, is to have it delivered to a central location that everyone comes to for pickup. Less convenient than several points, and we'd need to order more or spread the orders out over a longer period to create a larger minimum, but it would save us on gas as a group. Particularly if the central location was Manch, and someone was willing to store the items so that folks could pick them up when they are making the trip anyway.
Eventually, I'm thinking we could order other items in bulk. For example, I bet we can get decent prices on ammunition if we order a whole pallet at a time. I regularly get deliveries of boilers here, so I can easily have a freight truck drop off a pallet of ammunition. Then the buyers just come and get their share of it.
The thought is to run this as a non-profit. All orders could have a flat percentage added to them, which would go into an account. Expenses would be paid out of that, and at the end of the year any surplus would be re-distributed back to the members (based on a ratio of how much they paid in), unless they unanimously decided to do something else with it. Or there could be a monthly membership fee, which would be treated the same way.
As far as what's available... pretty much everything other than fresh meat and produce. There are frozen meats and veggies. They also do have fresh produce and meats available, but it can get difficult to manage, as a result of the short shelf life, so we'd rather not deal with that hassle, at least initially.
The focus is on natural products, and they cover most anything that would be available in a supermarket. It does include dairy products and perishables like that, as well as frozen foods. And then huge variety in boxed/canned/etc goods and such. Vitamins and other supplements. Personal care items, as well.
I'll be bringing the catalog to the Taproom tomorrow.
If there is any particular item that someone uses a lot of, post it and I'll get a price. We've been going through it and there's typically a decent savings, even on some of the specialty items (like hemp milk) which are going to be in smaller quantities and, therefore, not as good a deal.
If you're interested, let me know. I think we already have enough interest to make at least an order a month. If we get a few more people, we can likely get it to the once/week order.
Joe
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Topic: Porcupine Buying Club (Read 2584 times)