I'm not sure why beemaster doesn't email notify me of replies sometimes! Great discussion guys.
@220
Good idea about bigger packaging. I have been considering offering a 3kg tub and I'll look into this, it should cheaper and less time consuming to package one 3kg tub than three 1kg tub. Regardless though, a number of people who end up buying more than a single container of honey do so because they plan to gift them to people.
$10 a kilo + tripled packaging costs is a very interesting way of approaching it and I'll keep such in mind. Does that mean you're paying around $1.50 for a 1kg container honey tub? Because that's way too expensive. I see that you're from Australia. I don't know where you're buying your containers from, but I'm getting my 1kg honey tubs for around $.65 each including lid, from the companies called plasedene - silverlock and cospak. If they don't have outlets near you I'd imagine you'd be able to ship them and still get a tub at a cheaper price than you appear to pay. (I just realised the label also costs money and might be why your container is expensive)
My pricing approach has been pretty simple. I was selling my 1kg tubs for $10 just because I was inexperienced, not confident in myself and wanting to feel how people was responding to my products. People have been quite positively inclined to it and I've received some comments on my cheap prices. I've also noted that yes, you can buy honey for $10 a kilo in shops and what not but I believe my honey is in general of significantly higher quality. So I've increased the price and experimenting with selling it at $11 for a kilo, which is what has inspired all the hagglers to get me down to $10. I haven't gotten a label on my products yet, my plan is to put one on there hopefully sometime soon and then increase the price to $12 for a tub. I'm also selling these hexagon glass jars, about 350 grams worth of honey for $5 and these 650 gram round glass jars for $8. I and the customers seem quite happy with these prices for such I buy the jar and lid for between $.6 to $.7 each. Interesting that you charge an extra $.75 for a slice of honeycomb I had wondered about that. I was putting in a slice in the 650g glass jars and charging an extra $.5 for it which seemed very popular.
@Bamboo
I'm around Adelaide. This market is the type where people want to pay next to nothing. I'm struggling to find a good market, the markets that are good ready have an existing person selling honey there regularly and it doesn't seem worth to try and outcompete them. I'm thinking of getting more involved in selling at church fete markets as the people that attend those like to spend money as a means of supporting their church and community.
Food for thought thanks Bamboo. I don't think I can have that sort of dialogue with most that haggle, as the haggling types tend to have poor English communicating skills. Its hard to really know how much time I spend with the bees, I know its a lot, I need to start taking better records. I just know that I want to sell what my bees make, and wholesale distributors will buy it off me at just $5.5 a kilo which is too low for my interests.
How would you show them pictures of hives and bees? I do believe that such things to engage and interest customers will result in more sales. I've thought about building an obversation hive to take with me, I'd have to talk with management first to see if they'd allow such though. People are interested in bees and want to be informed and educated on such but I'm not sure how to efficiently do that when given a market stall. I've thought about taking some of my beekeeping gear to have a display of sorts, to show off a smoker and hivetool, maybe an empty hive with some frames. I'm not really sure what sort of response that would have from onlookers. Suppose it may be worth a try.
