Guide to buying Herbs and Spice online! BULK DISCOUNTS!
Welcome to my next guide - BULK DISCOUNTS. In this guide I will cover why buying bulk has its benefits and doesn't mean buying a shipping containers worth of product. In each of my guides I will cover new material so if you haven't read my other guide "Spice Arena guide to buying spices online - basics" then I urge you to do so.
When you read an ad for BULK DISCOUNT or BUY BULK AND SAVE you instantly imagine a bulk pack of something: be it a 24 pack of choc iced donuts, 10kg pack of washing powder or a 20kg bag of oranges, I think you get my drift. In most cases buying long life products in bulk is smart for the following reasons:
- It's usually cheaper
- You save on combined postage costs.
When it comes to shorter life products buying bulk may not be all that advantageous, heres why: Let's take our 24 pack of iced donuts as a prime example. Unless you have a large family living together or you've got a party scheduled buying a large box of donuts is a little silly because you won't have time to eat them before they go soggy and stale. Both of these examples of buying in BULK are also very relevant to buying herbs and spices. Generally you will find that ground spices lose flavour and aroma faster than ones that are whole then you grind them just when you needed them(eg: nutmeg or peppercorns). Luckily you still get about 1-2 years storage even on the ground ones(if you store them in an airtight bag or container).
Ok enough said on the pros and cons of buying BULK, now down to the way to do it properly.
I'll give you a bit of an insight into a wholesalers way of thinking. To calculate a price on packing anything we:
- Look at the total weight being sold
- Pack sizing required (30g, 50g, 100g, 400g, 1kg, etc)
Ok let's digest this a little.
- If a customer wants to buy a whole bag(say 20kg of Citric Acid) then I know that we don't need to repack it and simply add our cost on top and that's it.
- If a customer wants 5kg of product then we simply pack that quantity, add our cost on top (which is a little more expensive because there is some repacking involved) and that's that.
Both these customers would be paying A LOT less than a customer wanting 100g or 400g of the same product.
Now here's the best advice I can give you. Remember BULK is the total quantity of one product sold to a single pair of hands. Let me explain further. If a customer asks to buy 5kg of citric acid with a request to break down the 5kg into 1kg bags then I will do that at no extra cost. Why? Well it's quite simple I'm still selling 5kg of product which is BULK. (In some circumstances it does justify to charge a little extra because packing material and labour costs are slightly higher for this breakdown but you it still works out much cheaper than to pay a per kilo price. Please remember we're not talking about breaking 5kg into 100g or 50g bags. This involves considerable labour and packaging cost.). What if a seller doesn't want to break down a BULK quantity into smaller pack sizes? Well the most likely reason is that they aren't the packer and have all stock prepacked in certain pack sizes. This is where competition plays an important role. If they won't pack it down then their competition will.
Now you're thinking, this is all well and good but what am I going to do with 5kg of citric acid(example)? Ah well that's where buying groups come into the picture. You may be looking for a certain spice which isn't available where you live. Chances are you're not the only one. I have many rural customers that buy products in bulk as a buying group where their local independent grocer or general store divide the orders. The same can be done with your friends and family.
If you liked this guide then please vote for it. I will be writing a little series of these guides to hopefully enhance your purchasing experience particularly in the herb and spice categories.
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