How to get your maple into a store/retail setting

[Snowmad]

I've been wondering what is the best way to get into a store/retail setting. Example, the local sandwich shop (farm parts store, appliance store, feed store, brothel) has some space on one of their shelves and you ask them if they would be interested in selling some of your maple syrup. What is fair for both parties involved? Should the maple producer sell the syrup outright to the store owner and then they can mark it up what they want to? Should you give them a better price, (say you typically get $45 a gallon, should you charge them $40) so they are rewarded for taking the time/shelf space to sell your product? Or should you just drop some off and stop back ever couple weeks to see if they need more and to collect the $ and if so what % should go to the business owner? What is everyone doing in this situation?

[buckeye gold]

Both ways will work. A typical fair consignment is 20% in my area. If you want to wholesale it then price down and let them mark up to whatever they want, but typically you would share with them what your retail price is and what the market is bearing. I do not want re-sellers under selling me so I will ask them to keep their price at least in line with my price at the farm if I am wholesaling. I like setting a wholesale price (15-20% less than my retail) and selling it to them. That way the money is in your pocket up front and the syrup is theirs and any risk of loss with it. Just one note, if you sell more than 50% of your sells through stores and not directly to consumers you are required to register with the FDA. I wholesale out a small percentage of mine. It get's me more exposure and makes it available to a market when I am not around, but I want to get full sale price out of most of mine. Placing it is mostly as a marketing tool.

[n8hutch]

Well step one is you need insurance, unless you don't care about that sort of thing, the moment you start selling product you are in a commercial activity and your homeowners insurance will no longer cover your outbuildings and equipment, and your property liability may not be much good if a visitor to your sugaring operation gets hurt.

Also anyplace that is retailing your syrup would most likely want to be named as an additional insured.
That takes a lot of the fun out of it I know believe me I hate paying for insurance.

Perhaps you already considered and or have insurance on your syrup and operation if so sorry for the rant on insurance.

I sell my syrup to a few businesses and they Mark it up 20-35 percent. One place tells me what they will pay"they have syrup from 3 producers" and the others just pay my price and generally retail it for the prices I suggest.

Restaurants that buy larger amounts i sell at a reduced rate also. I wouldn't sell a gallon as cheap as you suggest personally but I guess you got to do whatever is common in your area.

[maple flats]

I am also in CNY and my gallons have been selling at $52 for at least 6 years, 7 yrs ago, I sold them for $54. I would never sell a single gallon at $45.00 You need to price it like you want to make a little profit for you.
Some areas might need to sell at $45, but CNY is not one of them. Make a good product and charge accordingly.
When I sell to another reseller, it depends on the quantity, orders over $400 get 20% off my retail, under $40 get 15% off.

[Snowmad]

Thank you for the suggestions everyone. I already have the insurance though our dairy farm and it is required at farmers markets. Good idea to list seller as additional insured, I do that now at the farmers market.
In my town there are a LOT of people that make maple syrup. I live on a dead end road so I don't have a lot of exposure that way and I'm not in every store like a couple of the big guys are. We have 2 winter farmers markets that we mostly sell at besides friends/family. We would like to get into a store but it is pretty competitive and most stores already have someones for sale.

As for my pricing, I would rather sell it all out for retail than to be stuck with it the next season or sell it commercially for 1/2 or less. I was at $42 last year and have gone up some this year. I feel, since we have only been selling syrup for only a couple of years, that by keeping my prices lower that is part of my customer acquisition expense. After building a good customer base, we can hopefully gradually increase the price. An old farmer that makes maple syrup told me once he didn't want to charge more that he would be willing to pay. As a dairy farmer, I'm on a very tight budget that stuck with me and makes sense. We also have Amish selling syrup for $40 in my area so I don't want to charge more than my local market will bare. Good for you if you can sell it for over $50 a gallon. I remember when I was a kid dad sold it for $30 and we were getting $15 for our milk per hundred weight. Now, 25 years later we're still getting $15 for our milk and I'm making $15 more on the syrup than we did. I guess I'm not used to making very much money anyway so I'll keep plugging along doing my thing. :)

[n8hutch]

How many cows you milking Snomad? I grew up on Dairy Farms, just curious, one thing I've noticed in the business I am in at my day job is that I tend to buy from suppliers that are consistently visiting me trying to get sales or guys that will deliver on short notice.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I would work on the business that you frequent as far as selling to retail and if you have restaurants in your area I would try to get your syrup in the restaurant managers hands or maybe the chefs, often they may not even have real maple or they may have a supplier that's not reliable.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease and I think it applies to marketing too, also a nice flyer would be helpful, you have to spend money to make money.

Also as a rule I never try to undercut my competition, I have my prices and it's often higher or on par with the people around me.

[Snowmad]

We milk about 40 with 80 head total. We sell hay and oats as well. This year we haven't sold hardly any hay. I know my cost with that and I can't let it go for less than $3 a bale. Maple is my hobby/fun and I don't want to be stuck with a bunch next season like I may be with the hay. I don't want to undercut everyone else but I want to move it so I can justify my fun of getting to make more!

[Galena]

Well, syrup will keep a whole lot better than hay ever will! You want to move hay.

[Snowmad]

Well, I got to find out how cut throat the maple business is in my town. Approached a local business about putting maple on one of his shelves, gave him my card he hadn't really thought about it but said he'd think about it. Tonight my wife picks up subs for supper and sure enough and was going to see what he thought, and there's maple syrup on his shelf and MY CARD is still sitting there. I guess I shouldn't feel guilty if I under cut anyone on price. Oh well, I'll keep doing my own thing. Being the new kid on the block so to speak and smaller than everyone else I guess that's just the way it goes. Maybe I did the other guy a favor getting him to "think about it" anyway...