Meet ups

[tonka]

I have a few small organic/natural stores I have syrup and sugar at, one of the stores that's and organic grocery store was moving more then normal for syrup and moved almost 50 lbs of sugar in just a month or so. Beside the few stores that sell my syrup/sugar I was selling at one local farmers market where we get a lot of tourist on the normal year (but we all know this year was far from normal) and I also set up at a local flea market for the first time which went over ok. I'm planning on getting on the phone and contacting some local grocery stores and after this year with sales down I'm thinking I'm going to be getting a website with online shopping done up before next season, I have it happen where people ask if I do online/phone orders who are from other parts of Minnesota and other states.

I've met up with people before who have called me looking for syrup and I've met up with costumers in town and have had no problems at all which gave me the idea of doing meetups in certain towns on scheduled dates. Just thought I'd reach out and see if anyone else was doing this and if not maybe give another fellow sugar maker another source to make extra sales.

[maple flats]

My first website did so so. It was thru Go Daddy. On that site people had to send me an email and I calculated a shipping fee and generated a Pay Pal invoice. I then shipped once paid. I also accepted checks, and waited until the check arrived to ship. While I never got a bad check, I could have.
My current website does very well, it is using Woo Commerce. On it the shipping is calculated in the store's program, then the customer can either pay using PayPal or Stripe (a credit card service). Both have a fee, just under 3%. When payment is made, Woo Commerce sends me a notice by email that I have a new order. I then process it, pack it, buy the shipping label using Woo Commerce's discount and print the label. I then schedule a pick up using USPS. USPS picks the shipment up the next business day from my porch at my regular mail delivery time. If I were to choose a different time it would cost $20, going with my regular mail delivery time it is free.
If you want more info, just ask. For the program to calculate the shipping you need to offer the specific boxes you will use. I keep 4 or 5 sizes in stock. I mostly use medium flat rate and lg flat rate, but I have a larger size and a regional smaller size. The regional box is cheaper only for closer customers. On that I just tested to zip codes, shipping from central NYS to Ga and to Cal. The Ga was cheaper than a medium flat rate but the Cal was significantly higher. I can explain size methodology if anyone needs that info.