Rox's EVOO(Olive Oil) for sale on Amazon!

[rox]

You know I don't like to be a complainer, I find it hard to be around people who constantly complain, BUT you have no idea how hard this is what I am doing, getting our products on Amazon and everything I went through to even get this far. I e-mailed Dan McCarty a 35 page story of how hard this was.

Now it seems I am on round two. Remember back when I said that I had sent in double the inventory and Amazon wrecked it, made it unsaleable? remember that? Well even though I got paid for it it still means that is half the inventory available for sale. Since I only ship once a year to USA this is a problem. Once a year I make one consolidated shipment of pallets of olive oil going to our USA customers, mainly private country clubs. Earlier this year I sent a pallet to a third party to hold while I got Amazon set up. I went through H E double hockey sticks but got set up on Amazon. I'm looking at the orders coming through and realize that I am not going to have enough inventory to last until our next shipment next spring. Every day I get more nervous, what should I do, I'm going to run out of inventory but the shipping on one pallet is very expensive, I can't sell for a loss, just to keep inventory. I spend a few days getting quotes on freight, in the meantime the orders have been coming through strong so my husband and I realize we probably should send more now. What we have left in inventory IF sales stay around the same, we won't make it through Christmas. We have just enough left in our stainless steel storage tanks to ship around 100 liters. I am like an ocean wave one day I am up, the next day I am down, should we send more at a high freight cost or just let it run out, or maybe orders will cool down, but then look we are getting more orders. Today hubby and I had one more talk on this and decided, we are going to bottle and ship a small pallet to Amazon, it is going by air actually.

One every product I have to put a sticker on with the Amazon catalog number and Amazon bar code. Remember I am dealing with Amazon USA. In the software you create a .pdf page of the catalog number on labels. However the labels are set to run on American paper 8 1/2 x 11 not the A4 size paper over here in France. I hunt it down and find where I can generate a .pdf so I can print the product catalog labels on A4 paper and they give me 10 sizes of labels for A4 paper I can buy in France. I want Poly labels, I don't want paper labels, I don't like paper labels, when the customer goes to peal off the catalog label the paper is a PIA, no the poly labels are much better. Not only that when you stick a paper label on the tin if you affix it crooked then pealing off a paper label is a PIA, so poly is the only way to go.

Office Depot! Yup they have Office Depot in France but they do not carry any of the 10 label choices Amazon will generate. A google search finds a supplier for exactly what I want, I add it to my shopping basket and proceed to check out. Payment is only by PayPal but PayPal is a problem, your American PayPal account won't work over here. Once in a while and i forget how I do it exactly, once in a while I can get PayPal to work, to rig it so it goes through but I never remember how I did it, PayPal wants you to create a separate PayPal Account for France, I don't want to do that I have enough accounts already. I finally find the labels, and can't buy them because my American PayPal account is not accepted. So this is what I am going to do. I printed up the Label Product page I am going to take it downtown to the stationary store where I bought my printer and ask them to order the labels for me.

I also need labels for each shipping box and for the pallet. Amazon ONLY gives you the option of printing American Letter size paper, no other choices. They are 6 per page on the label stock. Becasue the A4 paper is a bit narrow and linger than American Letter sized paper the standard size over here is 2 across and 8 per page. Not 6 per page. I have a nice stock of white vinyl labels in various sizes, but not the size needed for the boxes and pallet. You have to be careful when buying vinyl labels, there are suppliers who sell at a lower price but their products are not white-white they are a grayish-white and I don't like that. I had bought a test buy from a vinyl label manufacturer and one of my test buys was 8 1/2 by 11 whole page label. I have 20 sheets on hand so what I plan to do is print the Amazon Label .pdf File for the boxes & pallet on that whole sheet label and just use a scissors and cut them up into individual labels.

This is part and parcel of what my life has been like getting on Amazon. It has been so NOT EASY. Hopefully tomorrow the stationary store will order the blank labels I need for the tins. My recourse of last resort is to order them in USA, ship them to my daughter and have her mail blank labels to me. That is expensive and it will take about 8 days for the package to arrive.

We are going to take a financial risk and ship more olive oil now, well within a few weeks. We had to order 1 liter stainless steel tins and I am suspicious of our supplier they have not given us a delivery date yet, they just got bought out buy a new company so they are in flux also. There isn't one single thing about shipping to Amazon that has been easy for me. Not last time, not this time. Last time I had the pallet parked in USA, this time I am shipping it directly from France, I hope nothing goes wrong. We will be sending more 1 liter and 2 liter sizes, I hope they don't wreck them on intake.

 

[ultrarunner]

Some of the smaller Napa/Sonoma wineries have decided it simply is not worth the effort... they sell onsite or though a small independant local distributor.

With many things, the effort to grow the business becomes huge when transitioning or making the jump.

Sounds like you and your husband make a good team and running out of product isn't necessarily a bad thing...

 

[rox]

Some of the smaller Napa/Sonoma wineries have decided it simply is not worth the effort... they sell onsite or though a small independant local distributor.

With many things, the effort to grow the business becomes huge when transitioning or making the jump.

Sounds like you and your husband make a good team and running out of product isn't necessarily a bad thing...

We run out every year and that is just the way we want it. You always want to start the new year with empty tanks. You want to sell everything you grow during the year. We just made a big delivery to the store in our city, and we will hold back a little bit still for him. But he is very very good, he knows when we are out, we are out and we don't loose him, he just sells his dwindling stock. We are his primary oil supplier but he carries a few other brands so he will just sell those until the harvest and we can restock him.

We do sell at the farm a lot of locals when they have a visitor from up north, they brig them over because I rally make a good effort to give a good olive oil tasting typically about a half an hour apiece. It takes time to explain 6 different olive oils an how we grow them and the 3 methods of producing olive oil, I give them a little entertainment. All the mills, you come in, there are little dishes with oil and bread, taste them yourself and tell us what you want, is the way everyone does it. Some people will bring in visiting family like 3 or 4 times over the summer. We are not that busy, if I get 3 customers in one day that is good, because after I have given them the full tour so to speak they buy, and they buy more than they would buy at other places. There is a German guy, he is in charge of Nuclear Research for Europe, he is head of that committee in Brussels, he e-mailed me a few days ago, he will be on vacation not far from us and will we be here so he can buy olive oil. He was last here about 5 years ago. He will leave I am certain with at least 10 liters of olive oil. We get people from other countries, here is an example, Hungary, we had a real nice couple come visit the mill from Hungary, they spoke English and loved the tour. They went back home and blogged about it and every little while I get a couple from Hungary. It took years to build up our on site sales but I still enjoy giving the tour. Sometimes in the off season we will go weeks without an on site customer, but that is okay. I suppose if I had many more customers I would be worn out by now. I would like to do a little bit more on site, but not a whole lot more. It is pretty nice the way it is.

We did have a problem with selling on site though and you will probably love this. When we are out in a field or in the winter inside the house with the doors closed, how do we know we have a customer? Unless we are bottling or it is the harvest or we have a customer we are not in the mill. I bought one of those big old fashioned school bells that ring really loud attached it to the roof, and hooked it up to a wireless door bell, but then it would crap out on me since the electric is different. One day I came up with a fabulous idea, wait until you hear it. I was going to write it out, but here, check out my solution in the pic. It was a little dark out but I think you can make it out. It works like a charm

 

[Bird]

Looks like a simple, but intelligent, solution, Rox. By the way, I finally found some sea bass yesterday, so we'll be experimenting later today. And gsganzer wasn't kidding about it being expensive; $29.99 a pound at the Market Street grocery store.

 

[ultrarunner]

Perfect country solution... necessity is the mother of invention.

Are you set up for credit cards at the farm?

The reason I ask is a few years back my brother's in laws were visiting me in Salzburg... they are very nice people.

I took them for a day in the Lake region and she wanted to do some shopping... several of the stores had credit card signs in the window... none would would take them... one shopkeeper even got rude about Americans and Credit Cards and commented this is why America is Bankrupt...

So I knew a little shop in Hallstatt and said we should visit... the owner could not have been nicer and said of course she will take credit cards... brother's in-laws spent almost $500 buying gifts for home...

I don't get there often but the owner always greets me as her friend from San Francisco...

 

[rox]

Looks like a simple, but intelligent, solution, Rox. By the way, I finally found some sea bass yesterday, so we'll be experimenting later today. And gsganzer wasn't kidding about it being expensive; $29.99 a pound at the Market Street grocery store.

Bird, it works PERFECTLY! Isn't that cool how I thought of that. Not to break my arm patting myself on the back or anything, but honestly, when I came up with that idea it solved so MANY issues. So simple, no ringing bells, no pushing door bells, I figure everybody has a car, just blow your horn, and I really worked to find the perfect symbol of a horn with the x3 for the people who are not that great in English or French. Like my now and then visitors from Hungary. I thought through how to get the message to people who are not proficient in either language, the graphic of the horn x3 works, it really works. Our neighbor who is a really cool guy, saw the sign, I saw his face when he first read it, and I was so proud of myself, yeah this will work, I could see it on his face. I know it is kind of silly and it seems like a small thing, but we would get customers and not know we had them, so it wasn't so small. Once in a while Bird we all come up with a great solution, this was one of mine. I have come up with other solutions that didn't pan out but this one did. What can we do, just keep trying.

Bird, how many pounds did you buy? I gotta ask.

 

[rox]

No, no credit cared Ultrarunner, but half a kilometer away is a grocery store with a cash machine.
Example, on a Sunday we had a local couple who brought an out of town friend for the tour. I get all done and he buys 48 Euros of olive oil and doesn't have the cash, that is okay the locals who brought him have the cash and front him the money. Let me tell you a secret about men. Mature men always have 50 Euros tucked away in their wallet hidden away. When they find out we don't take credit cards they go to their secret place and find the money. Ha-ha-ha. I do not feel I lose any sales by not taking credit cards, but we do take checks and I have never had a check bounce. Parisians, Germans and Belgiums they always have the cash no problem. For Americans I take US Dollars but the Americans usually are concerned about the weight of their luggage, they buy but not at all like the Germans, Swiss and Belgiums, they buy a lot more.

Trust me with a 12 acre farm we are not getting rich in olive oil, we truly only make a modest living, but it is a living. No boss, no deadlines, what is not to like?

 

[Bird]

[Bird, how many pounds did you buy? I gotta ask.

Rox, I just bought one piece of that fish; .98 of a pound for $29.39 to try it to see if we liked it. We did like it; it was very good, but I'm still not sure whether it's worth what it costs; the jury's still out on that. I frequently modify recipes that I find, but in this case I tried to very meticulously follow the recipe in the link gsganzer provided. The only tiny exception was that I didn't use the entire third of a cup of wine; didn't want to wash the other seasonings off the fish. So I drank the rest of the wine. My wife said we need to try that recipe on some cheaper fish that we know we like, and I had to agree. We'll have to do that. In either case, your olive oil was just fine.

 

[ultrarunner]

No, no credit cared Ultrarunner, but half a kilometer away is a grocery store with a cash machine.
Example, on a Sunday we had a local couple who brought an out of town friend for the tour. I get all done and he buys 48 Euros of olive oil and doesn't have the cash, that is okay the locals who brought him have the cash and front him the money. Let me tell you a secret about men. Mature men always have 50 Euros tucked away in their wallet hidden away. When they find out we don't take credit cards they go to their secret place and find the money. Ha-ha-ha. I do not feel I lose any sales by not taking credit cards, but we do take checks and I have never had a check bounce. Parisians, Germans and Belgiums they always have the cash no problem. For Americans I take US Dollars but the Americans usually are concerned about the weight of their luggage, they buy but not at all like the Germans, Swiss and Belgiums, they buy a lot more.

Trust me with a 12 acre farm we are not getting rich in olive oil, we truly only make a modest living, but it is a living. No boss, no deadlines, what is not to like?

Credit cards are ingrained in american culture... even for buying a coffee at Starbucks or a burger at McDonalds... almost the opposite is true in that most of the local businesses will not take a check or bills larger than $20... no $50 or $100 bills

Around here those that receive food assistance carry a "Credit" card that is replenished each month...

I do have to remember to carry some Euros when in Austria... but I tend to favor building supply and grocery stores that take plastic...

When I needed a new roof I was trying to figure out how to pay for the materials... my roofer was covered but I would have needed a wire transfer to a bank for cover the materials.

I picked out the tiles and noticed a Mastercard Sign in the window... I said I could pay the $7200 Euro charge if they would run it through the credit card machine... there was a lot of skepticism but the owner agreed to try and it worked... the roofer was very impressed and I got a great exchange rate...

 

[Bird]

Yep, credit cards are about the only way to go anymore. Aldi grocery stores started popping up everywhere around here and didn't take credit cards; cash or debit cards only. That didn't last long, before they started taking credit cards. When I used a credit card, the clerk asked if I wanted cash back also. I did not, but asked out of curiosity how much cash I could get and he said $250. Walmart, Sam's Club, and Kroger's offer up to $60 cash back even if you're charging less than $10. And I just looked at my checkbook and see the last check I wrote was a year and a half ago. More recently we have WinCo Foods that doesn't take credit cards. We'll see how long that lasts.

But as with Rox's customers, my wife and I DO carry a bit of cash, just in case . . .:laughing: