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

[ultrarunner]

It is enough to make and young man old... as my Grandfather would say.

What many do not realize is the sheer number of barriers of being in business and it grows exponentially with export/import.

My farming cousins now only sell at the farm and local farmers market... they say life is much easier and less stressful.

On the cost of shipping... this week a sent a small in size flat rate box with California Almonds to my friends in Austria... these are the Smokehouse Brand sold by Costco... 4 of the 2.5lb packages, not that weight matters as it is flat rate...

The postage without any additional services comes to about $90... so $90 to ship $60 worth of product makes me think I'm nuts!

In the past I had paid about $34 for the same package...

In the future I many just give them Amazon Gift Certificates... we would all come out ahead... no custom forms... lost or misdirected packages... etc.

 

[rox]

It is enough to make and young man old... as my Grandfather would say.

What many do not realize is the sheer number of barriers of being in business and it grows exponentially with export/import.

My farming cousins now only sell at the farm and local farmers market... they say life is much easier and less stressful.

On the cost of shipping... this week a sent a small in size flat rate box with California Almonds to my friends in Austria... these are the Smokehouse Brand sold by Costco... 4 of the 2.5lb packages, not that weight matters as it is flat rate...

The postage without any additional services comes to about $90... so $90 to ship $60 worth of product makes me think I'm nuts!

In the past I had paid about $34 for the same package...

In the future I many just give them Amazon Gift Certificates... we would all come out ahead... no custom forms... lost or misdirected packages... etc.

Yes the cost of shipping/postage internationally has really risen over the last 5 years. There is a low cost shipping company out of Poland I have used for personal goods, they do not do commercial shipping. They are based out of Chicago because you know there are a lot of people of Polish descent in Chicago, check them out,
Polamer Inc. - Personal Packages | Cars | Containers
Twice when I was staying by my mother & father I had bought material for the farm & was overloaded with luggage so I shipped through them. They receive the box in Poland and then they have deals with delivery companies and they delivered to me in France. The only issue is it takes a long time, but if you plan ahead it is well worth the cost savings. I bet your family would love Pistachio nuts as well, I am addicted to the salt and pepper pistachio nuts from Costco. In fact 4 big bags of pistachio nuts I ncluded in a box shipped to me in France through Poland.

 

[ultrarunner]

I remember in the old days it would take 4 to 6 months for a package to arrive... guess that was via the slow boat?

Continually amazed at the cost of most everything... a simple trip to the hardware store to buy a couple of nuts and bolts will eat up most of a $10 bill...

Nearby, is a small family Chinese Take Out... when I first started going there a Broccoli Beef with rice lunch plate cost $1.50 and this week is $7.95

Maybe I am just getting old and don't know it?

Among my older friends as a kid I would see the car guys very happy to get a few dollars for some old car part and I would be very happy because it would be cheap at the double the price.

My package just cleared customs in Vienna... so the Easter package of California nuts might just arrive in time for Easter... also put in a tin of Planters Premium Peanuts... got to support American Farmers and especially California Almond Growers.

Nuts and Citrus Fruit were always a staple for Holidays in Austria

 

[rox]

More BIG NEWS!!!
We WON our 22nd and 23rd Gold or Silver Medal in our Regional Olive Oil Competition.
I was very confused why our Bouteillan did not win a medal in the French National Competition. Honestly it is fabulous. We took a GOLD MEDAL for our AOC de Provence but the Bouteillan didn't win any medal at all, and I knew it should have. Fast forward to yesterday, we won a GOLD MEDAL for out Bouteillan and a Silver Metal for our AOC de Provence in our regional competition. This region comprises about 90% of all the olive oil produced in France so it is a big competition.
The truth is you are not going to medal every oil every year, but what you want to do is be consistent over the years to earn medals, you want to be recognized for something. We have been hindered because you have to always enter 1,000 liters as this is the minimum to enter and since we harvest and store our olive oil strictly by varietal we don't always meet that, we have the 1,000 liters if we mix it but honestly we don't want to mix it until we make our controlled blend our AOC de Provence. If we simply mixed everything all together it would be no problem we could enter more, but we don't . We like to keep our mono varietals separate so often times we don't meet the 1,000 liter minimum, we are only 12 US acres after all.
But a WIN, is a WIN,is a WIN! GOLD Medal for Bouteillan, Silver Medal for AOC de Provence. When you only enter 2 olive oils and you take 2 medals you really can't complain.

...
...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Congrats Rox.

 

[dmccarty]

Congratulations!

Can't wait to try some. :licking::licking::licking:

Later,
Dan

 

[dalola]

Boy, the stuff you find on TBN! Just read through all 34 pages.....what a great read!

Rox, I love your passion for olives, olive oil, and the way you do business. So inspiring and refreshing! Just from reading this, I have so much respect for what you've done, and are doing. Kudos!

I then promptly went to Amazon to place an order....to no avail. I gather they'll have some inventory soon? These special oils of yours seem time & quantity sensitive.

Really excited to try it! As a person with heart disease, it's something my wife & I have started using more of. I like the store brands, so I'm sure yours will be a most pleasant assault on the senses!

Thank you for what you do.

 

[rox]

Boy, the stuff you find on TBN! Just read through all 34 pages.....what a great read!

Rox, I love your passion for olives, olive oil, and the way you do business. So inspiring and refreshing! Just from reading this, I have so much respect for what you've done, and are doing. Kudos!

I then promptly went to Amazon to place an order....to no avail. I gather they'll have some inventory soon? These special oils of yours seem time & quantity sensitive.

Really excited to try it! As a person with heart disease, it's something my wife & I have started using more of. I like the store brands, so I'm sure yours will be a most pleasant assault on the senses!

Thank you for what you do.

You are so kind. Going to be very very honest with you, if you have heart disease you should cook with our olive oil. It is very HIGH in polyphenols. I paid a lot of money to have each and every varietal of our olive oil laboratory tested in polyphenols so I can say this with certainty. Each tin of our olive oil will arrive with that lab test included. You just gotta be a little more patient and wait. It leaves the port of Marseille on Wednesday, then 14 days on the ocean, then figure a week to clear US Customs, then it gets trucked to a fulfillment warehouse in Cleveland Ohio, the fulfillment warehosue will put the Amazon shipment stickers on the cases, then it gets trucked by pallet to Amazon, then Amazon checks it in and spreads it around to all of their warehouses so all said and done figure mid May before we are back up and stocked on Amazon.

It is really a pity but Amazon raised their storage fees, plus I have to now use a fulfillment warehouse in Ohio so i am going to have to raise the price of the olive oil. Nothing I can do about it. If I don't want to run out again I have to use a storage warehouse in the States.

Why Ohio? Why did I select a fulfillment warehouse in Ohio? There are tons of fulfillment warehouses in the United States, I started my search by looking for fulfillment in regions that have been economically challenged. If I am going to have to spend money on warehousing I wanted to spend my money in an area that really needed it, I confess to being a bleeding heart. Honestly I looked not just at geography and price, I looked at where my small injection into the local economy would do good. I ended up in Cleveland at a small family owned business, they used to be a straight up moving company but they have now diversified and are now serving as a fulfillment warehouse so I was happy to support them with our 3 pallets of olive oil. I want to do business with a company where I can call and actually speak to the warehouse manager and at WeFullFillIt I found that. Personal service. We are a small business, I searched and interviewed and compared until I found another small business that I thought would serve me well and that my business would boost them as well. If you are going to spend money, why not spend money in a socially conscious way? Think beyond just service and price.

Our olive oil is going to be excellent for 4 years at a minimum so it is not date critical. WHEN you produce olive oil LOW in acidity, LOW in Peroxide, the olive oil keeps, it doesn't turn rancid. It is taking a while to get there this year but I can sell it for at least 2 or 3 years and know it is still going to be spectacular. I just am so worried my Amazon customers will have forgotten about me because it has been so long since I have been available for sale there, and I have gone to all this expense, and then people don't buy. This is a worry I have. I pay all these expenses up front, what if people have moved on because we were not in stock? I worry about this. I worry a LOT about this.

 

[rox]

Thanks Dan. This is why we can never enter pure Aglandau in competitions. You have to have a 1,000 liter minimum and our AOC de Provence blend always uses a lot of Aglandau so we are using the Aglandau we produce putting it in our blend so we never then have an extra 1,000 left over to meet the minimum 1,000 liter threshold to enter that in a competition.

I know the Aglandau is your favorite but I urge you to try the Grossane and the Basil olive oil as well. Just try them. The Grossane (and I didn't send that much of it) is so so so good. Only use it cold, pour it straight over sliced tomatoes or tomatoe wedges. I know you like Aglandau but just try a little bit of the Grossane once. Out of all the olive oils we produce the one with the lowest yield is the Grossane. It takes about 15 kilo of olives to make a liter of Grossane, Aglandau and Salonenque takes 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 kilos to make one liter of olvie oil, so always the Grossane and the Bouteillan another low yielding olive, is going to cost more because the yield of the olive is very low, but what great olive oil. And the Basil we sent, I hope you try that too. The basil is going to blow your socks off, promise, i would not lie to you.

This is why i send the lower cost 0.25L bottles of olive oil, because it is lower cost to buy and people can try it at a lower price point and if they like it then they can order a bigger size.

 

[dalola]

You are so kind. Going to be very very honest with you, if you have heart disease you should cook with our olive oil. It is very HIGH in polyphenols. I paid a lot of money to have each and every varietal of our olive oil laboratory tested in polyphenols so I can say this with certainty. Each tin of our olive oil will arrive with that lab test included. You just gotta be a little more patient and wait. It leaves the port of Marseille on Wednesday, then 14 days on the ocean, then figure a week to clear US Customs, then it gets trucked to a fulfillment warehouse in Cleveland Ohio, the fulfillment warehosue will put the Amazon shipment stickers on the cases, then it gets trucked by pallet to Amazon, then Amazon checks it in and spreads it around to all of their warehouses so all said and done figure mid May before we are back up and stocked on Amazon.

It is really a pity but Amazon raised their storage fees, plus I have to now use a fulfillment warehouse in Ohio so i am going to have to raise the price of the olive oil. Nothing I can do about it. If I don't want to run out again I have to use a storage warehouse in the States.

Why Ohio? Why did I select a fulfillment warehouse in Ohio? There are tons of fulfillment warehouses in the United States, I started my search by looking for fulfillment in regions that have been economically challenged. If I am going to have to spend money on warehousing I wanted to spend my money in an area that really needed it, I confess to being a bleeding heart. Honestly I looked not just at geography and price, I looked at where my small injection into the local economy would do good. I ended up in Cleveland at a small family owned business, they used to be a straight up moving company but they have now diversified and are now serving as a fulfillment warehouse so I was happy to support them with our 3 pallets of olive oil. I want to do business with a company where I can call and actually speak to the warehouse manager and at WeFullFillIt I found that. Personal service. We are a small business, I searched and interviewed and compared until I found another small business that I thought would serve me well and that my business would boost them as well. If you are going to spend money, why not spend money in a socially conscious way? Think beyond just service and price.

Our olive oil is going to be excellent for 4 years at a minimum so it is not date critical. WHEN you produce olive oil LOW in acidity, LOW in Peroxide, the olive oil keeps, it doesn't turn rancid. It is taking a while to get there this year but I can sell it for at least 2 or 3 years and know it is still going to be spectacular. I just am so worried my Amazon customers will have forgotten about me because it has been so long since I have been available for sale there, and I have gone to all this expense, and then people don't buy. This is a worry I have. I pay all these expenses up front, what if people have moved on because we were not in stock? I worry about this. I worry a LOT about this.

Honesty.... Based on the previous 34 pages, it's pretty clear to me this is how you operate. I take your word about your business as the gospel.

Mid-May it is....I will keep checking. Thanks for supporting my home state! I try to do the same with my consumer dollars.....find "value", not just price or convenience.

It's not much, but I will promote your product every chance I get. Wife & I have friendships with numerous "foodies" & restaurant types, so we'll do our best to network your product.

Looking forward to placing that first order. :thumbsup: